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Rationale: An arteriovenous malformation (AVM) is an abnormal tangle of blood vessels that connects the arteries and the veins. Because normal capillary bed is partially or completely absented in the AVM, the blood passes quickly from the arteries to the veins, which disrupts normal blood flow and oxygen supply to the surrounding tissues. This is called "steal phenomenon," and in the inferior mesenteric artery (IMA) territory, this may lead to abdominal pain, gastrointestinal bleeding, portal hypertension, and even ischemic colitis., Patient Concerns: A 67-year-old man presented to our emergency department because of left side abdominal pain., Diagnoses: The abdominal computed tomography with contrast enhancement revealed a cluster of abnormal vascular lesions abutting the IMA with early opacification of the left colonic marginal vein. In addition, poor enhancement of segmental colonic wall was found from proximal descending colon to middle rectum. The diagnosis of AVM of the IMA and ischemic colitis was made., Interventions: The patient underwent left hemicolectomy as well as the AVM resection., Outcomes: He was discharged uneventfully after the surgery without complications., Lessons: IMA AVM carries the risk of ischemic colitis. computed tomography scan is helpful not only to the diagnosis of AVMs but also to exclude other lesions as well. Treatment options include endovascular embolization, surgical intervention, and a combination of both. Due to the complexity of this disease, treatment requires a case-specific multidisciplinary approach and a coordination of medical, radiological, and surgical staffs., Competing Interests: The authors have no funding and conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Introduction: Acute abdominal pain caused by torsion of the pedunculated subserosal leiomyoma is rare. Miss diagnosis can lead to ischemia, necrosis, and subsequent peritonitis which may cause significant morbidity. Torsion of the leiomyoma should be recognized as a surgical emergency and once suspected, early surgical intervention should be considered., Patient Concerns: A 28-year-old woman with a medical history of uterine leiomyoma presented to our emergency department because of acute onset right lower abdominal pain., Diagnoses: The computed tomography was performed which demonstrated multiple leiomyomas of variable sizes and a subserosal leiomyoma located at right lower abdomen with poor contrast enhancement., Interventions: The gynecologist was consulted, and myomectomy was performed. The intraoperative finding showed a pedunculated subserosal leiomyoma with torsion., Outcomes: She underwent myomectomy for the twisted pedunculated subserosal leiomyoma as well as other leiomyomas and was discharged with a favorable outcome., Conclusions: Torsion of the leiomyoma is a surgical emergency as delayed in treatment may lead to marked morbidity. Once suspected, the gynecologist must be consulted, and surgical intervention should be considered., Competing Interests: The authors have no funding and conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Introduction: Phlegmasia cerulea dolens (PCD) is an uncommon condition of acute deep vein thrombosis, characterized by marked swelling of the affected limb with pain and cyanosis. High mortality and morbidity rates have been reported. Early diagnosis, quick and effective treatment are crucial for preventing potential limb loss or even death., Patient Concerns: A 39-year-old woman presented to our emergency department with painful swelling and cyanotic discoloration of the left lower limb for 2 days., Diagnoses: Computed tomography revealed thrombosis in the left common iliac vein and inferior vena cava. Angiography demonstrated extensive venous occlusion from the lower inferior vena cava to the left popliteal vein. The diagnosis of PCD was made., Interventions: Systemic anticoagulation with intravenous unfractionated heparin was initiated immediately. Mechanical thrombectomy with Angiojet and angioplasty were performed, and catheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT) was administered subsequently., Outcomes: Follow-up angiography revealed regression of the thrombosis and the opacification of the deep vein was restored. The patient was discharged from the hospital uneventfully., Conclusions: PCD is a rare but potentially limb and life-threatening condition that requires immediate recognition. Treatment should be in a timely manner. Anticoagulation alone may be inadequate and more aggressive management such as CDT and thrombectomy should be considered., Competing Interests: The authors have no funding and conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

