Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A Delcourt.
The authors report a case of calcific embolization after percutaneous mitral valvuloplasty. The nature of the embolism was confirmed by anatomopathological examination after popliteal embolectomy. This complication would appear to be extremely rare but represents an additional risk in patients with calcific mitral stenosis.
Between 1987 and 1992, thirty-seven heart-lung transplant recipients had a postmortem examination at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Teaching Hospital in Paris, France. Except for three patients who survived 2 months, 4 months and 16 months after transplantation, respectively, most patients died in the early postoperative period (mean survival time = 34.6 days). Autopsy disclosed minor acute heart rejection in four patients and minor acute lung rejection in three patients. Five patients had obliterating bronchiolitis that was the cause of death in two cases. Main causes of death included perioperative pleural bleeding, respiratory infection with or without septicemia, diffuse alveolar lesions (adult respiratory distress syndrome and/or pulmonary edema undergoing organization) and multiple organ failure. Hemodynamic and respiratory complications responsible for multiple organ failure in the perioperative period, as well as pre-existing morbid conditions such as cirrhosis of the liver induced by heart failure, may have a major bearing on the outcome of heart-lung transplantations.
The authors report the case of a 61-year old woman who was operated upon for a paraoesophageal cyst of the bronchogenic type. Having reviewed the French literature on the latest cases, they underline the scarcity of these congenital formations which present as mediastinal cystic tumours with benign expression and course. Computed tomography suggests the diagnosis and reveals the intraparietal site of the cyst. A return to the histogenesis of these cysts makes it possible to understand the nosological distinction with the true bronchogenic cysts and to evaluate the recent classifications.
Between 1987 and 1989, twenty-two patients who received combined heart-lung transplantation were autopsied at La Pitie Salpetriere Hospital in Paris. With the exception of two recipients who survived for 2 months and 4 months, respectively, the majority of the patients died in the early postoperative period (the mean survival was 20.1 days). At autopsy, five patients showed acute cardiac rejection of a minor grade. Perivascular and peribronchiolar mononuclear cell infiltrates suggesting acute pulmonary rejection were seen in three patients. Obliterating bronchiolitis, which might be indicative of chronic rejection, was observed in four patients who had longer survival rates, and one of these four had died of obliterating bronchiolitis. Rather than allograft rejection, the major causes of death were (1) perioperative hemorrhage, (2) infections (mainly respiratory infections and occasionally mediastinitis), (3) diffuse alveolar damage (the so-called adult respiratory distress syndrome and/or pulmonary organizing edema), and (4) multiple organ failure. The present study suggested some of the reasons why the survival rate following heart-lung transplantation is much poorer than after isolated heart transplantation. Hemodynamic or respiratory problems causing perioperative multiple organ failure as well as pre-existing complications of the recipients, such as "cardiac cirrhosis," may play an important role in the prognosis of heart-lung transplantation.
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The authors report five cases of fibrous polyps of the urinary tract, which is a rare disease, as Mazeman only reported 12 cases in his review in 1972. These cases confirm the polymorphic nature of the clinical presentation and the site of these tumours of mesodermal origin, essentially composed of richly vascular connective tissue covered with surface epithelium. Treatment is surgical and conservative. The authors performed two junctional resections, one ureterotomy, one ureteroscopic resection and one nephro-ureterectomy for a partially destroyed kidney.
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The authors report a case of non-hodgkin's lymphoma initially presenting with pallakiuria due to a prostatic localization of the tumour. The diagnosis was confirmed 6 months later following deterioration in the general condition with lymphomatous meningitis, after repeat examination of the prostatic slides. Less than twenty cases of prostatic lesions revealing lymphoma have been reported in the literature. There are no formal diagnostic arguments apart from the histology which is often difficult to interpret. In most cases the lymphomas are disseminated and composed of large cells or cleaved small cells with a poor prognosis and a mean survival of 14 months. Treatment primarily consists of chemotherapy, as the lymphoma is always disseminated. The role of local radiotherapy is questionable.
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Orthotopic en bloc transplantation of the heart and one lung has been done in two patients with end-stage cardiopulmonary disease and a prior thoracic operation. The first patient had undergone right pulmonary thromboembolectomy with caval ligation 5 years earlier, and the second had had left lower lobectomy for bronchiectasis 15 years before the heart and contralateral lung transplantation. Surgical procedures followed the techniques that had been developed in animals. Transplantation of the unoperated contralateral lung made it possible to avoid dissection in the obliterated pleural space and to minimize bleeding, which simplified the procedure considerably. Dramatic reduction in pulmonary artery pressure and improved respiratory function allowed both patients to be weaned from cardiopulmonary bypass without problems. Although the first patient died of liver and renal failure soon after the operation, an intact cough reflex facilitated recovery in the second patient, who has been discharged with essentially normal respiratory function. This report describes heart and unilateral lung transplantation as a procedure of choice for patients with extensive pleural adhesions that made total cardiopulmonary replacement unfeasible.
The assessment of the extent of kidney cancers with MRI and CT is compared in 40 patients. The appearance of the tumor with MRI is very variable but always heterogeneous. Specific MRI features (tumoral pseudocapsule) provide a higher overall reliability (OR) than with CT for the detection of expansion beyond the capsule and into the kidney: 80% for 60%. Although the overall reliability of MRI is similar to that of CT (92% for 86%), MRI has proved its superiority for the assessment of the limits of endovenous tumoral expansion because of natural flow/thrombus contrast and of the multiple incidences of exploration. There is no significant difference between MRI (OR = 91%) and CT (OR = 88%) or the detection of lymph node involvement. Invasion of neighboring organs is better assessed with multi-incidence MRI. According to Robson's classification, the OR of MRI (77%) is not significantly higher than that of CT (65%). MRI is still a time-consuming and expensive technique, which should be reserved for cases in which iodine is contraindicated and used as a second-intention technique after CT to confirm the invasion of the capsule if partial nephrectomy is indicated, or the better delineate venous or regional invasion which CT could not assess properly.
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The purpose of this study was to assess the frequency of inflammatory lesions in the myocardium of subjects with dilated cardiomyopathy and to determine if there was any correlation between the results of two methods of evaluation, one (endomyocardial biopsy) invasive and the other (gallium-67 scintigraphy) noninvasive. Of 115 subjects recruited in seven centres, 91 met the inclusion criteria (left ventricular dilatation greater than or equal to 100 ml m-2 and ejection fraction less than 55% with normal coronary arteriography) and had endomyocardial biopsy (mean five specimens) and Ga-67 myocardial scintigraphy after several days. Scanning was considered doubtful 19 times and positive 13 times. The histologic count of mononuclear cells in the myocardial interstitium in 20 fields was greater than 5 cells field-1 in only four cases. No correlation was found between the two methods. Subjectivity in the choice of the criterion of positivity of Ga-67 scintigraphy and difficulties in identifying lymphocytes upon pathological examination were the major problems encountered. Despite limitations, both techniques suggest that cellular infiltrates are minimal and quite infrequent in dilated cardiomyopathy.
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