Bronchogenic Carcinoma with Cardiac Invasion Simulating Acute Myocardial Infarction.

Cardiac metastases in bronchogenic carcinoma may occur due to retrograde lymphatic spread or by hematogenous dissemination of tumour cells, but direct invasion of heart by adjacent malignant lung mass is very uncommon. Pericardium is frequently involved in direct cardiac invasion by adjacent lung cancer. Pericardial effusion, pericarditis, and tamponade are common and life threatening presentation in such cases.

Tonsillar tuberculosis: a forgotten clinical entity.

Tuberculosis of tonsils is an extremely rare variety of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis which frequently simulates the tonsillar malignancy, especially in elderly individuals. Secondary form is more common than primary one, and in present day, contact with the infected sputum or saliva in a case of sputum smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis is the main source of the disease. Chronic or recurrent tonsillitis with enlarged tonsils and sore throat is the main clinical presentation.

Superior vena caval syndrome and ipsilateral pleural effusion: A rare presentation of anterior mediastinal thymoma.

Incidence of thymic malignancies is very low. Thymoma, a tumor of thymus gland, is of epithelial origin and is most common anterior mediastinal tumor. In most cases, thymomas are localized and locally advanced thymomas may rarely present with superior vena caval obstruction (SVCO) and malignant pleural deposits.

An osteolytic metastasis of humerus from an asymptomatic squamous cell carcinoma of lung: a rare clinical entity.

Advanced lung cancer is complicated by skeletal metastases either due to direct extension from adjacent primaries or, more commonly, due to haematogenous dissemination of neoplastic cells. Lumber spine is the most common site for bony metastases in bronchogenic carcinoma. Proximal lone bones, especially humerus, are unusual sites for metastases from lung primaries.

Cervical lymphadenopathy--pitfalls of blind antitubercular treatment.

Tuberculosis (TB) is the most common cause of cervical lymphadenopathy in the TB-endemic zone, like India but it can also mimic other diseases. Four cases of cervical lymphadenopathy presented to us as initial treatment failure after completion of six months of antitubercular drugs (ATD), including rifampicin, isoniazid, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol. All were diagnosed as having tuberculosis either by fine needle aspiration cytology or clinically from outside our institution.

A rare case of Kartagener's syndrome.

A young boy presented with cough and intermittent breathlessness for 3 months. He used to suffer from frequent cough and cold since childhood. Clinical examination revealed bilateral coarse basal crepitations and rhonchi.

A rare case of sternal erosion due to bronchogenic carcinoma.

Background: Primary sternal malignancy is very uncommon. Secondary sternal malignancy is usually caused by either hematological dissemination or by direct extension due to parasternal lymph node involvement from breast or lung carcinoma.

Case Details: A 72 years old smoker presented with a dull aching pain over the sternum.

Atypical Presentation of Allergic Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis: An Unusual Cause of Difficult-to-Treat Asthma.

Allergic Bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) commonly presents with persistently uncontrolled asthma, despite of the therapy with highest possible anti-asthma medications. Most common cause of ABPA is Aspergillus fumigates. Hence, ABPA is one of the important differential diagnoses of difficult-to-treat asthma.

A rare case of Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease.

Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease, characterized by histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis, closely mimics tuberculosis, and lymphoma are two most common etiologies of cervical lymphadenitis. It is a rare, benign, and self-limited disease. Viral infections or autoimmunity are hypothesized as its etiology, but no causal relationship is definitely established till date.

Pancoast syndrome: A rare presentation of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Pancoast syndrome is a common presentation of bronchogenic carcinoma, but other malignancies are rarely cited as its cause. Pancoast syndrome due to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is rarely described in the literature. Here, we report a case of Pancoast syndrome due to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma to increase the awareness of the clinicians regarding essentiality of tissue diagnosis of Pancoast tumor before starting the treatment.

Isoniazid-induced flu-like syndrome: A rare side effect.

Drug-induced flu-like syndrome is very rare. It is mainly produced by rifampicin. We report a case of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) that developed isoniazid-induced flu-like syndrome, but could be cured with a modified regimen replacing isoniazid with levofloxacin.

A rare mediastinal tumour in a young male mimicking massive pleural effusion.