A large interarm and interleg systolic blood pressure (SBP) difference and ankle-brachial index (ABI) <0.9 were associated with peripheral artery disease and left ventricular hypertrophy. These 3 parameters were derived from 4-limb SBP data. However, there is no study to assess clinical significance of SBP heterogeneity in 4 limbs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of 4-limb SBP standard deviation (SD) with peripheral vascular parameters and echocardiographic data in patients with or without clinical findings of peripheral artery disease.A total of 1240 patients were included, of whom 1020 had no clinical evidence of overt peripheral artery disease. The 4-limb blood pressures, brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity, and ABI were measured simultaneously by an ABI-form device.In the multivariable linear regression analysis, increased left ventricular mass index (LVMI), ABI < 0.9, interarm SBP difference >10 mm Hg, and interleg SBP difference >15 mm Hg (P ≤ .030) were associated with increased 4-limb SBP SD. Additionally, a subgroup multivariable linear regression analysis in 1020 patients without ABI < 0.9, interarm SBP difference >10 mm Hg, and interleg SBP difference >15 mm Hg found 4-limb SBP SD still had a positive correlation with LVMI (P < .001).In addition to significant association with ABI < 0.9, interarm SBP difference >10 mm Hg, and interleg SBP difference >15 mm Hg, 4-limb SBP SD was positively correlated with LVMI in the multivariable linear regression analysis in all study patients. Furthermore, in the subgroup of patients without clinical evidence of peripheral artery disease, 4-limb SBP SD still had a positive correlation with LVMI. Hence, assessment of 4-limb SBP heterogeneity is useful in identification of high-risk group of peripheral artery disease and/or increased LVMI, irrespective of the presence of overt peripheral artery disease.

Purpose: Symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, tightness of the chest, bradycardia, and shoulder or abdominal discomfort, caused by vagotonia occurring during uterus manipulation, have concerned healthcare professionals for some time. Patients sometimes report these symptoms when undergoing spinal anesthesia for cesarean sections (CSs). We designed a prospective, double-blind study to investigate the effectiveness of tenoxicam in preventing these symptoms of discomfort., Methods: A total of 105 American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) class I-II nulliparous pregnant women, who were scheduled for a CS, were enrolled into this prospective, double-blind study. Spinal anesthesia was conducted to reach a peak dermatome level of no more than T3. The 100 patients were randomly divided into 2 groups having completed study course: Group T (N = 50) received a 20 mg dose of tenoxicam in 5 mL of normal saline (NS) immediately after skin incision and Group N (N = 50) only received 5 mL NS. The incidence and severity of the symptoms experienced by the patients were recorded by a nurse anesthetist who was blinded to the injection regimen the patients were receiving. A chi-square test was used for statistical analysis t test and P < .05 was defined as significant., Results: The incidence and degree of severity of nausea and vomiting were same in both the groups. The incidence and degree of severity of bradycardia, nausea, vomiting, tightness of the chest, shoulder discomfort, and abdominal discomfort were lower in Group T than in Group N., Conclusion: Tenoxicam might theoretically block the parasympathetic vagus pathway and decrease the visceral pain or visceral-specific symptoms, alleviating the symptoms caused by vagotonia. However, the prophylactic effect of tenoxicam in reducing the incidence and severity of nausea and vomiting was not statistically significant. This could be because nausea and vomiting are not solely caused by vagotonia, but also by other mechanisms.

Hypertension, blood pressure variation, and resistant hypertension have close relations to sleep apnea, which lead to target organ damage, including the kidney. The complex relationships between sleep apnea and blood pressure cause their interactions with chronic kidney disease ambiguous. The aim of the study was to elucidate the separate and joint effects of sleep apnea, hypertension, and resistant hypertension on chronic kidney disease. A cross-sectional study was done to see the associations of sleep apnea, hypertension, and resistant hypertension with chronic kidney disease in 998 subjects underwent overnight polysomnography without device-therapy or surgery for their sleep-disordered breathing. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the severity of SA, hypertension stage, resistant hypertension, and their joint effects on CKD. The multivariable relative odds (95% CI) of chronic kidney disease for the aged (age ≥65 years), severe sleep apnea, stage III hypertension, and resistant hypertension were 3.96 (2.57-6.09) (P < 0.001), 2.28 (1.13-4.58) (P < 0.05), 3.55 (1.70-7.42) (P < 0.001), and 9.42 (4.22-21.02) (P < 0.001), respectively. In subgroups analysis, the multivariable relative odds ratio of chronic kidney disease was highest in patients with both resistant hypertension and severe sleep apnea [13.42 (4.74-38.03)] (P < 0.001). Severe sleep apnea, stage III hypertension, and resistant hypertension are independent risk factors for chronic kidney disease. Patients with both severe sleep apnea and resistant hypertension have the highest risks.

