We report an unusual presentation of pulmonary embolism (PE) where a 58-year-old man first developed symptoms of community-acquired pneumonia. Despite antibiotic therapy, he remained unwell with rising inflammatory markers, general malaise and persistent cough. He developed stony dull percussion and absent breath sounds to his left mid to lower zones. Serial chest x-rays showed progression from lobar consolidation to a large loculated left-sided pleural collection. CT chest showed left-sided lung abscess, empyema and bronchopleural fistulation. Incidentally, the scan revealed acute left-sided PE and its distribution corresponded with the location of the left lung abscess and empyema. The sequence of events likely started with PE leading to infarction, cavitation, abscess formation and bronchopleural fistulation. This patient was managed with a 6-month course of rivaroxaban. After completing 2 weeks of intravenous meropenem, he was converted to 4-week course of oral co-amoxiclav and metronidazole and attained full recovery.
Background Malignant melanoma is known to metastasise to the liver. In the absence of any other disease spread it is prudent to resect these lesions. This case highlights how certain pathology can masquerade as liver metastases. Here we present a case of a gentleman previously diagnosed with malignant melanoma in 2016. He had previous liver resection for metastatic disease in 2017. Surveillance MRI picked up what was assumed to be a further metastatic deposit in the right lobe of the liver. Patient underwent resection, and subsequent histological analysis has shown this to be a worm cast from a parasitic infection. Methods Review of the current literature reveals just one previous case of nematode infection masquerading as liver metastasis making this a very unusual and rare finding at operation. We have undertaken review of patients imaging and histopathological specimens as well as seeking expert opinion from the infectious diseases centre in London Results Images were reviewed in HPB MDT and the suggestion was that this was a new malignant lesion in right lobe of liver. At time of operation the lesion had slightly odd appearance on USS. Specimen was sent for histological analysis and this showed no features to suggest malignant melanoma. On further examination there appeared to be a collection of hyalinised structures suspicious for parasitic infection. The specimen was sent to Guys for further evaluation. This confirmed that this was likely a helminth nematode resulting in a necrotic liver nodule Conclusions This presentation is highly unusual and review of the literature demonstrates only 1 previous case to date. The differential for liver lesions is broad and nematode infection should be included. However on a background of previous liver metastases it would not be high on the differential list. It is important that we consider this in future and ensure to clarify risk factors for nematode infection, none of which this patient had. Highlights that despite advancement in imaging it is still only after surgical resection we can be sure of the aetiology.
It has been reported that individuals with psoriasis are at an increased risk of developing cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). However, the increased risk of lymphoma in these patients has been questioned because CTCL in its early stages may be incorrectly labelled as psoriasis, thus introducing potential for misclassification bias. We retrospectively reviewed patients with a confirmed diagnosis of CTCL seen in a tertiary cutaneous lymphoma clinic (n = 115) over a 5-year period and found that 6 (5.2%) patients had clinical evidence of co-existing psoriasis. This demonstrates that there is a small cohort of individuals who develop both psoriasis and CTCL.
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