A 30-year-old male, carpenter by profession, presented with a history of dry cough and progressive shortness of breath for two months along with right-sided chest pain for one and a half months. The clinico-radiological picture was suggestive of right-sided massive pleural effusion. Computed tomography (CT) scan of the thorax showed a huge mediastinal mass occupying the entire right hemithorax with very small amount of pleural effusion.

A rare case of concurrent multiple primary lung cancer of different histological types.

Occurrence of concurrent multiple primary malignancies with different histopathological presentations of the same organ at the same time is often not diagnosed and rarely reported in the literature. We present a case of multiple primary lung cancers with hepatic metastasis where the patient had a moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma of the right lower lobe and a moderately differentiated squamous cell carcinoma of the right upper lobe.

A case of squamous cell carcinoma of lung presenting with paraneoplastic type of acanthosis nigricans.

A 70-years-old male presented with blackening of both hands and face for last six months which was progressive and attended dermatology outpatients department. Dermatologist opined the skin lesions as acanthosis nigricans. He was referred to our department to evaluate for any underlying internal malignancy as he was a smoker.

Role of sputum examination for acid fast bacilli in tuberculous pleural effusion.

Background: Sputum for acid fast bacilli (AFB) is seldom looked for in the etiological diagnosis of tuberculous pleural effusion usually due to the absence of any parenchymal lesion radiologically, but presence of tubercle bacilli in sputum may have important epidemiological and therapeutic implication.

Aims: This study aims to evaluate the role of sputum examination for AFB in the patients of tuberculous pleural effusion with no apparent lung parenchymal lesion radiologically.

Settings And Design: Forty-five consecutive indoor patients of suspected tuberculous pleural effusion having no apparent lung parenchymal lesion on chest radiography were selected for our study.

Role of pleural biopsy in etiological diagnosis of pleural effusion.

Background: Pleural effusion remains the most common manifestation of pleural pathology. Sometimes it is difficult to differentiate between tubercular and malignant pleural effusion in spite of routine biochemical and cytological examination of pleural fluid.

Aims: This study aims to evaluate the role of pleural biopsy to determine the etiology of pleural effusion and to correlate it with the biochemical and cytological parameters of pleural fluid.

Five-years experiences of the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme in northern part of Kolkata, India.

Background: The Revised National Tuberculosis Control programme (RNTCP), India.

Aim: To assess the impact of the expansion of the RNTCP in the case detection and treatment outcome.

Materials And Methods: Reports of patients with tuberculosis (TB) diagnosed and treated under RNTCP from 2001 to 2005 under Bagbazar TB unit (TU), Kolkata, reviewed retrospectively.

Spindle cell sarcoma of foot with metastasis--a case report.

A 34-year-old male presented with right sided chest pain, shortness of breath and a swelling over his left foot. Chest radiology revealed a mass lesion in the right middle lobe which on CT guided biopsy showed features of spindle cell sarcoma. Surgical excision of both the lung and foot masses were done, both of which on histopathological examination proved to be spindle cell sarcoma.

Homocysteine and cerebrovascular accidents.

Hyperhomocysteinaemia is rapidly emerging as an important risk factor for coronary artery disease, possibly because of its propensity to accelerate atherosclerosis. Whether it is also a risk factor for cerebrovascular accidents (CVA) is a matter of debate till now, as there are conflicting results of the various prospective studies. The present study was performed to correlate the levels of plasma homocysteine levels with that of ischaemic and haemorrhagic CVA.

A young lady presented with limited pulmonary Wegener's granulomatosis.

A 19 year old female college student presented with fever, dry cough, chest pain, blood tinged sputum with subsequent development of polyarthralgia with radiological evidence of bilateral multiple unevenly distributed pulmonary nodular opacities with cavitation. There was no other systemic involvement and the patient was cytoplasmic antineutrophil antibody (c-ANCA) positive with more than four times the normal upper limit of anti PR3 antibody. Excellent response to oral steroid with antimicrobial agent "trimethoprim - sulphamethoxazole" was noted.

Mechanism of erythrocyte death in human population exposed to arsenic through drinking water.

Arsenic contamination in drinking water is one of the biggest natural calamities, which has become an imperative threat to human health throughout the world. Abbreviation of erythrocyte lifespan leading to the development of anemia is a common sequel in arsenic exposed population. This study was undertaken to explore the mechanism of cell death in human erythrocytes during chronic arsenic exposure.