S. Lakshminarayan

Tuberculosis after corticosteroid therapy

Fourteen episodes of reactivation of tuberculosis after corticosteroid administration are reported. In most a disease impairing the host defences was present and four were taking additional immunosuppressants. The most common presenting symptoms were productive cough and malaise. Bacteriological diagnosis required bronchoscopy in three cases. Response to antituberculosis therapy was good. Five of the 14 episodes manifested dissemination of pulmonary tuberculosis with four occurring in patients receiving high-dose corticosteroids and other immunosuppressants. No prolongation of sputum conversion time was noted in the patients. The published effects of corticosteroids on the tuberculous state are reviewed. Because INH administration may cause liver damage in a small minority of patients, a reassessment is required of the need for INH chemoprophylaxis when corticosteroids are used in patients with healed tuberculosis.

Pleural mesotheliomas--an analysis of 18 cases and review of the literature.

Eighteen cases of mesothelioma, 7 benign and 11 malignant, were analyzed retrospectively. There were 5 females with benign tumors and 10 males with the malignant variety. The mean age was 59 years in the benign group and 55 years in those with malignant tumors. Exposure to asbestos was documented in one benign and five malignant mesotheliomas. Three patients with benign lesions were asymptomatic on presentation while all 11 with malignant tumors had symptoms, chest pain and dyspnea being the most frequent. Abnormal physical findings were rarely noted in the benign group while all the malignant tumors had abnormal findings on presentation. Signs of a pleural effusion were the most common abnormal physical findings, occurring in 8 of 11 patients. Pleural effusion was the most common roentgenologic finding in malignant mesotheliomas, while a mass lesion was the presenting finding in six of seven of the benign group. Pleural effusion was a usual accompaniment of malignant tumors and was an exudate, usually hemorrhagic with leukocyte counts up to 20,000/mm3. Thoracotomy established the diagnosis in each of the five benign and seven malignant cases in which it was attempted. Pleural biopsy was diagnostic in three of six with malignant and one of two with benign tumors. Pleural fluid cytology did not yield a diagnosis in the seven instances in which it was studied. Excisional surgery was performed in five of the benign cases and all have survived one to six years. No treatment was curative of malignant mesotheliomas. Ten of the 11 with malignant tumors died from 3 to 24 months after onset of symptoms (mean 9.9 months). The clinical features of 82 benign and 160 malignant mesotheliomas from selected series in the literature are reviewed and compared with the present series. The roentgenographic features of 51 benign and 87 malignant tumors are also presented. The clinical and diagnostic features which help differentiate mesotheliomas from bronchogenic carcinomas are discussed. A careful approach to the diagnosis of malignant mesotheliomas may help avoid an unnecessary thoracotomy.

Effect of diazepam on ventilatory responses

To investigate the effects of diazepam on ventilatory control, hypoxic and hypercapnic ventilatory responses were studied in 8 normal subjects before and after 10 mg of intramuscular diazepam. There was no significant change in either resting minute ventilation or resting end‐tidal CO2 tension, but depression of hypoxic ventilatory response was observed 15 (60% of control) and 30 min (53% of control) after diazepam (p < 0.05). No significant depression of hypercapnic ventilatory response was noted 70 to 130 min alter diazepam. In view of the depression of hypoxic ventilatory response by diazepam in normal subjects, adverse responses along these lines should be considered in patients with impaired ventilatory function, such as chronic airways obstruction, and in those encountering acute hypoxemia.

Tuberculosis in a patient after renal transplantation

Abstract A case of disseminated infection due to Mycobacterium tuberculosis following renal transplantation is reported. The donor was a positive tuberculin reactor while the recipient was a nonreactor. The possibility of the infection arising as a result of recrudescence of a focus in the transplanted kidney is explored. The rationale for isoniazid chemoprophylaxis to a recipient receiving organ transplantation from a tuberculin positive donor is discussed.