March 2013 Pulmonary Case of the Month: Don’t Rein Me In
Robert W. Viggiano, MD
Michael B. Gotway, MD
Departments of Pulmonary Medicine and Radiology
Mayo Clinic Arizona
Scottsdale, AZ
History of Present Illness
A 70 year old man was referred for a pleural effusion. The patient had pitting edema of the lower extremities noted in March, 2013. At that time a myocardial perfusion study and an echocardiogram were interpreted as being normal with an ejection fraction of 55%. His primary care physician stopped the amlodipine he was taking for hypertension and his edema resolved. However, the amlodipine was restarted a few weeks later for blood pressure control.
PMH, SH, FH
He has a past medical history of hypertension and asthma. He was diagnosed with prostrate cancer in mid 2012. At that time a CT scan of his abdomen/pelvis and a MRI of his pelvis were negative for metastatic disease. He underwent robot assisted radical prostatectomy and bilateral pelvic lymph node dissection in August 2012. His final diagnosis was Gleason 4+5 disease present throughout the prostate with focal extraprostatic extension and lymphovascular and perineural invasion and invasion of right seminal vesicle. He was staged T 3B.
Present medications
- Amlodipine 5 mg at bedtime
- Omelsartan (Benicar®) 40 mg/day
- Salmeterol/fluticasone (Advair®) 100/50 1 puff twice a day
- Clonazepam 0.5 mg twice a day
- Lycopene 10 mg daily
He has a 10 year smoking history but no alcohol or drug use.
Family history is unremarkable.
Physical Examination
Vital signs: Normal
Lungs: Decreased breath sounds in both lung bases
Heart: Elevated JVP; Normal S1 and S2
Abdomen: Negative
Extremities: 2-3+ pitting edema
Laboratory
- CBC: normal
- Electrolytes: normal
- Serum creatinine: 1.0 mg/dL
- Total protein: 6.8 g/dL
- Albumin: 4.3 g/dL
- NT-pro brain naturetic peptide (BNP): 255 pg/ml
Radiography
Chest x-ray is shown in figure 1.
Figure 1. PA (panel A) and lateral (panel B) chest radiography.
Which of the following is false?
- The patient’s chest x-ray shows bilateral pleural effusions right larger than left
- A NT-pro BNP 255 pg/ml makes heart failure an unlikely diagnosis
- His pleural effusion is most likely due to metastatic prostate cancer
- A normal heart size on chest x-ray excludes heart failure
- A normal echocardiogram excludes heart failure
Reference as: Viggiano RW, Gotway MB. March 2013 pulmonary case of the month: don't rein me in. Soutwest J Pulm Crit Care. 2013;6(3):93-102. PDF
Reader Comments (1)
armagef e3d3fd1842 https://automative.club/harplibotic