Both periodontitis and osteoporosis have similar sign of bone resorption in nature. However, the relationship of the severity between these 2 bone-loss diseases is still uncertain.The aim of this study was to investigate the association between the severity of osteoporosis and periodontitis regarding the impact of oral hygiene maintenance. In total, 35,127 osteoporosis patients and 50,498 comparisons were derived from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database of Taiwan between 2000 and 2010. The population was subdivided into groups according to the different level oral hygiene maintenance and the severity of periodontitis and osteoporosis. The association between osteoporosis and periodontitis was estimated by multinomial logistic regression and rank correlation by Kendall rank correlation test, presented by odds ratio (OR), and 5% confidence intervals (CIs).After controlling the age, sex, and comorbidities, variables in the good oral hygiene maintenance population, we found that periodontitis raised 1.29-fold risk of osteoporosis (95% CI = 1.12-1.49); the risk of osteoporosis was increased with the elevated severity of periodontitis from 1.27 (95% CI = 1.08-1.48) to 1.38 (95% CI = 1.01-1.89). There is a positive correlation between the severity of periodontitis and osteoporosis occurrence in this population (OR = 1.27-1.46; Kendall rank correlation test P = 0.0003). In the poor oral hygiene maintenance population, periodontitis patients had 6.02-fold risk of osteoporosis than those who without periodontitis (95% CI = 4.65-7.81); the risk of osteoporosis was increased with periodontitis severity from 5.96 (95% CI = 4.48-7.92) to 6.37 (95% CI = 3.36-12.1).This result indicated the periodontitis and osteoporosis are conjunctive. The sudden periodontal breakdown of those who with good oral hygiene maintenance might be an indicator for the risk of osteoporosis; if those who were diagnosed as osteoporosis must pay more attention to their periodontal health. Good oral hygiene maintenance might be a crucial factor for preventing the deterioration of osteoporosis progressing; the oral hygiene maintenance plays a significant influence on the association between periodontitis and osteoporosis.

Nephrolithiasis is highly prevalent and has been associated with vascular diseases such as cardiovascular events. Few studies have comprehensively associated renal stones with stroke.This study explored whether patients with renal stones were at a higher stroke risk than those without renal stones. A national insurance claim dataset of 22 million enrollees in Taiwan was used to identify 53,659 patients with renal stones, and 214,107 were selected as age-, sex-, and comorbidity-matched controls for a 13-year follow-up.The relative stroke risk for the RS cohort was 1.06-fold higher than that for the non-RS group (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.01-1.11). Age-specific analysis revealed that the adjusted stroke risk for the RS cohort increased as age decreased, with the highest risk of 1.47-fold (95% CI = 1.10-1.96) in patients aged 20 to 34 years, followed by a 1.12-fold risk (95% CI = 1.00-1.25) in patients aged 35 to 50 years. Sex-specific analysis clarified that women in the RS group had a 1.12-fold stroke risk compared with women in the non-RS group (95% CI = 1.03-1.21). Patients who had undergone >4 surgeries had up to 42.5-fold higher risk of stroke (95% CI = 33.8-53.4).The study utilized the national database and demonstrated that patients, particularly women and the younger population, with nephrolithiasis have an increased risk of ischemic stroke development. Patients treated with medication or through surgery for RSs showed steady and higher risks of stroke than those without surgical or medical intervention.

Electronegative low-density lipoprotein (LDL) is a recognized factor in the pathogenesis of coronary artery disease (CAD) in the general population, but its role in the development of CAD in uremia patients is unknown. L5 is the most electronegative subfraction of LDL isolated from human plasma. In this study, we examined the distribution of L5 (L5%) and its association with CAD risk in uremia patients.The LDL of 39 uremia patients on maintenance hemodialysis and 21 healthy controls was separated into 5 subfractions, L1-L5, with increasing electronegativity. We compared the distribution and composition of plasma L5 between uremia patients and controls, examined the association between plasma L5% and CAD risk in uremia patients, and studied the effects of L5 from uremia patients on endothelial function.Compared to controls, uremia patients had significantly increased L5% (P < 0.001) and L5 that was rich in apolipoprotein C3 and triglycerides. L5% was significantly higher in uremia patients with CAD (n = 10) than in those without CAD (n = 29) (P < 0.05). Independent of other major CAD risk factors, the adjusted odds ratio for CAD was 1.88 per percent increase in plasma L5% (95% CI, 1.01-3.53), with a near-linear dose-response relationship. Compared with controls, uremia patients had decreased flow-mediated vascular dilatation. In ex vivo studies with preconstricted rat thoracic aortic rings, L5 from uremia patients inhibited acetylcholine-induced relaxation. In cultured human endothelial cells, L5 inhibited endothelial nitric oxide synthase activation and induced endothelial dysfunction.Our findings suggest that elevated plasma L5% may induce endothelial dysfunction and play an important role in the increased risk of CAD in uremia patients.

