Prevalence of fungal infections detected from biopsies and autopsies in the past 11 years at the University Hospital Joan XXIII in Tarragona, Spain

Infectious diseases caused by fungal pathogens have increased in the past 10 years. More than 300 pathogenic fungal species have been incriminated as the etiologic agents. We carried out a retrospective study (1994-2004) to evaluate the prevalence of mycoses at the University Hospital Joan XXIII (330 beds). This report found 0.24% of the studied cases (78,310 biopsies and 753 autopsies) were diagnosed as fungal infections (0.21% of the total studied biopsy and 4.25% of the whole autopsies). Skin and mucose were involved in 66% of cases, followed by other less affected anatomical areas. 61% of studied cases were caused by Candida spp (the most frequent in our environment), followed by Aspergillus spp (10%) and the Zygomycetes (5%). The most important underlying illness was obstructive chronic pulmonary disease followed by diabetes and AIDS. The incidence of mycoses increased with the patient's age, especially those patients in their 80s. Antifungal management improved the clinical outcome of the patient but predisposing factors are crucial for diagnosis. Systemic mycoses have poor prognosis with 91% of fatal outcome. Thus, it is important to perform a rapid diagnosis of the fungal infections a diagnostic area in which pathology could play a major role.     

Evaluation of the autopsy report before releasing musculoskeletal tissue donors; what is the benefit?

EU directive 2006/17/EC requires that all available medical information, including the autopsy report, is evaluated before releasing tissues for transplantation. The study objective was to investigate whether evaluation of autopsy results of musculoskeletal tissue donors contributes to safety and availability of transplantable tissues. The files of all donors of whom musculoskeletal tissues were retrieved by BIS in 2006 were reviewed for death cause and autopsy results. Of 84 donors musculoskeletal tissues were retrieved. In 47 donors autopsy was performed (56.0%). The groups with and without autopsy were similar in sex, age, length, and weight. In one donor no autopsy results were evaluated, since the donor was already rejected because of positive blood tests. In 13 donors (28.1%) death causes before autopsy were unknown. In 12 of these donors a death cause could be established after autopsy. In nine of the donors with a clear suspected death cause (27.3%), the death cause after autopsy differed from the suspected death cause. Four donors with autopsy (8.7%) had a general contraindication for donation, a (possible) sepsis in three and a persisting unknown death cause in one. Eight donors (17.4%) had musculoskeletal-specific contraindications, i.e. local infections. In conclusion, in 26.1% of the donors with autopsy, general or musculoskeletal-specific contraindications for donation were found. Furthermore, performance of autopsies enlarges the potential donor pool, since death causes can be established in almost all autopsies done in case of an unknown death cause. Therefore, evaluation of autopsy results improves the safety and quantity of tissues for transplantation.     

Autopsy analyses in acute exacerbation of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Background

Acute exacerbation of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (AE-IPF) is associated with high mortality. However, few studies have so far reviewed analyses of autopsy findings in patients with AE-IPF.

Methods

We retrospectively reviewed 52 consecutive patients with AE-IPF who underwent autopsies at five university hospitals and one municipal hospital between 1999 and 2013. The following variables were abstracted from the medical records: demographic and clinical data, autopsy findings and complications during the clinical course until death.

Results

The median age at autopsy was 71 years (range 47–86 years), and the subjects included 38 (73.1%) males. High-dose corticosteroid therapy was initiated in 45 (86.5%) patients after AE-IPF. The underling fibrotic lesion was classified as having the usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) pattern in all cases. Furthermore, 41 (78.8%) patients had diffuse alveolar damage (DAD), 15 (28.8%) exhibited pulmonary hemorrhage, nine (17.3%) developed pulmonary thromboembolism and six (11.5%) were diagnosed with lung carcinoma. In addition, six (11.5%) patients developed pneumothorax prior to death and 26 (53.1%) developed diabetes that required insulin treatment after the administration of high-dose corticosteroid therapy. In addition, 15 (28.8%) patients presented with bronchopneumonia during their clinical course and/or until death, including fungal (seven, 13.5%), cytomegalovirus (six, 11.5%) and bacterial (five, 9.6%) infections.

