Contrast enhancement of the vertebral body marrow may be seen secondary to collateral venous blood flow via the vertebral venous plexus in the setting of superior vena cava obstruction. We report a 48-year-old woman presenting with bilateral brachiocephalic vein obstruction and multilevel thoracic spine hyperdensities as seen on venous-phase CT angiography (CTA), initially concerning for sclerotic neoplastic lesions. A contrast-enhanced CT of the neck obtained 1 day prior to the chest CTA did not demonstrate any osseous abnormality, and inspection of the chest CTA demonstrated filling of perivertebral venous collateral vessels. The abnormal vertebral body enhancement was therefore feltsecondary to retrograde collateral venous flow via the basivertebral venous plexus in the setting of functional SVC obstruction. Vertebral body enhancement should be considered in patients with thoracic central venous obstruction when enhancement or apparent sclerosis of the vertebral bodies is seen on CTA.
DCRFA employing two sequential 6-min cycles is an effective treatment of OO. The 100 % primary success rate, 0 % long-term recurrence rate, and low complication rate compare favorably and may be superior to results of prior reports.
Cardiac angiosarcoma is a rare malignancy with an aggressive course and poor prognosis. We present a 26‐year old man who came to our clinic with shortness of breath and was diagnosed with a right‐sided atrial mass. He underwent urgent resection of the mass. The pathology confirmed the mass to be cardiac angiosarcoma with positive microscopic margins (R1 resection). Since reresection was not feasible, the patient started treatment with concurrent paclitaxel (80 mg/m2 weekly) and proton beam therapy (61 Cobalt equivalent delivered over five weeks). After completing the concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy, he was treated with adjuvant chemotherapy using gemcitabine (900 mg/m2 on Days 1 and 8) and docetaxel (100 mg/m2 on Day 8) every three weeks. After three cycles, the patient developed severe dermatitis, and hence further chemotherapy was withheld. The patient is alive at 26 months since receiving his surgery and 18 months since the completion of treatment. Patients with cardiac angiosarcoma who undergo R1 resection have a median survival of six months. More radical approaches such as orthotopic heart‐lung transplant or prolonged durations of chemotherapy lead to minimal improvement in survival at the cost of increased morbidity. Here, we describe a novel approach to a rare disease that resulted in prolonged survival and led to a better quality of life without any long‐term morbidity to the patient.
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