Impacted gutkha presenting as an intrabronchial mass lesion leading to post-obstructive pneumonia.

A 66-year-old man presented with a chief complaint of difficulty breathing and productive cough. CT scan of the chest revealed an endobronchial mass with associated "tree-in-bud" opacities. A bronchoscopic biopsy of the mass was performed due to clinical suspicion of malignancy. Microscopic examination revealed inflamed endobronchial mucosa, granulation tissue and abundant fragments of uncharacterized organic material, compatible with aspiration. Detailed history revealed a history of chewing "gutkha", a form of smokeless tobacco comprising a mixture of betel nut and other condiments. Microscopic sections of a betel nut and the "gutkha mix" processed subsequently in the histology laboratory were found to be similar to the organic material found in the mass. Thus, a diagnosis of impacted betel nut mixture leading to post-obstructive pneumonia was rendered.

Acute Limb Ischemia Due to Arterial Thrombosis Associated With Coronavirus Disease 2019.

OBJECTIVES: To describe a case of acute limb ischemia caused by arterial thrombosis due to coronavirus disease 2019. DESIGN: Clinical observation of a patient. SETTING: Academic medical center. PATIENT: A 59-year-old female with history of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and prior smoking. INTERVENTION: Clinical observation and data extraction from electronic medical records. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: We report a case of peripheral arterial thrombosis associated with coronavirus disease 2019, resulting in acute limb ischemia of the right lower extremity. This event was heralded by a sudden and significant elevation in d-dimer levels. At the time of surgery, a long, gelatinous clot was retrieved from the right popliteal artery. Perioperatively, she continued to have absent pedal Doppler signals and after multiple embolectomy attempts, required distal arterial cut down with removal of additional thrombi and resultant improvement of distal arterial flow. CONCLUSIONS: This case demonstrates the importance of regularly checking d-dimer levels and vigilant monitoring for arterial thrombotic events, as they can rapidly become catastrophic.

Immunosuppressive strategies in lung transplantation.

Lung transplantation is a viable option for those with end-stage lung disease which is evidenced by the continued increase in the number of lung transplantations worldwide. However, patients and clinicians are constantly faced with acute and chronic rejection, infectious complications, drug toxicities, and malignancies throughout the lifetime of the lung transplant recipient. Conventional maintenance immunosuppression therapy consisting of a calcineurin inhibitor (CNI), anti-metabolite, and corticosteroids have become the standard regimen but newer agents and modalities continue to be developed. Here we will review induction agents, maintenance immunosuppressives, adjunctive therapies and other strategies to improve long-term outcomes.

African-American race and mortality in interstitial lung disease: a multicentre propensity-matched analysis.

We studied whether African-American race is associated with younger age and decreased survival time at diagnosis of interstitial lung disease (ILD).We performed a multicentre, propensity score-matched analysis of patients with an ILD diagnosis followed at five US hospitals between 2006 and 2016. African-Americans were matched with patients of other races based on a time-dependent propensity score calculated from multiple patient, physiological, diagnostic and hospital characteristics. Multivariable logistic regression models were used. All-cause mortality and hospitalisations were compared between race-stratified patient cohorts with ILD, and sensitivity analyses were performed.The study included 1640 patients with ILD, 13% of whom were African-American, followed over 5041 person-years. When compared with patients of other races, African-Americans with ILD were younger at diagnosis (56 years versus 67 years), but in the propensity-matched analyses had greater survival (hazard ratio 0.46, 95% CI 0.28-0.77; p=0.003) despite similar risk of respiratory hospitalisations (relative risk 1.04, 95% CI 0.83-1.31; p=0.709), and similar GAP-ILD (gender-age-physiology-ILD) scores at study entry. Sensitivity analyses in a separate cohort of 9503 patients with code-based ILD diagnosis demonstrated a similar association of baseline demographic characteristics with all-cause mortality.We conclude that African-Americans demonstrate a unique phenotype associated with younger age at ILD diagnosis and perhaps longer survival time.