Cardiovascular magnetic resonance and computed tomography in the evaluation of aneurysmal coronary-cameral fistula.

Coronary artery fistulas represent abnormal communications between a coronary artery and a major vessel like venae cavae, pulmonary arteries or veins, the coronary sinus, or a cardiac chamber. The latter is called coronary cameral fistula is a rare condition and is most of the times congenital but can be also post traumatic or post surgical, especially after cardiovascular interventional procedures. Most patients are asymptomatic and coronary-cameral fistulae are discovered incidentally during angiographic evaluation for coronary vascular disorders, while other patients have a clinical presentation ranging from angina pectoris to heart failure.

Successful treatment of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura-like syndrome in a cancer patient with low-dose interferon: case report and review of the literature.

Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP)-like syndrome is a rare complication of carcinomas, and its treatment usually precedes cancer therapy in order to make further procedures safe. We describe the case of a 78-year-old man with a small-cell lung cancer of extended stage, associated with ITP-like syndrome, which proved resistant to treatment with corticosteroids and vincristine, short-responsive to IV immunoglobulin, but quickly and steadily responsive to low-dose interferon (ld IFN, 3 million IU, sc, twice weekly, for 8 weeks), until the patient's death, due to his primarily chemoresistant cancer. This case is, to our knowledge, the second reported ITP-like syndrome in a cancer patient who had been successfully treated with ld IFN.