Pain Management of Malignant Psoas Syndrome Under Epidural Analgesia During Palliative Radiotherapy.

Malignant psoas syndrome is a rare malignant condition presenting as lumbosacral plexopathy and painful fixed flexion of the hip. Metastasis to the psoas muscle is observed, which damages the nerve bundles in the lumbosacral plexuses. The syndrome presents as refractory lower back pain with several other neurological symptoms. The pain is difficult to control because it is a mixture of nociceptive and neuropathic pain, which indicates that treatment requires a versatile approach. The authors report a case of severe back pain caused by metastasis to the psoas muscle of advanced gastric cancer in a patient who underwent palliative radiotherapy under epidural analgesia. Despite conventional analgesics and subcutaneous oxycodone, he had difficulties in maintaining supine position because of the back pain and had a problem to receive radiotherapy, which required him to stay still in the same position during the treatment. By epidural analgesia, he could remain in supine position and complete radiotherapy without increasing opioid administration. His back pain was improved after the radiotherapy. Epidural analgesia is an effective treatment choice for a patient who is unable to keep the position during palliative radiotherapy.

Spontaneous pneumothorax due to bronchopleural fistula following reirradiation for locoregionally recurrent squamous cell lung cancer.

Spontaneous pneumothorax following radiotherapy for pulmonary malignancy is an unusual clinical condition. Here, we report a case of a 78-year-old male suffering from dyspnea during radiotherapy for squamous cell lung cancer of the right main bronchus. Imaging studies and fiberoptic bronchoscopy revealed that pneumothorax was due to a bronchopleural fistula.

Ionicity of intramolecular charge-transfer molecule Ddelta+-pi-Adelta- based on 1,3,3-trimethyl-2-methyleneindoline and 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane.

We report a simple and convenient method to evaluate the relative ionicity delta of the typical intramolecular charge-transfer (CT) molecules linked by pi-bond Ddelta+-pi-Adelta- (D, donor; A, acceptor; delta, degree of CT) derived from 1,3,3-trimethyl-2-methylene indoline and TCNQ derivatives on the basis of the solvatochromic effects of the CT band in various solvents and their redox properties. The functionality of the intramolecular CT molecules as dyes, photovoltaic materials, nonlinear optics, rectifiers, and conductors is discussed in terms of delta.