Conclusions

The pathological findings in patients with AE-IPF represent not only DAD, but also a variety of pathological conditions. Therefore, making a diagnosis of AE-IPF is often difficult, and the use of cautious diagnostic approaches is required for appropriate treatment.     

When is pneumonia not pneumonia: a clinicopathologic study of the utility of lung tissue biopsies in determining the suitability of cadaveric tissue for donation

Healthcare-associated pneumonia (HCAP) represents a major diagnostic challenge because of the relatively low sensitivity and specificity of clinical criteria, radiological findings, and microbiologic culture results. It is often difficult to distinguish between pneumonia, underlying pulmonary disease, or conditions with pulmonary complications; this is compounded by the often-subjective clinical diagnosis of pneumonia. We conducted this study to determine the utility of post-mortem lung biopsies for diagnosing pneumonia in tissue donors diagnosed with pneumonia prior to death. Subjects were deceased patients who had been hospitalized at death and diagnosed with pneumonia. Post-mortem lung biopsies were obtained from the anatomic portion of the cadaveric lung corresponding to chest radiograph abnormalities. Specimens were fixed, stained with hematoxylin and eosin, and read by a single board-certified pathologist. Histological criteria for acute pneumonia included intense neutrophilic infiltration, fibrinous exudates, cellular debris, necrosis, or bacteria in the interstitium and intra-alveolar spaces. Of 143 subjects with a diagnosis of pneumonia at time of death, 14 (9.8 %) had histological evidence consistent with acute pneumonia. The most common histological diagnoses were emphysema (53 %), interstitial fibrosis (40 %), chronic atelectasis (36 %), acute and chronic passive congestion consistent with underlying cardiomyopathy (25 %), fibro-bullous disease (12 %), and acute bronchitis (11 %). HCAP represents a major diagnostic challenge because of the relatively low sensitivity and specificity of clinical criteria, radiological findings, and microbiologic testing. We found that attending physician-diagnosed pneumonia did not correlate with post-mortem pathological diagnosis. We conclude that histological examination of cadaveric lung tissue biopsies enables ascertainment or rule out of underlying pneumonia and prevents erroneous donor deferrals.     

Clinico-Pathological Discrepancies in the Diagnosis of Causes of Maternal Death in Sub-Saharan Africa: Retrospective Analysis

Background

Maternal mortality is a major public-health problem in developing countries. Extreme differences in maternal mortality rates between developed and developing countries indicate that most of these deaths are preventable. Most information on the causes of maternal death in these areas is based on clinical records and verbal autopsies. Clinical diagnostic errors may play a significant role in this problem and might also have major implications for the evaluation of current estimations of causes of maternal death.

Methods and Findings

A retrospective analysis of clinico-pathologic correlation was carried out, using necropsy as the gold standard for diagnosis. All maternal autopsies (n = 139) during the period from October 2002 to December 2004 at the Maputo Central Hospital, Mozambique were included and major diagnostic discrepancies were analyzed (i.e., those involving the cause of death). Major diagnostic errors were detected in 56 (40.3%) maternal deaths. A high rate of false negative diagnoses was observed for infectious diseases, which showed sensitivities under 50%: HIV/AIDS-related conditions (33.3%), pyogenic bronchopneumonia (35.3%), pyogenic meningitis (40.0%), and puerperal septicemia (50.0%). Eclampsia, was the main source of false positive diagnoses, showing a low predictive positive value (42.9%).

Conclusions

Clinico-pathological discrepancies may have a significant impact on maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa and question the validity of reports based on clinical data or verbal autopsies. Increasing clinical awareness of the impact of obstetric and nonobstetric infections with their inclusion in the differential diagnosis, together with a thorough evaluation of cases clinically thought to be eclampsia, could have a significant impact on the reduction of maternal mortality.     

Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in AIDS.

Aspergillosis is a fungal infection rarely observed in Cuba during the first years of the AIDS epidemic. However, the increase in aspergillosis cases diagnosed by autopsy in recent years, led us to study the epidemiological, clinical, radiological and anatomopathological characteristics of this disease among the Cuban AIDS patients. A total of 307 autopsies were reviewed, seven of them had invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (2.2%). The disease was predominant in men and in the white race. Neutropenia and drugs use were the risk factor more frequently observed. Clinical manifestations were those unspecific and common to other opportunistic infection of the respiratory system. The more common radiological picture were bilateral nodular infiltrates and cavitary lesions in the upper lobes (two cases). The anatomopathological diagnosis was based on the morphological characteristics of the agent and in the angioinvasive features of the pulmonary lesions. We suggest that aspergillosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of opportunistic respiratory events of AIDS patients in advanced stages.     

An autopsy study describing causes of death and comparing clinico-pathological findings among hospitalized patients in Kampala, Uganda

Background

Information on causes of death in HIV-infected patients in Sub-Saharan Africa is mainly derived from observational cohort and verbal autopsy studies. Autopsy is the gold standard to ascertain cause of death. We conducted an autopsy study to describe and compare the clinical and autopsy causes of death and contributory findings in hospitalized HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected patients in Uganda.

Methods

Between May and September 2009 a complete autopsy was performed on patients that died on a combined infectious diseases gastroenterology ward in Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda. Autopsy cause of death and contributing findings were based on the macro- and microscopic post-mortem findings combined with clinical information. Clinical diagnoses were reported by the ward doctor and classified as confirmed, highly suspected, considered or not considered, based on information derived from the medical chart. Results are reported according to HIV serostatus.

Results

Fifty-three complete autopsies were performed in 66% HIV-positive, 21% HIV-negative and 13% patients with an unknown HIV serological status. Infectious diseases caused death in 83% of HIV-positive patients, with disseminated TB as the main diagnosis causing 37% of deaths. The spectrum of illness and causes of death were substantially different between HIV-positive and HIV-negative patients. In HIV-positive patients 12% of postmortem diagnoses were clinically confirmed, 27% highly suspected, 16% considered and 45% not considered. In HIV-negative patients 17% of postmortem diagnoses were clinically highly suspected, 42% considered and 42% not considered.

Conclusion

Autopsy examination remains an important tool to ascertain causes of death particularly in settings with limited access to diagnostic testing during life. HIV-positive patients continue to die from treatable and clinically undiagnosed infectious diseases. Until rapid-point of care testing is available to confirm common infections, empiric treatment should be further investigated.     

Natural language processing of radiology reports for the detection of thromboembolic diseases and clinically relevant incidental findings

Background

Natural Language Processing (NLP) has been shown effective to analyze the content of radiology reports and identify diagnosis or patient characteristics. We evaluate the combination of NLP and machine learning to detect thromboembolic disease diagnosis and incidental clinically relevant findings from angiography and venography reports written in French. We model thromboembolic diagnosis and incidental findings as a set of concepts, modalities and relations between concepts that can be used as features by a supervised machine learning algorithm. A corpus of 573 radiology reports was de-identified and manually annotated with the support of NLP tools by a physician for relevant concepts, modalities and relations. A machine learning classifier was trained on the dataset interpreted by a physician for diagnosis of deep-vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and clinically relevant incidental findings. Decision models accounted for the imbalanced nature of the data and exploited the structure of the reports.

Results

The best model achieved an F measure of 0.98 for pulmonary embolism identification, 1.00 for deep vein thrombosis, and 0.80 for incidental clinically relevant findings. The use of concepts, modalities and relations improved performances in all cases.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates the benefits of developing an automated method to identify medical concepts, modality and relations from radiology reports in French. An end-to-end automatic system for annotation and classification which could be applied to other radiology reports databases would be valuable for epidemiological surveillance, performance monitoring, and accreditation in French hospitals.     

