Multi-organ Localization Research Articles

ANMCO Position paper: Pulmonary circulation diseases and COVID-19

The new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is causing hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide, is complex and can present with a multi-organ localization. One of its worst complications is an interstitial pneumonia with acute respiratory failure also known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which requires non-invasive or invasive ventilation. A severe coagulopathy with poor prognosis is found in 5-10% of cases. SARS-CoV-2 is manifesting as a multi-dimensional disease and, recently, unique co-existing pathophysiological and clinical aspects are being defined: (i) an increased immune and inflammatory response with the activation of a cytokine storm and consequent coagulopathy, which promote both venous thromboembolic events and in situ thrombosis localized in small arterioles and pulmonary alveolar capillaries; (ii) a high intrapulmonary shunt, which often accounts for the severity of respiratory failure, due to reduced hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction with pulmonary neo-angiogenetic phenomena. Furthermore, the high incidence of venous thromboembolism in COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit and the autoptic findings of in situ micro-thrombosis at the pulmonary vascular level, suggest that in this disease coagulopathy, unlike septic disseminated intravascular coagulation, is driven towards a hyper-thrombogenic state, giving rise to a debate (with ongoing studies) about the preventive use of anticoagulant doses of heparin to reduce mortality. The aim of this position paper from the Italian Association of Hospital Cardiologists (ANMCO) is to highlight the main implications that COVID-19 infection has on the pulmonary circulation from a pathophysiological, clinical and management point of view.

The pattern of cystic echinococcosis in children in an endemic area in Morocco.

Cystic echinococcosis is a parasitic infection of major public health concern. The infection is generally acquired during childhood and the disease incubation period can last many years. The occurrence and characteristics of the disease in children were not well studied. The present study aimed to explore the pattern and features of cystic echinococcosis in children in rural and urban environments in Morocco. A total of 338 children diagnosed and treated for cystic echinococcosis were investigated. The trend of the infection, risk and exposure factors and the distribution of the anatomic locations of cysts were studied. A non-uniform decrease in proportions of infected children was found. Children from rural environs had significantly higher infection rates than children from urban environs (p < 0.001). Males were significantly more infected than females. Children aged 7-11years were the most affected. For cysts locations, single organ involvement was found in 94.4% of the children versus 5.6% with multi-organ localization. Despite control program, active transmission of echinococcosis still occurred in children and remains a major public health problem. The infection in younger population may have some features that need to be considered in the prevention and control programs in endemic areas.

A case of mumps orchitis and pancreatitis in 25 years old man hospitalized in Clinic of infectious diseases - Varna

Introduction: Mumps is an acute infectious disease caused by mumps virus. The main pathologic feature is serofibrinous inflammation of the salivary glands, resulting in their swelling. In pre-puberty children the course of illness is usually benign, and approximately one third of the cases remain subclinical. Extrasalivary gland involvement, such as orchitis, meningitis, pancreatitis is possible. The inflammation of pancreas takes an auspicious course and lasting sequels, such as diabetes mellitus or pancreatic cancer, do not occur. Orchitis occurs in 15-40% of postpubertal males with mumps, and without treatment 30-50% of them develop testicular atrophy, which is associated with male infertility. The testicular atrophy after recovery from mumps orchitis is linked as a predisposing factor for testicular cancer. Objective: To present a case report of patient with multi-organ localization of mumps virus and to analyze the severity of the specific organ form of the disease. Case report: We present a case report of mumps, in combination with mumps orchitis and mumps pancreatitis in 25 years old man, hospitalized in the Clinic of infectious diseases - Varna. Diagnosis was established on the basis of clinical features of disease, epidemiological, biochemical and serological data, realized through the relevant laboratories in the St. Marina Hospital - Varna. Results: In the presented case, the disease started as a moderate form of mumps affecting both parotid glands, and 3 days after the onset of the symptoms, pancreatitis and orchitis occurred. Conclusion: multi-organ involvement in the clinical course of mumps, taking its with is usual manifestation of the disease. In spite of the multiple organ involvement in this case, the patient recovered without lasting sequels.

Multi-organ localization with cascaded global-to-local regression and shape prior.

We propose a method for fast, accurate and robust localization of several organs in medical images. We generalize the global-to-local cascade of regression random forest to multiple organs. A first regressor encodes the global relationships between organs, learning simultaneously all organs parameters. Then subsequent regressors refine the localization of each organ locally and independently for improved accuracy. By combining the regression vote distribution and the organ shape prior (through probabilistic atlas representation) we compute confidence maps that are organ-dedicated probability maps. They are used within the cascade itself, to better select the test voxels for the second set of regressors, and to provide richer information than the classical bounding boxes result thanks to the shape prior. We propose an extensive study of the different learning and testing parameters, showing both their robustness to reasonable perturbations and their influence on the final algorithm accuracy. Finally we demonstrate the robustness and accuracy of our approach by evaluating the localization of six abdominal organs (liver, two kidneys, spleen, gallbladder and stomach) on a large and diverse database of 130 CT volumes. Moreover, the comparison of our results with two existing methods shows significant improvements brought by our approach and our deep understanding and optimization of the parameters.

Role of Surgery and Minimally Invasive Approach in Multi-Organ Localization of Cystic Echinococcosis

Role of Surgery and Minimally Invasive Approach in Multi-Organ Localization of Cystic Echinococcosis