Unusual presentation of opportunistic infections in patients with leukemia: Identification of fungal lesions by ultrasound
✍ Scribed by Dr. D. J. King; A. P. Bayliss; B. Bennett; A. A. Dawson
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1987
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 334 KB
- Volume
- 15
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0091-2751
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The occurrence of left upper quadrant abdominal pain, with or without splenomegaly, in patients with leukemia usually indicates progression of the disease with, perhaps, a splenic infarct. This assumption can lead to delay in diagnosis of the true cause of the symptoms, with consequent risk to the patient. We report two cases of leukemia, one with recurrent left-sided pleuritictype pain and the other with abdominal pain and splenomegaly, in which surgical intervention was required to establish the diagnosis after extensive noninvasive investigations failed.
Methods
Ultrasonic examinations were performed using a mechanical sector scanner with a 3.5-MHz medium-focus transducer (Diasonics). Hepatic scans were obtained with the patient supine or in a right anterior oblique position, and splenic scans were obtained with the patient in the left anterior oblique position.
CASE REPORTS
Case 1
A 53-year-old man with acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML-FAB type M1) diagnosed in August 1984 entered complete remission after two cycles of DAT (daunorubicin, cytarabine, and thiogua-~ From the Departments of *Medicine and ?Radiology, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Foresterhill, Aberdeen, Scotland. For reprints contact Dr.