A challenging diagnosis of dyspnea: A case report of contralateral reexpansion pulmonary edema.

Reexpansion pulmonary edema (RPE) is an uncommon complication of thoracentesis or chest drainage. It occurs in the ipsilateral or contralateral lung. Causes, pathogenesis and therapy are not well understood especially for contralateral RPE. We describe a case of fatal contralateral RPE in a 59-years-old woman with right lung cancer underwent ultrasound-guided thoracentesis for massive pleural effusion and severe dyspnea. Pathogenesis of contralateral RPE is probably multifactorial and in this case is mostly due to the overperfusion of the healthy lung and consequent capillary damage. The right therapy for this condition is not known.

Decreased serum vascular endothelial growth factor-D levels in metastatic patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: Vascular endothelial growth factor-D (VEGF-D) has been identified as one of the lymphangiogenic growth factors involved in metastatic diffusion. The aim of this study is to evaluate the serum VEGF-D levels in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer at different conditions of disease. DESIGN AND PATIENTS: We studied prospectively the VEGF-D plasma levels in 96 subjects affected by differentiated thyroid cancer. The patients were divided into three groups according to the clinical and biochemical findings: patients with no evidence of disease (Cured), patients with pathological (>1 ng/ml) stimulated thyroglobulin (Tg) (Path-Tg/rhTSH) levels only after rhTSH and patients with elevated basal Tg levels (Path-Tg/LT4). RESULTS: The serum VEGF-D concentrations in patients of group Cured were not different from the controls, while group Path-Tg/rhTSH showed baseline serum VEGF-D levels significantly lower than group Cured and controls (P < 0·001 and P < 0·01, respectively). Moreover, the patients of group Path-Tg/LT4 showed median serum cytokine concentrations at baseline not significantly different from the patients of group Path-Tg/rhTSH. The rhTSH stimulation did not modify the difference in serum VEGF-D levels in patients of group Cured and group Path-Tg/rhTSH. CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrate that the VEGF-D serum levels are reduced in patients with metastases of differentiated thyroid cancer, regardless of the degree of metastatic spread. It is possible that some other molecule produced by the tumoral tissue could affect the VEGF-D physiologically produced of from different tissues, thus conducting to a decrease in the VEGF-D found in blood of patients with evidence of metastatic differentiated thyroid cancer.

Higher pulse pressure and risk for cardiovascular events in patients with essential hypertension: The Campania Salute Network.

Background Increased pulse pressure is associated with structural target organ damage, especially in elderly patients, increasing cardiovascular risk. Design In this analysis, we investigated whether high pulse pressure retains a prognostic effect also when common markers of target organ damage are taken into account. Methods We analysed an unselected cohort of treated hypertensive patients from the Campania Salute Network registry ( n = 7336). Participants with available cardiac and carotid ultrasound were required to be free of prevalent cardiovascular disease, with ejection fraction ≥50%, and no more than stage III Chronic Kidney Disease. The median follow-up was 41 months and end-point was occurrence of major cardiovascular events (i.e. fatal and non-fatal stroke or myocardial infarction and sudden death). Based on current guidelines, pulse pressure ≥60 mm Hg was classified as high pulse pressure ( n = 2356), at the time of the initial visit, whereas pulse pressure <60 mm Hg was considered normal ( n = 4980). Results High pulse pressure patients were older, more likely to be women and diabetic, while receiving more antihypertensive medications than normal pulse pressure (all p < 0.0001). High pulse pressure exhibited greater prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy, and carotid plaque than normal pulse pressure (all p < 0.0001). In Cox regression, high pulse pressure patients had 57% increased hazard of major cardiovascular events, compared to normal pulse pressure (hazard ratio = 1.57; 95% confidence interval: 1.12-2.22, p = 0.01), an effect that was independent of significant prognostic impact of older age, male sex, diabetes, left ventricular hypertrophy, carotid plaque and less prescription of anti-renin-angiotensin system therapy. Conclusions High pulse pressure is a functional marker of target organ damage, predicting cardiovascular events in hypertensive patients, even independently of well-known structural markers of target organ damage.