Abdominal mass as a manifestation of mesothelioma

Our plain-English summary of Abdominal mass as a manifestation of mesothelioma, by A.J. Martín-Jiménez, V. Aragón-Domínguez, I. Trouillhet-Manso, et al (Postgraduate Medical Journal, 2018).

The study

• Authors: A.J. Martín-Jiménez, V. Aragón-Domínguez, I. Trouillhet-Manso, D. García-Gil
• Journal: Postgraduate Medical Journal
• Published: 2018;94(1116):604
• Type of article: Case report
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This was a brief case report about one patient, written by doctors at hospitals in Cádiz, Spain. A 74-year-old man came to the emergency room after one month of pain in the upper right abdomen. He had diabetes for seven years and also had benign prostatic hyperplasia. The authors wrote that no occupational exposure to asbestos was noted. The report did not describe any other asbestos exposure. Doctors felt a painful mass in the upper right abdomen, and blood tests showed anaemia and mildly raised liver enzymes. An ultrasound showed a large collection with many compartments in the liver, and a CT scan confirmed a large collection. An MRI and a biopsy of the mass showed peritoneal malignant mesothelioma, a tumour of the lining of the abdomen. The man had complete cytoreductive surgery and heated chemotherapy placed inside the abdomen during the operation. The report did not say how he did afterward. The authors concluded that the case showed how point of care ultrasound improves clinical examination and patient management in crowded emergency services.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: case report (single patient, 'Images in medicine' article)
• Who was studied: one 74-year-old man admitted to an emergency room; the authors worked at hospitals in Cádiz, Spain; date not stated
• Exposure: no occupational exposure to asbestos was noted; no fiber type or other exposure described
• Main results:
  • in this patient, a painful mass was felt in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen
  • in this patient, blood tests showed anaemia and mildly elevated liver enzymes
  • in this patient, ultrasound showed a large multiloculated collection in the liver
  • in this patient, an emergency CT scan confirmed a large hypodense collection
  • in this patient, MRI and biopsy of the abdominal mass revealed peritoneal malignant mesothelioma
  • the patient underwent complete cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal intraoperative chemotherapy; the outcome was not reported
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the case shows how point of care ultrasound improves clinical examination and patient management in crowded emergency services

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Lung cancer, Mesothelioma, Peritoneal mesothelioma.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• Benign multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma presenting as a ghost abdominal mass — H. Jerraya, W. Ghariani, et al. (2016)
• Malignant mesothelioma presenting as a giant chest, abdominal and pelvic wall mass — Z.H. Shao, X.L. Gao, et al. (2011)
• Peripheral lymphadenopathy as the initial manifestation of malignant mesothelioma in a child — Y.S. Gong, Y.T. Rong, et al. (2013)
• Recurrent malignant peritoneal mesothelioma: radiological manifestations — F.F. Souza, J. Jagganathan, et al. (2010)
• Multi-institutional experience of diffuse intra-abdominal multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma — T.C. Chua, T.D. Yan, et al. (2011)
• Abdominal Wall Morbidity Following Cytoreductive Surgery and Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy — F. Struller, I. Koenigsrainer, et al. (2017)

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