Extreme windkessel effect can cause right heart failure early after truncus repair

An infant developed severe right heart failure early after truncal repair with a pulmonary homograft. A mechanical obstruction by narrowing could not be identified at the homograft or pulmonary arteries. However, functional obstruction was caused by an extreme windkessel effect in a massively dilated homograft that absorbed rather than transmitted the pulse wave. Effective treatment consisted of replacing the dilated homograft by a rigid aortic homograft of equal size as the initial homograft. When confronted with circulatory failure after allograft placement, the clinician should not only look for obstruction by narrowing, but also consider the windkessel phenomenon.     

Characterization of Löeffler eosinophilic myocarditis by means of real time three-dimensional contrast-enhanced echocardiography

Löeffler endocarditis is a rare myocardial disease often due to eosinophil leukemia or idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome. Degranulation of eosinophils within the eosinophil infiltrated myocardium is associated with myocardial necrosis due to the release of toxic cationic proteins, and with mural thrombi formation, which can occur anywhere in the ventricles. Thrombus formed on denuded myocardium is replaced by fibrosis as the final pathological stage of the disease, eventually leading to restrictive cardiomyopathy. We describe a multimodality imaging approach to the diagnosis and follow‐up evaluation of Löeffler disease complicated by thrombus formation and neoangiogenesis of LV apex. (Echocardiography 2012;29:E62‐E66)     

Comparative study of donor lung injury in heart-beating versus non-heart-beating donors.

OBJECTIVE: The use of non-heart-beating donors (NHBD) has been advocated as an alternative to overcome the critical organ shortage in lung transplantation despite the warm ischemic period that may result in primary graft dysfunction. On the contrary, brain death in the heart-beating donor (HBD) may be an underestimated risk factor for donor lung injury. We postulated that 60 min of warm ischemia in the NHBD is less detrimental to the lung than the pathophysiological changes after brain death in the HBD. In this study we compared the quality of lungs from HBD versus NHBD in an isolated reperfusion model. METHODS: Pigs (n=10 per group) were divided into three groups. In group I (HBD), brain death was induced by acute inflation of an intracranial epidural balloon catheter. In group II (CONTROL), the balloon was not inflated. In group III (NHBD), cardiac arrest was induced by myocardial fibrillation. After 5 h of in situ mechanical ventilation, lungs in HBD and CONTROL were preserved with a cold antegrade flush. In NHBD, unflushed grafts were explanted after 1 h of warm ischemia and 4 h of topical cooling in the cadaver. Graft performance was evaluated during 1 h in an isolated ventilation and reperfusion model. Extravascular lung water content (EVLW) was calculated. All data are reported as mean+/-SEM. RESULTS: A significant autonomic storm was observed in HBD following balloon inflation. During ex vivo assessment, pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) at 60 min in HBD (2634+/-371 dynes cm(-5)) was significantly higher as compared with that of CONTROL and NHBD (1894+/-137 dynes s cm(-5) and 1268+/-111 dynes s cm(-5), respectively; p<0.05). Plateau airway pressure (Plateau AwP) was also higher in HBD (17+/-1cmH2O) compared with that of CONTROL (12+/-1 cmH2O; p<0.05) and NHBD (14+/-1 cmH2O; not significant). No significant differences were observed between HBD, CONTROL and NHBD in EVLW (79+/-1%, 79+/-0% and 78+/-1%, respectively), and in PO2/FiO2 (564+/-58 mmHg, 622+/-14 mmHg and 578+/-26 mmHg, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that 1-h warm ischemic lungs in our model are less susceptible to ischemia-reperfusion injury than lungs retrieved 5 h after brain death. This study further supports the use of lungs from NHBD for pulmonary transplantation.     

Analysis of growth plate abnormalities following intraosseous infusion through the proximal tibial epiphysis in pigs

Intraosseous infusion has become an increasingly popular technique for vascular access in critically ill or injured children. Continuing acceptance of this procedure by physicians and possibly by prehospital personnel may lead to inadvertent placement through the immature growth plate. In our study, we intentionally penetrated the epiphyseal plate with the intraosseous needle and infused fluids in order to observe what complications, if any, might arise from this procedure. Twenty pigs 3 to 4 weeks old had a bone marrow aspiration needle introduced into the medullary cavity through the tibial epiphysis under fluoroscopic visualization. Sodium bicarbonate at 2 mEq/kg (n = 10) or 0.9 normal saline at 2 mL/kg (n = 10) was infused through the intraosseous needle. Radiographs of the involved growth plates were taken at two months and six months after infusion. No growth disturbances or growth plate abnormalities were detected clinically or radiographically through the rapid growth phase of the porcine tibia. Therefore, we believe that intraosseous infusion is a safe method of alternative vascular access associated with no significant growth defects despite injury to the developing growth plate from placement and infusion.     

Congenital hypofibrinogenemia and pregnancy, obstetric and hematological management

A 27-year-old pregnant woman with severe congenital hypofibrinogenemia was studied from the 18th to the 40th week of pregnancy, after which she had a normal delivery. The results of the quantitative and qualitative fibrinogen studies done on the patient made it possible to rule out associated dysfibrinogenemia. No variations in the concentration and function of fibrinogen were observed during gestation. The only treatment given was a transfusion of fresh plasma prior to delivery. The importance of fibrinogen in maintaining normal placental insertion and the obstetric management of predelivery and delivery are discussed.     

Isolation of fibrin(ogen) degradation products from normal plasma by affinity chromatographic study.

An attempt was made to develop a method to isolate directly the fibrinogenfibrin (FDP and/or fdp) degradation products from plasma by means of small chromatographic columns of activated Sepharose 4-B coupled with antifibrinogen serum. The study of the material adsorbed was performed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulphate (PAGE-SDS). Four electrophoretic bands with antigenic capacity against antifibrinogen serum were observed. The study of their molecular weights, of their polypeptide composition after reduction, and of their immunological response against antisera anti-D and anti-E allowed their identification as fibrinogen, D-dimer fragment, and fragment E, respectively. The possibility of using this technique for the differential diagnosis between a primary fibrinogenolysis and a secondary fibrinolysis in a thrombotic process is suggested, as well as its use in the control of thrombolytic therapy.