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We reported a case of a 68-year-old man who presented with recurrent fever and multiorgan dysfunction. His significantly elevated procalcitonin and C-reactive protein levels indicated recurrent sepsis. However, no focus of infection and no pathogens were identified through a variety of examinations and tests. Although the increase of creatine kinase was less than five times the upper limit of normal value, the diagnosis of rhabdomyolysis secondary to adrenal insufficiency resulting from primary empty sella syndrome was finally made, as supported by serum myoglobin elevation, serum cortisol, and adrenocorticotropic hormone deficiency, bilateral adrenal atrophy on computed tomography, and empty sella on magnetic resonance imaging. After the glucocorticoid replacement treatment, the patient's myoglobin gradually returned to normal range, and his condition continued to improve. Rhabdomyolysis resulting from a rare cause may be misdiagnosed as sepsis in patients who present with increased procalcitonin levels.

Pyrolysis residue, with the porous structure similar to activated carbon, was proposed as a material to remove heavy metals with low levels from synthetic flotation wastewater in the work. The effects of the dosage on removal efficiency, adsorption kinetics and isotherms were studied. The adsorption mechanism was also discussed. The results showed that pyrolysis residue could remove effectively Cd2+, Pb2+ and Cu2+ from the flotation solution and increase simultaneously its effluent pH. The removal efficiency of Cd2+, Pb2+ and Cu2+ was 99.3, 98.9 and 99.4%, and the corresponding solution pH was 9.79, 9.12 and 8.45 when pyrolysis residue dosages was 1, 0.8 and 0.8 g/L with same 20 mg/L concentrations of Cd2+, Pb2+ and Cu2+ and natural synthetic solution pH, respectively. The pseudo-second-order rate constant (k2) and the qmax of Cd2+, Pb2+and Cu2+ were 0.05, 0.03, 0.04 g/(mg·min) and 106.16, 140.65, 128.04 mg/g. Heavy metals was mainly removed by formation of stable metal sulfides and hydroxides on the surface. The above results have uncovered that pyrolysis residue was viable for removal of heavy metals with low levels from flotation wastewater for the first time.

In this paper, a new method for the comprehensive recovery and recycle of jarosite residues (JR) is proposed. By direct reduction followed by magnetic separation, lead, zinc and iron are separated and recovered from JR and sulfur is fixed. The non-magnetic tails (NMT) of the magnetic separation is used for removing of Cd, As and Pb heavy metal ions from acidic wastewater of zinc hydrometallurgy. Test work results showed that the volatilization rates of lead and zinc were 96.97% and 99.89%, respectively, the sulfur fixation rate with CaO was 98.91% under optimal conditions of reduced roasting at 1523 K for 60 min. A magnetic iron concentrate was obtained containing 95.68% iron at a recovery of 76.26% by grinding-magnetic separation process. The removal rates of Cd, As and Pb ions were 99.98%, 93.75% and 99.80% respectively. The content of Cd, As and Pb ions in the treated wastewater met the emission standards at 120 g/L NMT dosage and for a contact time of 90 mins. The proposed method is considered as an environmentally-friendly and efficient approach to the comprehensive recovery and recycle of JR and the removal of toxic cadmium, arsenic and lead ions from acidic wastewater of zinc hydrometallurgy.