Comparison of sonographic inferior vena cava and aorta indexes during fluid administered in children

Objectives

This prospective, observational study evaluated changes in ultrasound measurements of the inferior vena caval index (IVCI), the aorta diameter/IVC diameter index (Ao/IVCD), and the aorta area/IVC area index (Ao/IVCA) during fluid administration in children requiring intravenous fluid administration.

Ancestral contribution of the muscle-specific creatine kinase (CKM) polymorphism rs4884 in the knee osteoarthritis risk: a preliminary study

Clinical Rheumatology - Articular cartilage and periarticular muscle tissues are strongly affected during knee osteoarthritis (OA). Creatine kinase (CK) is an enzyme expressed in several tissues,...     

Alternative complement pathway activation in thrombotic microangiopathy associated with lupus nephritis

Clinical Rheumatology - Thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) in systemic lupus erythematosus is a rare manifestation associated with activation of the complement system. This study aimed to compare...     

COVID-19 associated coagulopathy in critically ill patients: A hypercoagulable state demonstrated by parameters of haemostasis and clot waveform analysis

Journal of Thrombosis and Thrombolysis - Patients with COVID-19 are known to be at risk of developing both venous, arterial and microvascular thrombosis, due to an excessive immuno-thrombogenic...     

一例糖尿病合并泌尿系感染患者的用药分析与药学监护

目的探讨临床药师开展药学服务的方法,指导合理用药。方法以1例老年糖尿病合并泌尿系感染患者的治疗为例,临床药师结合病史特点、用药史,进行用药分析,积极参与患者的治疗。结果临床药师通过关注药物的作用特点以及药物和疾病之间的相互影响,更好地保证了患者的用药安全性。结论临床药师在参与治疗的过程中,为临床提供药学服务,对患者用药进行干预,体现了临床药师的价值。     

不同室温下EDTA修复时间对P504S蛋白在前列腺癌组织中表达的影响研究

目的探讨不同室温下EDTA修复时间对P504S蛋白在前列腺癌组织中表达的影响情况。方法分析30例前列腺癌患者临床资料,将病理标本分别在3种不同室温下进行抗原修复,分别每例标本切9张片。观察不同室温下进行抗原修复显色反应和背景显色情况。结果室温8~10℃抗原修复30 min,室温18~20℃抗原修复20、25 min显色反应的准确率最高,背景显色效果最好,P<0.05,差异均有统计学意义。结论室温8~10℃抗原修复30 min,18~20℃抗原修复20、25 min对P504S蛋白在前列腺癌组织中表达显色效果最好,为病理诊断提供准确依据,值得临床推广应用。     

Initial experience of the High-Density Grid catheter in patients undergoing catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation

Purpose

A significant proportion of patients undergoing catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation (AF) experience arrhythmia recurrence. This is mostly due to pulmonary vein reconnection (PVR). Whether mapping using High-Density Wave (HDW) technology is superior to standard bipolar (SB) configuration at detecting PVR is unknown. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of HDW technology compared to SB mapping in identifying PVR.

Methods

High-Density (HD) multipolar Grid catheters were used to create left atrial geometries and voltage maps in 36 patients undergoing catheter ablation for AF (either due to recurrence of an atrial arrhythmia from previous AF ablation or de novo AF ablation). Nineteen SB maps were also created and compared. Ablation was performed until pulmonary vein isolation was achieved.

Results

Median time of mapping with HDW was 22.3 [IQR: 8.2] min. The number of points collected with HDW (13299.6±1362.8 vs 6952.8±841.9, p<0.001) and used (2337.3±158.0 vs 1727.5±163.8, p<0.001) was significantly higher compared to SB. Moreover, HDW was able to identify more sleeves (16 for right and 8 for left veins), where these were confirmed electrically silent by SB, with significantly increased PVR sleeve size as identified by HDW (p<0.001 for both right and left veins). Importantly, with the use of HDW, the ablation strategy changed in 23 patients (64% of targeted veins) with a significantly increased number of lesions required as compared to SB for right (p=0.005) and left veins (p=0.003).

Conclusion

HDW technology is superior to SB in detecting pulmonary vein reconnections. This could potentially result into a significant change in ablation strategy and possibly to increased success rate following pulmonary vein isolation.

     

Monitoring and management of hyperglycemia in patients with advanced diabetic kidney disease

Diabetes mellitus is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease, and uncontrolled hyperglycemia is directly related to the increased mortality in this setting. As kidney function decreases, it becomes more challenging to control blood glucose since the risk of hypoglycemia increases. Decreased appetite, changes in glycaemia homeostasis, along with reduced renal excretion of anti-hyperglycemic drugs tend to facilitate the occurrence of hypoglycemia, despite the paradoxical occurrence of insulin resistance in advanced kidney disease. Thus, in patients using insulin and/or oral anti-hyperglycemic agents, dynamic adjustments with drug dose reduction or drug switching are often necessary. Furthermore, in addition to consider these pharmacokinetics alterations, it is of utmost importance to choose drugs with proven cardio-renal benefits in this setting, such as sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists. In this review, we summarize the indications and contraindications, titration of doses and side effects of the available anti-hyperglycemic agents in the presence of advanced diabetic kidney disease (DKD) and dialysis, highlighting the risks and benefits of the different agents. Additionally, basic renal function assessment and monitoring of glycemic control in DKD will be evaluated in order to guide the use of drugs and define the glycemic targets to be achieved.