Background
Thoracic duct stenosis or obstruction is one of the causes of chyluria. Although the diagnosis of chyluria is not difficult, treatment is still challenging. Although there have been no standard guidelines for the treatment of chyluria, interventional techniques now offer minimally invasive treatment options for chyluria such as interstitial lymphatic embolization, ductoplasty with balloon, or thoracic duct stenting.
Case presentation
Here, we report a case of chyluria due to obstruction of the junction between the thoracic duct and subclavian vein in a 64 -year- old female patient. The patient was treated with balloon plasty for lymphovenous junction obstruction and interstitial lymphatic embolization for chyluria. However, chyluria was recurrent after 6 months so intranodal lymphangiography was performed. Anterograde thoracic duct was accessed through a transabdominal to the cisterna chyli which showed that the thoracic venous junction was re-obstruction. The patient was successfully treated by placing a uncovered drug-eluting stent with the size of 2.5 mm x 15 mm in length for resolving the thoracic occlusion.
Conclusion
This report demonstrates the feasibility of using thoracic duct stenting in the treatment chyluria due to lymphovenous junction obstruction.
The performance of preoperative embolization on a spinal tumor can be a useful adjunctive procedure that minimizes blood loss and complications, particularly for both metastatic and non-metastatic hypervascular tumors. We discuss two cases of hypervascular spinal tumors that were successfully treated with preoperative embolization and surgery. The first patient was an 18-year-old man who presented with cervical and shoulder pain for two months without paralysis or weakness. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a tumor located in the D2 posterior vertebral arch that extended into the spinal canal and compressed the spinal cord. The second patient was a 68-year-old man with back pain that radiated to the legs for ten days. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a mass in the L4 vertebral body. Both patients received tumor embolization and surgery. After surgery, neither patient experienced any major complications. Histological examination revealed osteoblastoma in the first patient and plasmacytoma in the second patient.
The medicinal values of polysaccharides (PS) in Lingzhi have been shown to lie in many anti-cancer effects and good benefits for human health. Lingzhi, which is rich in healthy PS, has been used more and more commonly in Vietnam in recent years. In the present work, ultrasonic-assisted enzymatic extraction (UAEE) was used for extraction of PS from Lingzhi. The experiments were conducted according to a Box-Behnken design (BBD), with four independent variables: solvent temperature, ultrasonic power, pH, and ultrasonic irradiation time. The results showed that the best adequate extraction conditions were extraction time of 144 min, extraction temperature of 55°C, ultrasonic power of 240W, pH 7.9, and ultrasonic irradiation time of 144 min. Under these conditions, the predicted optimal yield was 3.716%. Whereas by following the optimized conditions, the experimental yield of PS was 3.65% ± 0.14, which was in good agreement with that of the prediction. Compared to the hot water extraction (HWE) method, ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) method and enzyme-assisted extraction (EAE) method, the yield of PS obtained by UAEE was favorable. The PS yield obtained by HWE, and EAE were 1.96% and 3.10%, respectively. These results demonstrated that UAEE was an appropriate and effective extraction of polysaccharides from Lingzhi.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.