Ryosuke Tsugitomi

I attended ATS 2018 and the APSR-ISRD joint session in San Diego on 19 May. I wish to thank the APSR for giving me an award and the opportunity of presentation.

My presentation was a case report entitled "Pulmonary Tumor Thrombotic Microangiopathy (PTTM) Diagnosed by Autopsy in Thymic Adenocarcinoma Patient". I considered this case to be valuable because of three reasons. Firstly, thymic cancer is rare and the frequency of thymic adenocarcinoma is especially rare. Secondly, PTTM which is usually occurring in advanced adenocarcinoma patients is also rare. Finally, pathological diagnosis of thymic adenocarcinoma and PTTM were confirmed by autopsy. I am preparing to submit this case report for publishing.

During the conference, an attendee told me about his PTTM patient and the detail of its clinical course. The patient died, but had survived for 15 days treating with high flow nasal oxygen therapy in spite of it being reported that almost all PTTM patients die within one week because of rapid-progress hypoxia. It is reported that there is no effective treatment for PTTM other than chemotherapy, but most cases are unable to be treated because of poor performance status with severe respiratory failure. High flow nasal oxygen therapy might be useful for respiratory care in PTTM patients.

I visited San Diego for the first time and San Diego was comfortable to stay and a beautiful city. Once again, I would like to thank APSR for providing me a great experience.