Omental fibroma combined with right indirect inguinal hernia masquerades as a scrotal tumor: A case report

BACKGROUND

The most common causes of scrotal enlargement in patients include primary tumor of the scrotum, inflammation, hydrocele of the tunica vaginalis, and indirect inguinal hernia; scrotal enlargement caused by external tumors of the scrotum is rare. The patient had both a greater omentum tumor and an inguinal hernia, and the tumor protruded into the scrotum through the hernia sac, which is even rarer. Moreover, omental tumors are mostly metastatic, and primary omental fibroma is rare.

CASE SUMMARY

Here, we report a rare case of a 25-year-old young man with scrotal enlargement and pain for 3 months. Preoperative examination and multidisciplinary discussions considered intra-abdominal tumor displacement and inguinal hernia, and intraoperative exploration confirmed that the greater omentum tumor protruded into the scrotum. Therefore, tumor resection and tension-free inguinal hernia repair were performed. The final diagnosis was benign fibroma of the greater omentum accompanied by an indirect inguinal hernia.

CONCLUSION

This unusual presentation of a common inguinal hernia disease illustrates the necessity of performing detailed history taking, physical examination, and imaging before surgery.

Ileocecal intussusception caused by two different tumors - which is the culprit lesion? A case report

BACKGROUND

Ileocecal intussusception caused by two different tumors is rare, according to a literature review. We describe a case of a male patient with a cauliflower-like mass in the middle of the transverse colon observed by colonoscopy before surgery. It was considered to be intussusception caused by colon cancer. However, a substantial lipomatous mass was seen in the distal end of the intussusception by computed tomography before surgery, which posed a challenge in the preoperative diagnosis.

CASE SUMMARY

We report a 72-year-old male patient with intussusception. The patient underwent right hemicolectomy and cholecystectomy in our hospital on April 29, 2019. During operation, the ileum was inserted into the ascending colon by about 15 cm, and a tumor with a diameter of approximately 3.0 cm was observed in the distal part of the intestine. An atypical liposarcoma/highly differentiated liposarcoma in the adipose tissue was suspected in the postoperative pathology, and a lipoma was diagnosed after MDM2 gene testing. A 4.0 cm × 5.0 cm polypoid mass was seen immediately adjacent to the mass, and the postoperative pathology report suggested a high-level tubular adenoma. The patient was eventually cured and discharged with an uneventful follow-up.

CONCLUSION

Intussusception caused by two different types of masses is extremely rare. At present, surgery is the best treatment once intussusception is diagnosed.

Huge primary dedifferentiated pancreatic liposarcoma mimicking carcinosarcoma in a young female: A case report

BACKGROUND

Pancreatic liposarcoma is a rare tumor. According to a literature review, the patient described in this study is the seventh case of pancreatic liposarcoma reported in the English literature and the third case of dedifferentiated liposarcoma. Furthermore, this case had the largest primary tumor volume, and a primary pancreatic liposarcoma was diagnosed based on sufficient evidence.

CASE SUMMARY

We here report a rare case of a 28-year-old female with a huge dedifferentiated liposarcoma in the pancreatic tail. In June 2015, the patient underwent distal pancreatectomy with splenectomy. During the operation, a huge liposarcoma of approximately 28.0 cm × 19.0 cm × 8.0 cm was found, which had a yellow and white fish-like incisal surface. Based on both pathology and MDM2 gene amplification, the tumor was diagnosed as a dedifferentiated liposarcoma. The patient was treated with surgery but declined postoperative chemotherapy. She was well at the 26-mo follow-up, and no relapse was observed.

CONCLUSION

Pancreatic liposarcoma has a low incidence. Chemotherapy should be included in the treatment regimens. Complete resection is the only effective treatment.

STATT: a titrate-to-goal study of simvastatin in Asian patients with coronary heart disease. Simvastatin Treats Asians to Target

BACKGROUND

Most published studies on the use of lipid-lowering agents to treat hypercholesterolemia have focused on Western populations, with few data on Asian populations.

OBJECTIVE

The Simvastatin Treats Asians to Target (STATT) study used a titrate-to-goal protocol to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of simvastatin 20 to 80 mg/d in the treatment of Asian patients with coronary heart disease.

METHODS

This was a multicenter, open-label, uncontrolled, 14-week study in patients with coronary heart disease and serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels of 115-180 mg/dL and triglyceride levels of < or = 400 mg/dL. The dose of simvastatin was titrated from 20 to 80 mg/d to achieve the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) LDL-C target of < or = 100 mg/dL. The primary efficacy measure was the percentage of patients achieving the NCEP target. Among secondary measures were the percentage of patients achieving European Society of Cardiology/European Atherosclerosis Society/European Society of Hypertension target LDL-C levels of < or = 115 mg/dL and the percentage change from baseline in lipid parameters. Tolerability was assessed in terms of the overall incidence of adverse experiences and the incidences of the most commonly reported adverse experiences.

