Visceral leishmaniasis is an infectious disease that infects and multiplies in macrophages of the liver, spleen, and bone marrow. The most common clinical features are fever, splenomegaly, and anemia. Anemia, leucopenia, and thrombocytopenia are the main hematologic abnormalities commonly seen in visceral leishmaniasis. These findings can be seen in several types of hematologic disorders. The findings are similar to most hematologic disorders and so may make diagnosis problematic. It is difficult to confirm when it is seen except in epidemiologic areas. It can be fatal if it is not treated and appropriate treatment can be lifesaving. In this article a 12 year-old male patient who was followed-up with diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia and received maintenance therapy while being under remission after BFM-ALL-2000 treatment protocol and diagnosed with hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis due to Kala-azar during this period was presented.
We report a case of an 8-year-old child with traumatic carotico-cavernous fistula. The diagnosis was obtained by magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic resonance angiography and Doppler imaging and the fistula treated by percutaneous embolisation. We emphasize the duplex Doppler findings of superior ophtalmic vein in this study.
Retrospective cohort study. Frailty is defined as a state of minimal "physiologic reserve." The modified 5 factor frailty index (mFI-5) is a recently proposed metric for assessing frailty and has been previously studied as a predictor of morbidity and mortality. However, its utility in predicting postoperative patient reported outcomes (PROMs) and return to activities remains understudied. This is a retrospective cohort study of patients undergoing 1 or 2 level minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion queried from a prospectively maintained multi-surgeon registry. Comorbidities including hypertension, congestive heart failure, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and functional status were utilized to calculate the mFI-5. Patients were separated into 3 cohorts, "non-frail," "moderately frail" or "severely frail" based on their mFI-5. Patient outcomes were compared between the cohorts. 392 patients were included of which 227 patients were non-frail, 134 were moderately frail, and 31 were severely frail. Frail patients had longer operative time (P = 0.002), greater estimated blood loss (P = 0.038). Despite similar preoperative PROMs, at a longer term follow up, frail patients also had worse PROM scores for ODI (P = 0.009), VAS-back (P = 0.028), and VAS-leg (P = 0.004). Frail patients had worse preoperative (P = 0.017) and postoperative (P < 0.001) SF-12 PCS. At 1-year, frail patients had lower rates of fusion (P = 0.002). Frail patients also demonstrated lower rates of returning to work (P = 0.018), returning to driving (P = 0.027), and discontinuation of narcotics (P = 0.004). Frail patients as measured by the mFI-5 index demonstrated worse postoperative outcomes following 1 or 2 level MI-TLIF. Careful patient selection and preoperative optimization may be especially important in frail patients.
Although thrombocytopenia is a rarely observed complication following chickenpox, it can lead to serious bleeding problems. In order to underline rare hematologic complications of varicella infection and the importance of vaccination, here we reported a seven year old boy who developed severe thrombocytopenia during varicella infection and gave good response to intravenous immunoglobulin therapy.
We report a case of a 3-month-old Turkish girl who had clinical and laboratory features of Glanzmann's thrombasthenia associated with asymmetric crying facies (ACF). Although ACF is a minor anomaly, it should not be forgotten that it can be accompanied by major congenital anomalies and if this finding is detected, other anomalies should be investigated.
There are numerous reports that patients with thalassemia are faced with hypercoagulability leading to vascular disorders. One of these complications is known as a silent infarct, defined as a small infarct detected by cerebral imaging but without any neurological symptoms. Since it has a progressive nature, it is of vital importance because it may lead to symptomatic cerebrovascular accidents in the future. Twenty-two children with thalassemia intermedia were enrolled into the study and MRI scans were performed. All demographic data and clinical features of the patients were obtained during the follow-up period. In addition to the patients, 13 healthy controls were included to compare serum anticoagulant levels with those of the thalassemia intermedia patients. Four of the patients were found to have silent cerebral infarcts (SCIs). The lesions involved varying amounts of the deep cerebral white matter and sub-cortical areas. One patient showed 'net line' filling defects within the ambient cistern on MRI images corresponding to moyamoya vessels. Three patients had undergone splenectomy, and three were transfused irregularly and had less than six transfusions per year. More importantly, protein C levels were lower and platelet levels were significantly higher in the patient group compared with controls. We were not able to find any association between SCI and transfusion number or splenectomy. However, of the total patients four thalassemia intermedia patients had SCI in early childhood and this is an unusual finding. In order to verify the findings, further studies must be conducted involving larger numbers of patients.
Intrathecal chemotherapy and systemic chemotherapy are used for both prophylaxis and treatment of central nervous system disease in hematologic malignancies. However, intrathecal treatment has some adverse effects, such as arachnoiditis, progressive myelopathy, and leukoencephalopathy. The authors describe six children in whom myelopathy and adhesive arachnoiditis developed after administration of intrathecal chemotherapy including methotrexate, cytosine arabinoside, and prednisolone. Urinary retention and incontinence, the main presenting complaints in all patients, developed within 12 hours after intrathecal therapy and spontaneously resolved within 7 days. Two patients were unable to walk. In these two, weakness in the lower extremities gradually recovered by 1 month but urinary incontinence did not improve. None of the children had sensory loss. On follow-up periodic recurrent urinary tract infection was noted in four patients. MRI findings corresponded to arachnoiditis. No response was recorded on tibial nerve somatosensory evoked potentials in all patients. Intrathecal chemotherapy, especially methotrexate, can cause spinal cord dysfunction in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Arachnoiditis should be kept in mind as a causative factor in recurrent urinary tract infection in patients receiving intrathecal chemotherapy.
