Temporal arteritis-like presentation of carotid atherosclerosis

A 68 year-old woman presented with a two-week history of amaurosis fugax, ipsilateral fronto-temporal headache and jaw claudication suggesting carotid giant cell arteritis. However, this syndrome proved to be due to atherosclerosis causing complete occlusion of the external carotid artery at its origin and narrowing of the internal carotid artery. Combined external and internal carotid endarterectomy relieved the symptoms. The symptom complex of temporal arteritis may be rarely mimicked by carotid atherosclerotic occlusive disease.     

A prospective analysis of 1400 pulmonary artery catheterizations in patients undergoing cardiac surgery

During 1983 and 1984, 1305 patients underwent 1,400 pulmonary artery (PA) catheterizations. Successful placement was achieved in 1397 (99.6%) of 1,403 attempts. The catheters were inserted via the right internal jugular vein on 1364 occasions. The median duration of monitoring was 28 h with a range from 3 to 220 h. Central venous puncture complications included carotid artery puncture in 67 instances (4.8%) and pneumothorax in one patient. Insertion of the catheters was associated with supraventricular arrhythmias on 11 occasions, ventricular arrhythmias on 930 (66.4%), right bundle branch block on two and a total heart block on one occasion. Eighteen (2.3%) of the 794 cultured catheter tips were positive. An in situ time of more than 72 h was associated with a significantly higher percentage (7.2%) of positive tip cultures compared with an in situ time of less than 72 h (P less than 0.01). Repeated PA catheterization was not associated with significantly more complications than the initial catheterization. The results show that monitoring with a PA catheter in cardiac surgical patients is associated with a low incidence of morbidity.