山下 武志

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is often accompanied by numerous medical complications and mental disorders. There are few specialized AN facilities in Japan, resulting in the unmet medical needs of patients with AN. A 37-year-old Japanese woman was admitted to the hospital after experiencing a disturbance of consciousness. Her body mass index was 10.2 kg/m2. She developed the following serious medical concomitants associated with extremely severe AN: hypothermia, shock liver, refractory hypoglycemia, acute gastric mucosal bleeding, gelatinous marrow transformation, catheter-related bloodstream infection and infective endocarditis due to β-lactamase-negative Staphylococcus aureus, aspiration pneumonia, intracranial hemorrhage, candidemia, and osmotic demyelination syndrome in the pons, which led to a fatal condition that quickly worsened after we started treatment. The patient was able to overcome several serious concomitants and be discharged from the hospital after multidisciplinary treatment team care. AN is associated with increased rates of all-cause mortality. It is important to take an interdisciplinary approach with emergency physicians, intensivists, hematologists, gastroenterologists, psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, a nutrition support team with a nationally registered nutritionist and hospitalists, and hospitalization as required based on appropriate medical evaluation with good patient and family rapport. Furthermore, social and educational efforts aimed at preventing the development of AN are necessary.

A 37year old Japanese man experienced severe sore throat. He was infected by the Omicron variant of SARSCoV2. The posterior pharyngeal wall in the left showed closely aggregated multiple milletsized white spots with surrounding redness.

Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, an etiological agent associated with periodontitis, endocarditis, and other infections, has rarely been implicated in spondylitis. A 70-year-old man with aortic valve replacement presented with a 4-month history of lower back pain and was diagnosed with spondylitis. Prolonged incubation of blood cultures and a biopsy yielded A. actinomycetemcomitans. Concurrent infective endocarditis (IE) was probable considering the infectious organism and the patients' prosthetic valve. The patient was treated with ceftriaxone and recovered well. Pyogenic spondylitis with possible concurrent IE may be caused by A. actinomycetemcomitans. Extended incubation and repeated cultures should be considered if Haemophilus spp., Aggregatibacter spp, Cardiobacterium spp, Eikenella spp, and Kingella spp. (HACEK) infection is suspected.

Talaromyces marneffei is a dimorphic fungus endemic mainly in southeast and south Asia. It causes severe mycosis, usually in immunocompromised individuals, such as those with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Concomitant infection with T. marneffei and other opportunistic pathogens is plausible because the majority of T. marneffei infections occur in patients with advanced HIV infection. Nonetheless, coinfection in the same site has rarely been reported, and poses a considerable diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. We report the case of an HIV-infected Japanese patient who had lived in Thailand for 6 years. The patient developed T. marneffei and Mycobacterium tuberculosis coinfection, and both pathogens were isolated from the same sites: a blood specimen and a lymph node aspirate. Clinicians should be aware of concomitant infection with T. marneffei and other pathogens in patients with advanced HIV disease who are living in or who have visited endemic areas.

We report the case of a 71-year-old Japanese woman with adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD) in whom macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) developed despite therapy with oral high-dose prednisolone and intravenous methylprednisolone pulse therapy twice. She was successfully treated with tocilizumab (TCZ). Soon afterward, her fever ceased and high levels of both ferritin and C-reactive protein levels decreased. Her course was complicated by disseminated intravascular coagulation, cytomegalovirus infection, and Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia. After these were resolved, AOSD-associated MAS was well controlled. She was discharged on hospital day 87. Although biologics such as TCZ are becoming established for the treatment of AOSD, there is no recommended therapy for AOSD-associated MAS. Several biologics have been tried for this complication, but their efficacy and safety remain controversial. We reviewed reported cases of AOSD-associated MAS successfully treated with various biologics. TCZ initiation after adequate nonselective immunosuppressive therapy, such as methylprednisolone pulse therapy or a prednisolone-based combination of immunosuppressants, can be an effective treatment for AOSD-associated MAS. On the other hand, biologics given after insufficient immunosuppressive therapy may cause MAS. A strategy combining adequate immunosuppression and a biologic could be safe if special attention is given to adverse events such as opportunistic infections or biologic-associated MAS.

PURPOSE: Cerebral hyperperfusion following carotid endarterectomy (CEA) occurs in patients with preoperative impairments in cerebral hemodynamics. The aim of the present study was to determine whether late images/early images on preoperative brain (123)I-iomazenil (IMZ) single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), which correlate with oxygen extraction fraction images on positron emission tomography, could identify patients at risk for cerebral hyperperfusion following endarterectomy for unilateral cervical internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis. METHODS: In 80 patients, preoperative brain SPECT scans were initiated immediately after (early images) and 180 min after (late images) administration of (123)I-IMZ. A region of interest (ROI) was automatically placed in the middle cerebral artery territory in both the cerebral hemispheres using a three-dimensional stereotaxic ROI template. Transcranial regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO(2)) was monitored using near-infrared spectroscope throughout carotid endarterectomy, and a patient was defined as having cerebral hyperperfusion when a ratio of rSO(2) at the end of the surgery to rSO(2) before ICA clamping was ≥ 1.1. RESULTS: Cerebral hyperperfusion was observed on intraoperative rSO(2) monitoring in eight patients (10%). Preoperative increase in affected side-to-contralateral side asymmetry on late/early (123)I-IMZ value was the only significant independent predictor of cerebral hyperperfusion (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.606 to 8.710; P = 0.0010). The preoperative late/early (123)I-IMZ asymmetry corresponded to an 88% sensitivity and 89% specificity, with 47% positive- and 98% negative-predictive values for the development of cerebral hyperperfusion. CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative late/early (123)I-IMZ images can identify patients at risk for cerebral hyperperfusion following endarterectomy for unilateral cervical ICA stenosis.