Metastatic thoracic and lumbar intramedullary and extramedullary Ewing’s sarcoma: a rare case report and literature review

Ewing sarcoma (ES) is a highly aggressive bone and soft tissue tumor that occurs mainly in young children and adolescents and is associated with primary and metastatic disease. Intramedullary ES (either primary or secondary) is rare, and the ideal management remains inconclusive. We herein report intramedullary and extramedullary metastatic ES in a single patient. A 46-year-old woman was referred to our outpatient clinic from the oncology clinic with progressive paraparesis and paresthesia for 1 week prior to presentation. She had developed left clavicular ES 2 years earlier for which surgery and chemoradiotherapy had been performed. At the present evaluation, she was diagnosed with intramedullary thoracic and lumbar extradural masses. Thoracic surgery was performed, and a biopsy of the lesion was obtained. The diagnosis of ES was confirmed histopathologically, and she underwent adjuvant chemotherapy. Her neurological status did not improve after surgery, and she underwent rehabilitation and physical therapy. The lumbar lesion resolved with chemotherapy. Metastasis of ES to the spinal cord, especially intramedullary lesions, is extremely rare, and there is no standard management guideline. However, surgical decompression and adjuvant chemotherapy are the main treatments in these cases.     

Application of Deep Learning in Generating Structured Radiology Reports: A Transformer-Based Technique

Journal of Digital Imaging - Since radiology reports needed for clinical practice and research are written and stored in free-text narrations, extraction of relative information for further...     

The effect of tranexamic acid injection during anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery on postoperative bleeding,pain and swelling

Background

Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) reconstruction is a common surgery in orthopedics. Strategies that could reduce the bleeding during the surgery could be helpful. Here, we aimed to assess the effects of tranexamic acid injection in ACL reconstruction on patient’s functions.

Methods

This is a clinical trial performed in 2019–2020 in XX on 61 patients with teared ACL who were candidates of surgical reconstruction. Patients were divided into two groups receiving 15 mg/kg of intravenous tranexamic acid and normal saline. Data regarding the following items were collected: amounts of drain discharge, the severity of the swelling, the pain severity in 1, 7 and 14 days after the surgeries and restrictions in joint range of motion (ROM) in 30 and 60 days after the surgeries.

Results

We observed significantly lower swelling severities in patients who received tranexamic acid in different measuring times (P = 0.029). These cases also had significantly lower pain severity after 30 days post-operation (P = 0.041). We also observed that patients in the tranexamic acid group had significantly lower ROM restriction than controls (P < 0.001). The total knee scores were similar in both groups (P > 0.05).

Conclusion

Administration of intravenous tranexamic acid significantly improved swelling, pain and lower ROM restriction in patients undergoing ACL reconstruction.

     

Constrictive pericarditis following inactivated virus COVID-19 vaccine: a case report with review of the literature

Cardiac adverse effects of the COVID-19 vaccine are very rare, myocarditis and pericarditis are the most common amid them, and constrictive pericarditis (CP) is reported to be restricted to a few cases following mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. We report a case of a 72-year-old male patient who developed symptoms of right-sided heart failure, which started after 8 days of receiving the third dose of inactivated virus COVID-19 vaccine and his diagnostic tests comprising transthoracic echocardiography, chest CT scan, cardiac magnetic resonance were in favor of CP. Ultimately, invasive cardiac catheterization confirmed the diagnosis of CP. Due to the lack of satisfactory response to corticosteroid therapy, pericardiectomy was performed, which gave rise to symptom relief progressively and substantially. Considering the temporal course of the patient''s symptoms and exclusion of other possible etiologies based on the patient''s medical history and diagnostic evaluation, immunization with the COVID-19 vaccine was recognized as a culprit for developing CP. Despite being a scarce phenomenon, the COVID-19 vaccine could have a tendency to provoke pericardial inflammation in so far as causing CP. Hence, physicians should have a high index of suspicion in these circumstances and accelerate the diagnostic investigation.