RESULTS

The intent-to-treat analysis included 133 Asian patients (93 men, 40 women; mean age, 59.5 years), of whom 125 completed 14 weeks of therapy. Their mean blood pressure was 130.2/79.4 mm Hg. Overall, 104 (78.2%) patients treated with simvastatin achieved LDL-C levels < or = 100 mg/dL at week 14, and 125 (94.0%) achieved this target at some point during the study. Similarly, 122 (91.7%) patients achieved an LDL-C level < or = 115 mg/dL at week 14, and 130 (97.7%) achieved this target at some point during the study. Treatment with simvastatin had favorable effects on the lipid profile, producing significant percentage changes from baseline in all parameters (P < 0.001). Simvastatin was well tolerated across the dose range. Overall, 40 patients (30.1%) had > or = 1 clinical adverse experience. Only 14 (10.5%) had adverse experiences that were possibly, probably, or definitely related to study drug; none of these experiences were considered serious. The most common adverse experiences (> or = 3% incidence) were abdominal pain (6%); chest pain (5%); dizziness (4%); and asthenia/fatigue, fibromyalgia, headache, insomnia, and upper respiratory tract infection (3% each). No new or unexpected adverse experiences were seen at the higher doses.

CONCLUSIONS

Simvastatin was effective and well tolerated at doses of 20, 40, and 80 mg/d in Asian patients with coronary heart disease. Titration enabled the majority to achieve target LDL-C levels of < or = 100 mg/dL.

A transcription map of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I region

We have applied cDNA hybridization selection to nine YACs spanning 3 Mb of genomic DNA from a region centromeric to HLA-A to the histone cluster that lies telomeric to the human major histocompatibility complex (MHC). In addition to Class I genes and pseudogenes, we describe over 63 genes and 23 additional expressed sequence tags distributed throughout the region. Many of the full-length genes belong to gene families. Prominent among these are a group of genes encoding proteins showing homology to the carboxyl-terminal sequences of butyrophilin and an additional group of zinc finger genes. We also detected several previously undefined genes that are specifically expressed in cells of the immune system, indicating a more complex role of the MHC in the immune response than has been appreciated.

Genes in one megabase of the HLA class I region

To define the gene content of the HLA class I region, cDNA selection was applied to three overlapping yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs) that spanned 1 megabase (Mb) of this region of the human major histocompatibility complex. These YACs extended from the region centromeric to HLA-E to the region telomeric to HLA-F. In addition to the recognized class I genes and pseudogenes and the anonymous non-class-I genes described recently by us and others, 20 additional anonymous cDNA clones were identified from this 1-Mb region. We also identified a long repetitive DNA element in the region between HLA-B and HLA-E. Homologues of this element were located at several sites in the human genome outside of the HLA complex. The portion of the HLA class I region represented by these YACs shows an average gene density as high as the class II and class III regions. Thus, the high gene density portion of the HLA complex is extended to more than 3 Mb.

Application of cDNA selection techniques to regions of the human MHC

Identification of transcribed sequences by cDNA selection is a potentially rapid and efficient way of scanning large genomic DNA fragments for the presence of genes. To evaluate this approach further, we have applied it to three yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs) and examined the products obtained from a total of about 1100 kb from two regions of the human major histocompatibility complex (MHC). One YAC was derived from an extensively studied portion of the Class II region of the MHC. The cDNAs recovered from this YAC included representatives of the previously described genes as well as one or more cDNA clones not described in the databases. A second YAC spanned about 330 kb of DNA surrounding the Class I gene HLA-A. In addition to Class I clones, 10 distinct cDNA products were identified from this YAC. A third YAC contained about 700 kb of human DNA, including 260 kb of overlap with the second YAC, and recovered an additional cDNA complementary to YAC B30 H3 DNA. Overall, the method is shown to be able to detect very scarce cDNAs and to detect a large fraction of coding sequences in YAC clones. Advantages and limitations of the approach are discussed.

Membrane association and secretion of the Japanese encephalitis virus NS1 protein from cells expressing NS1 cDNA

The biosynthesis of the flavivirus nonstructural glycoprotein, NS1, has important implications for (1) vaccine production, since NS1 immunity can protect animals from flavivirus infection; and (2) virion maturation, since NS1 is coretained with immature forms of the structural glycoprotein E in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of infected cells. To examine the molecular basis for NS1 retention within the ER we have expressed fragments of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) cDNA encoding NS1 in BHK cells. These transient expression studies showed that the JEV NS1 protein was faithfully processed when expressed in isolation, and have revealed that NS1 expressed in the absence of any other viral genes behaves like the NS1 protein found in JEV-infected cells with respect to retention in the ER, secretion, glycosylation, membrane association, and dimerization.

The reemergence of dengue in China

In 1978, dengue was reported in China for the first time in 32 years. Since then, epidemics involving hundreds of thousands of people have occurred in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces and on Hainan Island. These epidemics were caused by all four types of dengue virus. Aedes aegypti was the vector in coastal areas, while Aedes albopictus was the vector in inland regions. During these epidemics, case rates were very high (greater than 50%) in some areas. Case-fatality rates were generally less than 0.1% except during the 1986 outbreak on Hainan Island, when the rate was 0.25%. Hemorrhagic disease occurred in both children and adults. On Hainan Island, hemorrhagic disease was more than three times as common in the 1986 outbreak as in the 1980 outbreak; the 1980 outbreak was caused by dengue virus type 3 and the 1986 outbreak by dengue virus type 2. The weight of the evidence suggests that the reemergence of dengue in China resulted from the introduction of the infection by travelers and refugees from areas of Asia where dengue is endemic.