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A 42-year-old man exhibiting hypoxia was diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019. He had medical histories of type 2 diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hyperuricemia, and gout attack. He received favipiravir for compassionate use for 14 days. Subsequently, he showed increased uric acid levels and developed acute gouty arthritis. Favipiravir may induce not only hyperuricemia but also acute gouty arthritis. It should therefore be used with caution in patients with a history of gout and those with hyperuricemia, especially when used at a higher dose and for a longer duration than is typical.

Hyperprogressive disease (HPD) is a paradoxical phenomenon involving the acceleration of tumor progression after treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). A 66-year-old male smoker with advanced lung adenocarcinoma started pembrolizumab for progressive disease following first-line chemotherapy. He developed HPD after two cycles, and a re-biopsy revealed transformation to small-cell carcinoma. He subsequently underwent two lines of chemotherapy for small-cell carcinoma until progression and ultimately died. Transformation to small-cell carcinoma may be a cause of HPD during ICI therapy. The possibility of pathological transformation should be considered in cases of HPD with resistance to ICI therapy.

A 35-year-old woman presented with fever and mild diarrhoea without any respiratory symptoms 9 days after travelling to Japan from Wuhan, China. Her computed tomography scan revealed pneumonia. The first polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test on throat swab for the novel corona virus upon admission was negative. Therefore, she was treated for community-acquired pneumonia, but fever persisted. On hospital day 5, PCR test on induced sputum was positive, but a second polymerase chain reaction test on throat swab remained negative. She was discharged, fully recovered, on hospital day 12. A lower respiratory tract specimen should be obtained for better diagnosis of corona virus disease 2019, even in the absence of respiratory symptoms for patients with significant travel or exposure history.

This article focuses on the symptomatic and diagnostic problems of primary duodenal adenocarcinoma (PDA) by way of two case reports and a literature review. An 85-year-old woman with an adenocarcinoma in the 1st duodenal portion was offered palliative care. A 90-year-old woman with an adenocarcinoma in the 3rd duodenal portion was also offered palliative care. A unique finding in the two cases reported herein is that PDA did not cause stenosis and occlusion of the lumen. As no reports of PDA without stenosis have been published so far, these cases may add to our knowledge of PDA. The diagnosis of PDA is often delayed because its symptoms may be absent until the tumor has progressed, thus leading to a delay of several months. Patients typically present with a long history of variable and vague symptoms, and many are diagnosed with advanced disease. As regards clinical manifestations, abdominal pain is the most frequent symptom. The majority of these tumors are found to have infiltrated the duodenal wall at presentation, with many being unresectable due to local and distal invasion. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy and gastrointestinal barium radiography are the main diagnostic tests for PDA, detecting 88.6 and 83.3% of tumors, respectively. In some cases, ultrasonography or computed tomography are useful for detecting PDA and determining vascular invasion.

Objectives To validate a B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) as a prognostic marker in pneumonia patients. Design A prospective cohort study. Setting Kanazawa Medical University Himi Municipal (a 250-bed community hospital in Himi-shi, Toyama-ken, Japan). Participants All patients diagnosed with pneumonia by the physician and admitted to our hospital between 1 January 2012 and 31 March 2015 whose BNP levels had been determined in the first 24 h of admission. A total of 673 patients were enrolled. Of these, BNP levels were measured for a total of 369 patients on admission. Intervention After enrolment, baseline, demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics including levels of suspected prognostic markers for pneumonia proposed in previous papers, were collected. All patients were followed up until discharge. During analysis, they were divided into categories as follows: community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), aspiration pneumonia (AP), healthcare-associated pneumonia (HCAP) and pneumonia with acute heart failure (PAHF). A univariate and multivariable Cox-regression analysis were applied to each parameter to identify predictors of death. Three cut-off points, namely 40, 100 and 200 pg/mL, as well as the mean, were applied when comparing BNP levels. Main outcome measures 30-day mortality. Results Of the 369 patients finally included, 137 were diagnosed with CAP, 122 with AP, 74 with HCAP, and 36 with PAHF. In the univariate analysis, BNP levels (mean, cut-off points 100 pg/mL and 200 pg/mL, p

An 18-year old Japanese woman with thirst, weight loss and palpitations for a few weeks’ duration was admitted. Her diagnosis was diabetic ketoacidosis with acute-onset type 1 diabetes (T1D) and Graves’ disease (GD) (autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type 3 variant; APS3v). She was treated with intensification therapy with insulin and anti-thyroid drugs. Human leukocyte antigen testing revealed that her HLA type was HLA- DRB1*08:02-DQA1*03:01-DQB1*03:02 haplotype, which was vulnerable not only to APS3v, but also to both acute-onset T1D and GD. This genetic factor probably contributes to the simultaneous occurrence of T1D and GD.