Acute interstitial nephritis of HIV-positive patients under atazanavir and tenofovir therapy in a retrospective analysis of kidney biopsies.

We performed a retrospective analysis on kidney biopsies of 30 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive patients. Twenty-two of them received highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Tenofovir containing HAART together with atazanavir, a new protease inhibitor, was administered to three patients.

[Acute tubulointerstitial nephritis in HIV infection].

We report about a patient with human immunodeficiency virus infection who developed acute renal failure after therapy with atazanavir. Renal biopsy showed acute interstitial nephritis. After discontinuing medication with atazanavir serum creatinine level decreased spontaneously without steroids.

Treatment of hepatic hydrothorax and reduction of chest tube output with octreotide.

Hepatic hydrothorax is a dreaded complication in patients with liver cirrhosis. Placement of chest tubes can alleviate respiratory distress, but patients often succumb due to excessive fluid and protein loss via the open drain. Our case illustrates that high-dose octreotide can strongly reduce hepatic hydrothorax drainage volume.

Diagnostic approach to hypercalcemia: relevance of parathyroid hormone and parathyroid hormone-related protein measurements.

Background: Parathyroid hormone (PTH) and parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTH-rP) are two potent hypercalcemic hormones that act on the same targets. Autonomous secretion of the former is involved in primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT), whereas the latter is responsible for humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy (HHM). Methods: From 250 consecutive, hypercalcemic serum samples sent to our laboratory for assessment of intact PTH, we were able to obtain clinical information, as well as an additional plasma sample for PTH-rP measurement, in 134 patients.

Emphysematous cystitis in a patient presenting with paradoxical arterial embolism and intestinal mycobacteriosis without evidence of diabetes.

We describe the case of a 72-year-old woman who displayed massive multiple intramural gas collections of the bladder wall as an incidental finding on CT. The patient presented with critical ischemia of the left leg caused by paradoxical arterial embolism, raised corpuscular sedimentation rate, anemia by gastrointestinal blood loss, hypoproteinemia, diarrhea, malabsorption, and exudative enteropathia caused by mycobacterial ileocolitis. The patient had no dysuria and there was no evidence of diabetes.