侵袭性肺曲霉病临床和病理分析——附23例报告

目的 分析侵袭性肺曲霉病(IPA)临床和组织病理特征,为探讨IPA早期诊断和临床病理分型提供依据.方法 非选择性地总结本院34年来512例成人(年龄≥16岁)尸检资料,依据病理切片真菌形态确定IPA患者共23例,并进行临床和病理对照分析.结果 23例中有明确基础疾病者21例,有明确诱因者20例.临床上表现有发热等中毒症状者17例(73.91%),合并呼吸道症状者18例(78.26%),存在肺部和肺外栓塞征象者9例(3.91%).胸部影像表现和病理检查符合急性支气管肺炎型15例次,血管侵袭型12例次,急性气管支气管炎型5例次,粟粒型3例次和胸膜炎型1例次.其中急性支气管炎型和血管侵袭型常合并存在,并成为患者致死的直接原因.结论 IPA临床表现复杂多变,探讨临床尤其是胸部影像学检查和组织病理分型有利于患者的早期诊断和判断预后.     

Clinico-morphologic analysis of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis in patients up to the 19th year of life

Deaths of patients with the subacute sclerosing panencephalitis were analysed in the non-selected autopsy material within 1976-1985. Fifteen cases of the disease, i.e. 0.12% of all autopsies and 3.8% of autopsies in the age group between 1 and 19 years, were noted. Fourteen cases of the subacute sclerosing panencephalitis were noted in the age group of 5-14 years. Mean age was 9.3 years. The disease was nearly three-fold more frequent in male patients. Time lapse between measles infection or antimeasles vaccination and hospitalization for the subacute sclerosing panencephalitis was 4.2 years for both sexes and was much lower for male patients--2.9 years. Morphological lesions characteristic for the subacute sclerosing panencephalitis were seen in the white matter and cortex of the brain in all examined patients. Lesions to the basal ganglia were noted in 9 cases, and additionally to the brain stem and vermiform lobe in 3 cases. The most frequent clinical symptoms accompanying the subacute sclerosing panencephalitis at the beginning of the hospitalization, other diseases and conformation of the clinical diagnosis with sectional findings are also discussed.     

Aspiration-Related Deaths in 57 Consecutive Patients: Autopsy Study

Background

Aspiration can cause a diverse spectrum of pulmonary disorders some of which can lead to death but can be difficult to diagnose.

Patients and Methods

The medical records and autopsy findings of 57 consecutive patients in whom aspiration was the immediate cause of death at Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN, USA) over a 9-yr period, from January 1 2004 to December 31 2012 were analyzed.

Results

The median age at death was 72 years (range, 13–95 years) and included 39 (68%) males. The most common symptom before death was dyspnea (63%) and chest radiography revealed bilateral infiltrates in the majority (81%). Most common precipitating factors for aspiration were depressed consciousness (46%) and dysphagia (44%). Aspiration-related syndromes leading to death were aspiration pneumonia in 26 (46%), aspiration pneumonitis in 25 (44%), and large airway obstruction in 6 patients (11%). Aspiration was clinically unsuspected in 19 (33%) patients. Antimicrobial therapy had been empirically administered to most patients (90%) with aspiration pneumonia and aspiration pneumonitis.

Conclusion

We conclude aspiration-related deaths occur most commonly in the elderly with identifiable risks and presenting bilateral pulmonary infiltrates. One-third of these aspiration-related pulmonary syndromes were clinically unsuspected at the time of death.     

Cysticercosis and hydatidosis do not always bring about detectable pathology in humans

The clinical pictures produced in man by cysticercosis and hydatidosis are well known, not being infrequent the occurrence of fatal cases. Nevertheless, retrospective studies, carried out in autopsies, have permitted to demonstrate that only about one third on the cases of each of one of the quoted parasitoses, were caused by the corresponding etiologies. In this respect, in a study performed in Santiago, Chile between 1947 and 1984, which included the revision of 189,909 autopsy protocols, it was possible to verify that out of 116 neurocysticercosis cases 79 (68.1%) corresponded to autopsy findings, whereas out of 568 hydatidosis cases, 363 (63.9%) were autopsy findings, without a previous clinical history suggesting the respective parasitosis and not depending of the location of the parasite.     

