Cerebral microbleeds: a guide to detection and clinical relevance in different disease settings

Cerebral microbleeds have emerged as an important new imaging marker of cerebral small vessel disease. With the development of MRI techniques that are exquisitely sensitive to paramagnetic blood products, such as T2*-weighted gradient-recalled echo and susceptibility-weighted sequences, microbleeds have been detected in ever-increasing numbers of patients in stroke and cognitive clinics, as well as in healthy older people and in a variety of other rarer diseases and syndromes. Detection of cerebral microbleeds has clinical implications with respect to the diagnosis of the underlying small vessel disease, the safety of antithrombotic use, and the risk of symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage, cognitive impairment and dementia. This article provides a guide to the detection and clinical relevance of cerebral microbleeds in different conditions based on a comprehensive review of the literature and own findings in research and clinical practice.     

Cybersecurity for Cardiac Implantable Electronic Devices: What Should You Know?

Medical devices have been targets of hacking for over a decade, and this cybersecurity issue has affected many types of medical devices. Lately, the potential for hacking of cardiac devices (pacemakers and defibrillators) claimed the attention of the media, patients, and health care providers. This is a burgeoning problem that our newly electronically connected world faces. In this paper from the Electrophysiology Section Council, we briefly discuss various aspects of this relatively new threat in light of recent incidents involving the potential for hacking of cardiac devices. We explore the possible risks for the patients and the effect of device reconfiguration in an attempt to thwart cybersecurity threats. We provide an outline of what can be done to improve cybersecurity from the standpoint of the manufacturer, government, professional societies, physician, and patient.     

Door to balloon time in patients presenting with acute ST elevation myocardial infarction and time factors influencing it; an observational study from a tertiary care teaching hospital in India

The objective of this prospective observational study was to assess the door-to-balloon time (D2B), in acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients and the time factors influencing it. The following timeframes were measured during the study: ED to ECG time, ED to coronary care unit time (ED2CCU), consent time, post-consent to balloon time (POSTCONSENT2B) and D2B. Effective D2B was 54 ± 12.2 min. Of the dependent variables, D2B had a strong positive correlation (ρ = 0.903) with consent time. This study sheds light on consent time a previously unrecognized entity as a significantly influencing factor for the D2B time.     

The Influence of Xylazine and Clonidine on Lung Ultrasound–Induced Pulmonary Capillary Hemorrhage in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

Induction of pulmonary capillary hemorrhage (PCH) by lung ultrasound (LUS) depends not only on physical exposure parameters but also on physiologic conditions and drug treatment. We studied the influence of xylazine and clonidine on LUS-induced PCH in spontaneously hypertensive and normotensive rats using diagnostic B-mode ultrasound at 7.3 MHz. Using ketamine anesthesia, rats receiving saline, xylazine, or clonidine treatment were tested with different pulse peak rarefactional pressure amplitudes in 5 min exposures. Results with xylazine or clonidine in spontaneously hypertensive rats were not significantly different at the three exposure pulse peak rarefactional pressure amplitudes, and thresholds were lower (2.2 MPa) than with saline (2.6 MPa). Variations in LUS PCH were not correlated with mean systemic blood pressure. Similar to previous findings for dexmedetomidine, the clinical drug clonidine tended to increase susceptibility to LUS PCH.     

Asymptomatic hyperuricemia: is it time to intervene?

Clinical Rheumatology - Whether to treat hyperuricemia uncomplicated by articular gout, urolithiasis, or uric acid nephropathy is an exercise in clinical judgment and universal agreement is...     

A decision tree approach to screen drinking water contaminants for multiroute exposure potential in developing guideline values

The consideration of inhalation and dermal routes of exposures in developing guideline values for drinking water contaminants is important. However, there is no guidance for determining the eligibility of a drinking water contaminant for its multiroute exposure potential. The objective of the present study was to develop a 4-step framework to screen chemicals for their dermal and inhalation exposure potential in the process of developing guideline values. The proposed framework emphasizes the importance of considering basic physicochemical properties prior to detailed assessment of dermal and inhalation routes of exposure to drinking water contaminants in setting guideline values.