Peritoneal dialysis (PD) can be an ideal treatment in cirrhotic patients with ascites and chronic kidney disease stage 5 (CKD 5D) who require dialysis. The survival of cirrhotic patients with CKD 5D on PD, however, is not clear. We compared the survival of cirrhotic patients with CKD 5D on PD and the survival of those on HD. Two datasets including a cohort study of China Medical University Hospital (CMUH) from 2004 to 2013 and the Longitudinal National Health Insurance Database for Catastrophic Illness Patients (LHID-CIP) of Taiwan from 1996 to 2011 were analyzed. The survival of cirrhotic patients on PD and the propensity score matched cirrhotic patients on HD were analyzed using Cox proportional hazards regression. In CMUH cohort of 85 PD and 340 HD patients, the all-cause mortality was lower in PD patients compared to it in HD patients (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.48, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.31-0.74, P < 0.01) after adjustments for confounders. The severity of liver cirrhosis defined by Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) class (P < 0.01) was independently associated with all-cause mortality. The model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score, however, was not associated with all-cause mortality. In the LHID-CIP cohort of 285 PD and 1140 HD patients, the HR of all-cause mortality in PD patients was 0.61 (95% CI: 0.47 - 0.79, P < 0.01), as compared with HD patients. PD in cirrhotic patients who need dialysis is associated with lower all-cause mortality than HD is. This association is independent of patients' comorbidity, severity of liver cirrhosis, and serum albumin levels., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

The association between the hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and the risk of myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke has been previously investigated. However, the association between the HCV infection and the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) has not been extensively discussed. Using the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000 (LHID2000), we selected 3686 patients with newly diagnosed HCV infection. We randomly selected 14,744 people with no HCV or hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection as comparison group and frequency matched them with patients with HCV infection according to their age, sex, and index year. The incidence density rates and hazard ratios (HRs) of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) were calculated until the end of 2011. The mean follow-up duration of 5.14 years for the HCV cohort and 5.61 years for the non-HCV cohort, the overall incidence density rates of DVT were 7.92 and 3.51 per 10,000 person-years in the non-HCV group, and the HCV groups, respectively (crude HR = 2.25; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.21-4.21). After adjusted for age, sex, and comorbidities, the risk of DVT remained significantly higher in the HCV group than in the non-HCV group (adjusted HR = 1.96; 95% CI = 1.03-3.73). The overall incidence density rates of PE in the HCV and non-HCV groups were not significantly different (crude HR = 2.20; 95% CI = 0.94-5.14). HCV infection is associated with the risk of DVT in a long-term follow-up period.

Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are more at risk for pneumonia than the general population. Patients with pneumonia are usually treated as outpatients. However, previous studies were conducted on the basis of inpatient pneumonia. This method may underestimate the risk of pneumonia in patients with CKD. Therefore, we investigated the risk of pneumonia among CKD patients in both outpatient and inpatient settings. A total of 15,562 patients with CKD and 62,109 individuals without CKD (matched for age and gender) were taken as subjects in the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database of Taiwan National Insurance from 1996 to 2010. The incidence density rates of inpatient and outpatient pneumonia were calculated. The risk factors associated with pneumonia were analyzed using Cox proportional hazard models with adjustments for confounders. The incidence density rate of pneumonia was 65.6 per 1000 person-years in patients with CKD and 28.4 per 1000 person-years in individuals without CKD. The incidence density rate of inpatient pneumonia was 43.3 per 1000 person-years in patients with CKD and 16.6 per 1000 person-years in individuals without CKD. CKD was associated with increased risk of pneumonia (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.97; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.89-2.05; P < 0.001), outpatient pneumonia (aHR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.31-1.49), and inpatient pneumonia (aHR, 2.17; 95% CI, 2.07-2.29, P < 0.001). Patients' comorbidities, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease (CVD), asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), were independently associated with increased risk of pneumonia.CKD is associated with the increased risk of both outpatient and inpatient pneumonia. This association is independent of comorbid diabetes, CVD, asthma, and COPD.