Diagnosis and management of brain death.

Finland was the first country in which brain death was legally accepted. Since 1975, 37 cases of brain death had been recorded in a university hospital in Finland, and these were reviewed. The cause for brain death was intracranial bleeding in 32 cases, other cerebrovascular disorder in two, and intracranial neoplasm in three. In 21 brain death was diagnosed clinically. In 16 cases confirmatory investigations (electroencephalography, cerebral angiography) were needed. After brain death had been established artificial support was withdrawn in 15 patients and organ transplantation was carried out in 10. In 12 patients, however, diagnosis of brain death did not influence management, though the heart stopped beating on average 25 hours after diagnosis. The Finnish criteria for brain death seem to be reliable and suitable for routine use.     

Correlation between clinical and autopsy diagnoses in a community hospital

Forty-six consecutive autopsies performed in 1 year on patients who died in a 120-bed urban community hospital were analysed with respect to clinical-pathological correlation. The mean age of the patients was 71 years. Errors in clinical diagnosis were assigned to one of four classes: class I, a missed major diagnosis, the detection of which before death would probably have changed management and resulted in longer survival or possible cure; class II, a major missed diagnosis that, if detected before death, would probably not have altered management; and classes III and IV, minor missed diagnoses. Six (13%) class I and 10 (22%) class II errors were found, as well as a number of class III and IV errors. Suggestions are made regarding the use of such data in audit procedures.     

Run-Off Computed Tomography Angiography (CTA) for Discriminating the Underlying Causes of Intermittent Claudication

AimTo evaluate run-off computed tomography angiography (CTA) of abdominal aorta and lower extremities for detecting musculoskeletal pathologies and clinically relevant extravascular incidental findings in patients with intermittent claudication (IC) and suspected peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Does run-off CTA allow image-based therapeutic decision making by discriminating the causes of intermittent claudication in patients with suspected peripheral arterial disease PAD?ResultsWhile focused on vascular imaging, CTA image quality was sufficient for evaluation of the MSK system in all cases. The underlying cause of IC was diagnosed in run-off CTA as vascular, MSK and a combination in n = 138 (65%), n = 10 (4%), and n = 66 (31%) cases, respectively. Specific vascular or MSK therapy was recorded in n = 123 and n = 9 cases. In n = 82, no follow-up was possible. Clinically relevant extravascular incidental findings were detected in n = 65 patients (30%) with neoplasia, ascites and pleural effusion being the most common findings.DiscussionRun-off CTA allows identification of vascular, MSK, and combined causes of IC in patients with suspected PAD and can guide specific therapy. CTA also allowed confident detection of crEVIF although detection did not necessarily trigger workup or treatment.     

Pulmonary venous occlusive disease

The present study deals with the radiation diagnosis of the rare disease--pulmonary venous occlusive disease. The follow-up covered three cases that ended with death. The clinical picture of the disease did not differ from the manifestations of primary pulmonary hypertension. All the patients underwent chest X-ray study in four standard projections. The morphological verification of its diagnosis was made on the basis of autopsy data. X-rat study promoted identification of such signs as peculiar changes in the lung pattern in form of its looping, reticulation, fine-focality along with reticular changes, the presence of Kerley lines, the diameter of root branches, enlargements of the pulmonary trunk without any symptoms of the enlarged left atrium.     

Analysis of sudden unexpected death in southern Ontario,with emphasis on myocarditis.

