Hypothyroidism is associated with metabolic syndrome and females are more at risk. Metabolic syndrome patients with a raised HsCRP are at significant risk of having sub-clinical hypothyroidism.

Aspergilloma and invasive aspergillosis coexisting with multidrug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in the same patient is a rare entity. We report a 50 year old South Indian woman, a diabetic, who presented to us with complaints of productive cough and hemoptysis for the past 2 months. She was diagnosed to have pulmonary tuberculosis 2 years ago for which she took irregular treatment. Lung imaging showed features of a thick walled cavity in the right upper lobe with an indwelling aspergilloma. She underwent a right lung upper lobe resection. Biopsy and culture of the resected specimen showed the coexistence of Aspergillus fumigatus and multi-drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis. 2 blood cultures grew Aspergillus fumigatus. She was successfully treated with Voriconazole and anti tuberculous therapy against MDR-TB.

In a patient undergoing regular hemodialysis through an arteriovenous fistula access, pleural effusion is a known long term complication. However, a unilateral hemothorax is relatively uncommon. Here we report a 46 year old male, end-stage renal disease patient, on maintenance hemodialysis, who presented with a giant brachiocephalic AV fistula in his left arm and progressive breathlessness. Radiological imaging revealed a left sided pleural effusion. Ultrasound guided aspiration revealed a hemorrhagic pleural fluid. A Doppler study of the fistula revealed a high velocity blood flow through the fistula, thereby establishing the cause of the unilateral hemothorax. Ligation of the fistula resulted in complete resolution of the hemothorax. The other possible causes for hemothorax in a dialysis patient are also discussed in this case report.

We conclude that LACE is effective and well-tolerated conditioning regimen. IPS at relapse is the most important prognostic factor in HL transplant.

Mucositis is nearly inevitable following high-dose chemotherapy. Several pro-inflammatory cytokines play a role in pathogenesis of mucositis. Curcumin inhibits inflammatory cytokines through inhibition of nuclear factor kappa-β. We studied the effects of curcumin on the acute toxicities and inflammatory cytokines following melphalan (200 mg/m2) for autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) for myeloma. The control group (first 10 enrolled patients who received standard supportive care) was compared with curcumin group (next 30 patients who received chewable curcumin lozenges, 4 g twice daily from 2 days before melphalan till day +28 along with standard supportive care). The toxicities were recorded as per World Health Organization (WHO) criteria and CTCAE v3.0 as applicable. Cytokine profiling was done in both groups at similar time points. In the curcumin group, there was significant decrease in grade 3/4 vomiting (3% vs 40%, P = 0.01) and total parenteral nutrition use (47% vs 90%, P = 0.026). Grade 3/4 mucositis (43% vs 60%) and diarrhea (33% vs 70%) were also less, but not statistically significant. This coincided with 3.2-fold lower area under the concentration time curve (AUC) of IL-8 from day –3 to day 14 in curcumin group compared with control group ( P = 0.039). We conclude that curcumin mitigates toxicities of high-dose melphalan, possibly through IL-8 modulation. Randomized studies are warranted to explore benefits of curcumin in HSCT.