An aggressive non-small cell lung cancer in nonsmokers: A case report of an unusual presentation of micropapillary lung adenocarcinoma.

We describe a case of an unusual fast growing lung micropapillary-predominant adenocarcinoma in a nonsmoker male patient without pre-existing lung disease. Adenocarcinomas have been described to be slow growing tumors, however our patient presented a fast-growing rate over a period of 21 days. When the patient failed broad spectrum antibiotic coverage, malignancy became part of the differential diagnosis.

Atmospheric pollutants in fog and rain events at the northwestern mountains of the Iberian Peninsula.

Atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and exist in gas and particle phases, as well as dissolved or suspended in precipitation (fog or rain). While the hydrosphere is the main reservoir for PAHs, the atmosphere serves as the primary route for global transport of PCBs. In this study, fog and rain samples were collected during fourteen events from September 2011 to April 2012 in the Xistral Mountains, a remote range in the NW Iberian Peninsula.

A Critical Review about the Health Risk Assessment of PAHs and Their Metabolites in Foods.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a family of toxicants that are ubiquitous in the environment. These contaminants generate considerable interest, because some of them are highly carcinogenic in laboratory animals and have been implicated in breast, lung, and colon cancers in humans. Dietary intake of PAHs constitutes a major source of exposure in humans.

The effectiveness of the polysaccharide pneumococcal vaccine for the prevention of hospitalizations due to Streptococcus pneumoniae community-acquired pneumonia in the elderly differs between the sexes: results from the Community-Acquired Pneumonia Organization (CAPO) international cohort study.

Background: The effectiveness of the 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV23) to prevent hospitalizations due to Streptococcus pneumoniae community-acquired pneumonia (SpCAP) is controversial. Recent literature suggests that vaccine effectiveness may be influenced by sex. In this study, we define the effectiveness of prior PPV23 vaccination for the prevention of hospitalizations due to SpCAP, and evaluate the impact of sex on this effectiveness.

Challenges in critical care medicine: an overview of Puerto Rico's intensive care units.

Objective: Puerto Rico (PR) has undergone rapid changes during the last decades. Some of these involve the health care system and the delivery of care to the critically ill patient. With this in mind, we investigated how the intensive care units throughout our island's hospitals are organized so that we could establish a profile of the adult intensive care units (ICU) in PR.

An unexpected side-effect of a commonly used drug.

We report a case of a 68 year-old-female patient with clinical features of drug-induced lupus erythematosus after five years of treatment with amiodarone. She presented generalized skin rash, arthralgia on upper and lower extremities, associated with difficulty to walk. Remarkable laboratory results revealed a positive antinuclear antibody test and a skin rash biopsy showing a superficial and deep perivascular infiltrate of lymphocytes, histiocytes, and eosinophils.

Optimization of purification processes to remove polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in polluted raw fish oils.

Fish oils are one of the main sources of health promoting nutrients such as n-3 fatty acids in animal and human diet. Nevertheless, they could be an important source of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Different strategies of decontamination processes to reduce polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) levels in fish oils, such as solvent extraction (ethanol) and adsorbent extraction using commercially available (activated carbon) and sustainable adsorbents (mussel shell and wood ashes), were compared.

Inputs of polychlorinated biphenyl residues in animal feeds.

Animal nutrition constitutes an important issue for the animal production industry. Products intended for animal feed may contain undesirable substances which could endanger animal health or, because of their presence in livestock products, human health or the environment. In this sense, several incidents related with the presence of persistent organic pollutants, particularly with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), have happen in food and feed additives.

Immuno compromised patients: what a challenge!

Mucormycosis is an uncommon but fatal fungal infection of airborne transmission. Its is usually seen in immunocompromised patients including diabetics, malignancies, transplant patients and renal insufficiency. We review the case of an immunocompromised patient unresponsive to broad-spectrum antibiotics and conventional antifungal therapy with lung mucormycosis.

Secondary biliary cirrhosis due to a rare choledochal cyst type II complicated with portal hypertension and pancytopenia in a young female patient.

Choledochal cyst type II, is an extremely rare cause of portal hypertension, severe pancytopenia in an adult patient, and a complication of long-standing disease. We present an uncommon cause of portal hypertension in a young female patient secondary to an obstructive choledochal cyst type II provoking massive splenomegaly and severe pancytopenia. A high level of clinical suspicion is important due to its high mortality rate if it remains undiagnosed.

Searching ingredients polluted by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in feeds due to atmospheric or pyrolytic sources.

The primary aim of the proposed work is to propose the potential sources of pollution by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in feeds and ingredients. To reach this propose the development of a simple, fast, quantitative and economic method for determining PAHs using liquid-liquid extraction (LLE), clean-up and detection by liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (LC-FD) in polluting feeds and ingredients was developed. The overall method quantification limits range from 0.

Pleural effusion as the initial extramedullary manifestation of Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Leukemias rarely debut by pleural involvement as the first manifestation of the hematologic malignancy. This complication is most commonly seen in solid tumors such as carcinomas of the breast, lung, gastrointestinal tract and lymphomas. We present a case of a 66 year old male who presented with a pleural leukemic infiltration of his undiagnosed Acute Myeloid Leukemia that was not a complication of the disease extension, but the acute presentation of the illness.

A hematologic condition expressed as a lung disease.

Pleural involvement secondary to Multiple Myeloma is considered a very rare complication. According to the literature only 1% of these patients develop a myelomatous pleural effusion. We present a case of a 39 year old man with multiple myeloma diagnosed six years prior to our evaluation, which developed progressive dyspnea, dry cough and right pleuritic chest pain two weeks prior to admission.

Distribution of polychlorinated biphenyls in both products and by-products of a mussel shell incinerator facility.

Purpose: Solid waste incineration has recently attracted much attention because the combustion process involved produces highly toxic organohalogen contaminants such as dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (DL-PCBs) present in fly ash. This has raised the need for simple, rapid, accurate methods for monitoring PCBs in ash samples.

Methods: A method for the simultaneous quantitative determination of indicator, non-ortho and mono-ortho PCBs based on ultrasound-assisted extraction with 50:50 (v/v) n-hexane/acetone was developed, validated, and subsequently applied to real samples from a mussel shell incinerator facility in Galicia.