Portuguese Society of Intensive Care Score for Predicting SARS-CoV-2 Infection Applied to Inpatients with Pneumonia: A Reliable Tool?

Objectives: Early identification of patients with the novel coronavirus induced-disease 2019 (COVID-19) and pneumonia is currently challenging. Few data are available on validated scores predictive of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. The Portuguese Society of Intensive Care (PSIC) proposed a risk score whose main goals were to predict a higher probability of COVID-19 and optimize hospital resources, adjusting patients’ intervention. This study aimed to validate the PSIC risk score applied to inpatients with pneumonia. Methods: A retrospective analysis of 207 patients with pneumonia admitted to a suspected/confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection specialized ward (20/03 to 20/05/2020) was performed. Score variables were analyzed to determine the significance of the independent predictive variables on the probability of a positive SARS-CoV-2 rRT-PCR test. The binary logistic regression modeling approach was selected. The best cut-off value was obtained with the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve together with the evaluation of the discriminatory power through the Area Under the Curve (AUC). Results: The validation cohort included 145 patients. Typical chest computed-tomography features (OR, 12.16;95% CI, 3.32 - 44.50) and contact with a positive SARS-CoV-2 patient (OR, 6.56;95% CI, 1.33 - 32.30) were the most significant independent predictive variables. A score ≥ 10 increased suspicion for SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia. The AUC was 0.82 (95% CI, 0.73 - 0.91) demonstrating the good discriminating power for COVID-19 probability stratification in inpatients with pneumonia. Conclusions: The application of the PSIC score to inpatients with pneumonia may be of value in predicting the risk of COVID-19. Further studies from other centers are needed to validate this score widely.

A Rare Case of Pulmonary Mucormycosis Successfully Treated with Dual Antifungal Agents and Surgery in a Patient with Uncontrolled Diabetes

Pulmonary mucormycosis is an emergent and life-threatening invasive fungal infection underdiagnosed by clinicians due to unspecific clinical picture and lack of awareness. Although the acknowledgment of risk factors, clinical and radiological findings may increase early recognition, the definite diagnosis is challenging to establish and the ideal treatment has never been delineated. The authors describe a rare case of pulmonary mucormycosis that was successfully treated with dual antifungal treatment and surgery in a patient with uncontrolled diabetes. When last evaluated, he was asymptomatic with no evidence of relapse. To our knowledge this is a rare report of a successfully treated diabetic patient with pulmonary mucormycosis with L-AmB, triazole posaconazole and surgery with no evidence of recurrence. We highlight the importance of clinicians’ awareness to early diagnosis, combined antifungal treatment and adjuvant surgery as the greatest chance of cure of a rapidly progressive disease with high mortality and morbidity.

Swimming Heart: A Pleural, Pulmonary and Pericardial Disseminated Thymoma

Thymoma is the most common neoplasm of the anterior mediastinum and accounts for one quarter of all mediastinal tumours and half of all anterior mediastinal masses. Pericardial effusion may be present in approximately 20% of cases. This report presents a patient with a previously diagnosed thymoma without surgical indication and with poor response to chemotherapy and radiotherapy who had a pericardial effusion that likely resulted from the malignancy dissemination to pericardium.

A Rare Case of Diaphragmatic Mass: The Key to Diagnosis of a Lung Adenocarcinoma

Lung cancer is a leading cause of death due to malignancy worldwide. Diaphragmatic metastasis secondary to primary lung cancer is rare. In the literature, only a few cases have been described as the majority of cases of diaphragmatic metastasis which are secondary to gastrointestinal neoplasia. The authors report a rare case of diaphragmmatic metastasis from a primary adenocarcinoma of the lung in a 76-year-old female patient with no history of active or passive smoking with progressive worsening fatigue, asthenia, malaise, and unquantified weight loss with three months of evolution, associated with pleuritic chest pain and edema of the lower limbs for fifteen days previous to hospital admission. Chest X-ray showed elevation of the right hemi-diaphragm and thoracic-abdominal-pelvic computed tomography revealed a complex multilobuled mass with neoformative characteristics intersecting the diaphragm and invading the dome liver and the right lung region. Biopsy of the mass was performed whose histological examination was consistent with moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma. Immunohistochemical examination was positive for cytokeratin 7 and negative forcytokeratin 20, suggesting primary lung tumor. A positron emission tomography was performed without uptake in other locations. Diagnosis of adenocarcinoma with diaphragmatic metastasis was then admitted and the patient started chemotherapy with carboplatin and gemcitabine. The patient died six months after the diagnosis. The authors also present a brief theoretical discussion based on the current and scarce literature on this rare entity.

Gangrenous Cholecystitis with Atypical Presentation in an Elderly Diabetic Woman

In elderly patients, numerous factors subsidize the diagnostic challenge and high incidence of complications in this specific population, taking gangrenous cholecystitis as a critical example. The aim of this work is to report an unusual case of gangrenous choleystitis in an elderly diabetic women and its atypical clinical presentation. A 79-year-old female patient came to our observation;her medical history showed nausea and vomiting of about 2 hours which rapidly ended with symptomatic therapy, without recurrence, and a 3-week history of intermittent fever associated with productive cough. No abdominal discomfort was declared. Physical examination of the abdomen was negative. Laboratory analysis revealed leukocytosis with the remaining criteria within the normal range. After 2 days, she started with a mildabdominal pain in the epigastric region that rapidly progressed to the right upper quadrant, right flank and right iliac fossa, without nausea, vomiting or fever. Abdominal computer tomography findings revealed thickness of the gall-bladder and important densification of the vascular bed. Acute cholecystitis was diagnosed. The patient was then submitted to a laparoscopic cholecystectomy under general anaesthesia with findings suggestive of gangrenous acute cholecystitis confirmed by histologic examination of the specimen. Delays in diagnosing acute cholecystitis in specific populations, such as elderly diabetics, result in a higher prevalence of morbidity and mortality due to potentially serious complications as gangrenous cholecystitis. Consequently, the diagnosis should be measured and investigated promptly in order to prevent poor outcomes.

Infective Endocarditis with Negative Cultures:A Defiant Diagnosis

The diagnosis and management of blood culture-negative endocarditis constitute a real clinical challenge and a systemic approach is necessary for a successful outcome. The authors report a case of a female patient aged 26, with previous clinical history of valve disease and heart failure NYHA class II, with decompensation of co-morbidities associated with fever, productive cough, nonselective anorexia and unquantified weight loss with one month of evolution with negative blood cultures. Transesophageal echocardiography revealed the presence of severe pulmonary hypertension and mitral valve vegetations in the context of positive serology for Q fever. Herein, the authors report a case of blood culture-negative endocarditis and present a brief review on the management of this medical condition. We highlighted the diagnostic difficulties of blood culture-negative endocarditis and subacute clinical presentation, which sometimes present with fever of unknown origin and complaints of deterioration of cardiac function, thus creating a challenging differential diagnosis.