The records of all 2427 autopsies performed at the Brantford (Ont.) General and Paris (Ont.) Willett hospitals from Jan. 1, 1969 to Aug. 15, 1978 were reviewed. Of the 1299 cases of sudden unexpected death investigated by a coroner almost 28% were due to unnatural causes--violence or poisoning. The main cause of natural sudden death was coronary artery disease, which accounted for 43.3% of all the sudden unexpected deaths. In 20 cases the cause of death was thought to be viral myocarditis, and in 9 of the 20 there was serologic evidence of at least previous coxsackievirus disease. Two of the nine cases were of special interest because of the finding of giant-cell myocarditis in one and aortic valve disease in the other. Eleven of the 20 persons were aged 13 to 46 years. These findings support the view that the most serious manifestation of enterovirus infection today is cardiac damage by coxsackieviruses.     

The problem of determination of cause of laboratory animal’s death: A critical review of definitions of “fatal” and “incidental” lesions

The determination of the cause of a laboratory animal’s death in gerontological experiments has become extraordinarily urgent in connection with the appearance of ideas on the programmed death of organisms. Unfortunately, the past approach to diagnosis of fatal and incidental changes based only on data of autopsy and histopathology (according to the human pathology model) is not correct for laboratory rodents. Nevertheless, the exact determination of death causes is principally possible in the future under conditions of adequate experimental design (including a large set of clinical, physiological, biochemical, and morphological examinations). However, it seems that even in this case causes of some experimental animal’s death will remain unclear.     

Histopathological diagnosis of myocarditis in a dengue outbreak in Sri Lanka, 2009

Background

In 2009, an outbreak of dengue caused high fatality in Sri Lanka. We conducted 5 autopsies of clinically suspected myocarditis cases at the General Hospital, Peradeniya to describe the histopathology of the heart and other organs.

Methods

The diagnosis of dengue was confirmed with specific IgM and IgG ELISA, HAI and RT-PCR techniques. The histology was done in tissue sections stained with hematoxylin and eosin.

Results

Of the 319 cases of dengue fever, 166(52%) had severe infection. Of them, 149 patients (90%) had secondary dengue infection and in 5 patients, DEN-1 was identified as the causative serotype. The clinical diagnosis of myocarditis was considered in 45(27%) patients. The autopsies were done in 5 patients who succumbed to shock (3 females and 2 males) aged 13- 31 years. All had pleural effusions, ascites, bleeding patches in tissue planes and histological evidence of myocarditis. The main histological findings of the heart were interstitial oedema with inflammatory cell infiltration and necrosis of myocardial fibers. One patient had pericarditis. The concurrent pulmonary abnormalities were septal congestion, pulmonary haemorrhage and diffuse alveolar damage; one case showed massive necrosis of liver.

Conclusions

The histology supports occurrence of myocarditis in dengue infection.

     

肺淋巴瘤的CT表现

目的：肺部淋巴瘤可为原发,亦可为其他部位淋巴瘤的肺部浸润,临床上很少见。准确的影像学诊断对于采取及时的治疗措施具有重要意义,然而该病影像学表现复杂多变,容易与多种其他肺部病变混淆,以往文献对于肺部淋巴瘤的CT影像特征性表现报道不多,本文旨在探讨肺部淋巴瘤的特征性CT表现,以提高该痛影像诊断的准确率。方法：回顾性分析17例病理证实的肺淋巴瘤患者CT资料,分析特征性影像表现。结果：17例中多发者13例,单发者4例。叶段性或斑片状实变影13例,多发结节影13例,肿块状实变影8例,具有两种以上病灶的12例。特征性的征象有：病灶密度均匀（88．2％,15／17）、病灶边缘模糊（82．3％,14／17）、支气管气相（64．7％,11／17）、支气管血管柬增厚（58．8％,10／17）和CT血管造影征（41．2％,7／17）,对诊断有较大意义。结论：肺部淋巴瘤CT表现以多发、多形态病变居多,具有一定特征性影像表现,密度均匀、边缘模糊的实变、团块或结节影,具有支气管气相、支气管血管束增厚、增强扫描可见CT血管造影征等表现可高度提示本病的可能,结合病史、临床表现以及实验室检查,可提高本病的诊断准确率,对于及时开展有效的治疗措施、改善患者预后具有重要的临床意义。