Effective Initial Treatment of Diffuse Pulmonary Lymphangiomatosis with Sirolimus and Propranolol: A Case Report

Clinical characteristics and genetic analysis of a patient with diffuse pulmonary lymphangiomatosis: a case report and literature review

BACKGROUND

Diffuse pulmonary lymphangiomatosis (DPL) is a rare pulmonary disorder, which affects the lymphatic channels from the mediastinum to the pleura. DPL is often misdiagnosed or missed due to the lack of clear specificity and definitive medical therapies. In most cases, the disease progresses to chronic morbidity or even death.

CASE PRESENTATION

Here, we have reported a case of DPL in a 17-year-old boy who presented with hemoptysis and progressive breathlessness. The diagnosis was confirmed based on the typical imaging features observed through high-resolution computed tomography, chest magnetic resonance imaging, and lymphangiography. Furthermore, we have presented the genetic characteristics of the patient and his parents and discovered the following heterozygous variants of BCL6: NM_001706: exon5: c. A463G (p.M155V) and ATM: NM_000051: exon3: c.A107G (p.D36G). The patient underwent treatment with sirolimus for 2 months; his clinical symptoms disappeared completely, and the mediastinum soft mass shrank dramatically.

CONCLUSIONS

Early diagnosis of DPL is challenging for clinicians, and imaging plays an important role in determining the location and severity of the disease. The gene mutation detected in this study may facilitate the pathogenesis of DPL. Sirolimus can prevent further disease progression in the short term, which may be an effective and safe therapeutic alternative for treating DPL.

Diffuse pulmonary lymphangiomatosis as a differential diagnosis of anterior mediastinal mass

Diffuse pulmonary lymphangiomatosis (DLP) is an extremely rare silent disease, characterized by proliferation and thickening of abnormal pulmonary, pleural, and mediastinal soft tissue lymphatic channels. Its clinical presentation is nonspecific symptoms such as cough, dyspnea, and hemoptysis. Tomographic findings for DLP include thickening of the interlobular septa and peribronchovascular interstitium and ground glass opacities. Nevertheless, the anterior mediastinal mass, associated with thickening of interlobular septa and peribronchovascular interstitial, ground glass opacities, pleural effusion, diffuse infiltration of the mediastinum and pleural thickening in a patient with lymphangiomas, DLP should be suspected as a differential diagnosis.

Pleural effusion due to lymphangiomatosis and the role of sirolimus: A case report

Introduction

Lymphangiomatosis is a rare abnormal proliferation of lymphatic vessels involving multiple organs like the brain, lung, heart, spleen, liver, and bones. Lymphangiomas constitute 5.6% of all benign tumors in infancy and adulthood.

Case presentation

We report a case of a young lady who presented with constitutional symptoms and progressive dyspnea. Her medical history is significant for muco-cutaneous albinism, diffuse hemangiomas of the bone and viscera, and consumptive coagulopathy status post-splenectomy. After initial investigations, she was found to have right-sided pleural effusion. Pleural fluid analysis indicated chylothorax. She had multiple drainages of the pleural fluid done, and afterward, ligation of the right thoracic duct was performed with a trial of sirolimus, which improved her chylothorax.

Clinical discussion

Several case reports have reported positive outcomes with sirolimus in the treatment of lymphangiomatosis. However, larger controlled studies are needed to confirm these findings.

Conclusion

Sirolimus is promising as a medical treatment for diffuse pulmonary lymphangiomatosis.

[Research advances in pharmacotherapy for rare diseases in children]

There are more than 7 000 rare diseases and approximately 475 million individuals with rare diseases globally, with children accounting for two-thirds of this population. Due to a relatively small patient population and limited financial resources allocated for drug research and development in pharmaceutical enterprises, there are still no drugs approved for the treatment of several thousands of these rare diseases. At present, there are no drugs for 95% of the patients with rare diseases, and consequently, the therapeutic drugs for rare diseases have been designated as orphan drugs. In order to guide pharmaceutical enterprises to strengthen the research and development of orphan drugs, various nations have enacted the acts for rare disease drugs, promoted and simplified the patent application process for orphan drugs, and provided scientific recommendations and guidance for the research and development of orphan drugs. Since there is a relatively high incidence rate of rare diseases in children, this article reviews the latest research on pharmacotherapy for children with rare diseases.