Intensive care of traumatic brain injury in children

Traumatic brain injury among other injuries of human body reaches up to 30-50% and, according to the WHO, it grows by 2%. Severe traumatic brain injury (such as severe brain contusion, epidural, subdural and intracerebral hematoma, intracerebral hygroma, diffuse axonal injury) in the structure of general trauma amounts 4-20%. The prognosis of traumatic brain injury mainly depends on the timeliness of the first aid. The therapeutic measures usually begin at the place of the accident or in the ambulance vehicle (hence the clear role of the specialist team). It is advised for children with severe traumatic brain injury to be directed to specialized neurosurgical or trauma hospitals, where it is possible to provide them with adequate medical care. This work is dedicated to the enhancement of the intensive care quality during severe traumatic brain injury in children of Chuvash Republic, by the means of integrated patient assessment.     

Experience with bidirectional cavopulmonary anastomosis and modified Fontan operation in patients with single ventricle and concomitant visceral heterotaxy

The object of our study was to analyze the results of bidirectional cavopulmonary anastomosis (BCPA) and modified Fontan operations (MFO) in patients with a functionally single ventricle and heterotaxy syndrome and to reveal risk factors for these surgical interventions. During 1983-2010, 681 patients underwent BCPA or MFO. Thirty-nine had heterotaxy syndrome. The median follow-up period after BCPA and MFO was nine and 1.5 years, respectively. Risk factors for lethal outcomes were determined by logistic regression analysis. Hospital mortality after BCPA and MFO was 7.9% and 12.5%, respectively and did not significantly differ from patients without heterotaxy. The most frequent hospital complications were heart failure, pleural effusions, and arrhythmias. Late mortality after BCPA and MFO was 8.7% and did not significantly differ from patients without heterotaxy. Late deaths were caused by congestive heart failure or pulmonary thromboembolism. The main non-lethal complication was arrhythmia. Patients have significantly improved their functional class at follow-up. The independent risk factor for lethal outcomes after BCPA and MFO was preoperative regurgitation at atrioventricular valves (P=0.012). BCPA and MFO in patients with a functionally single ventricle and heterotaxy syndrome allow to significantly improves their quality of life. Preoperative regurgitation at atrioventricular valves worsens surgical results.     

Estimating myocardial perfusion from dynamic contrast-enhanced CMR with a model-independent deconvolution method

Background

Model-independent analysis with B-spline regularization has been used to quantify myocardial blood flow (perfusion) in dynamic contrast-enhanced cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) studies. However, the model-independent approach has not been extensively evaluated to determine how the contrast-to-noise ratio between blood and tissue enhancement affects estimates of myocardial perfusion and the degree to which the regularization is dependent on the noise in the measured enhancement data. We investigated these questions with a model-independent analysis method that uses iterative minimization and a temporal smoothness regularizer. Perfusion estimates using this method were compared to results from dynamic¹³N-ammonia PET.

Results

An iterative model-independent analysis method was developed and tested to estimate regional and pixelwise myocardial perfusion in five normal subjects imaged with a saturation recovery turboFLASH sequence at 3 T CMR. Estimates of myocardial perfusion using model-independent analysis are dependent on the choice of the regularization weight parameter, which increases nonlinearly to handle large decreases in the contrast-to-noise ratio of the measured tissue enhancement data. Quantitative perfusion estimates in five subjects imaged with 3 T CMR were 1.1 ± 0.8 ml/min/g at rest and 3.1 ± 1.7 ml/min/g at adenosine stress. The perfusion estimates correlated with dynamic¹³N-ammonia PET (y = 0.90x + 0.24, r = 0.85) and were similar to results from other validated CMR studies.

Conclusion

This work shows that a model-independent analysis method that uses iterative minimization and temporal regularization can be used to quantify myocardial perfusion with dynamic contrast-enhanced perfusion CMR. Results from this method are robust to choices in the regularization weight parameter over relatively large ranges in the contrast-to-noise ratio of the tissue enhancement data.     

Ciprofloxacin overdose: acute renal failure with prominent apoptotic changes

Acute renal failure due to ciprofloxacin has been well described. The previously reported cases have been consistent both clinically and pathologically with tubulointerstitial nephritis (TIN). We report a case of ciprofloxacin overdose leading to acute renal failure characterized by acute tubular necrosis (ATN). The outstanding features in the patient's renal biopsy were those of distal nephron apoptosis, best seen in plastic-embedded sections and electron microscopy. This report shows that the distal nephron can be singularly involved in acute renal failure and that electron microscopy or plastic-embedded sections may be necessary to define its involvement.     

Recurrent and de novo renal diseases after renal transplantation: a report from the renal allograft disease registry

Recurrent or de novo glomerular disease is an important cause of graft dysfunction and eventual loss. Cyclosporine A (CyA) has improved short-term renal allograft outcome but has not altered long-term graft survival. The purpose of the current study is to determine the prevalence of such disease and its impact on graft function in the CyA era. From 1984 to 1994, 1,557 renal allografts were performed at the Medical College of Wisconsin and the University of Cincinnati. Patients were followed up for an average of 7.2 years (minimum, 1 year). Recurrent disease was diagnosed by renal biopsy in 98 (6.3%) patients after an average of 36 months. Demographic characteristics of patients with and without recurrent disease were similar. Glomerulonephritis was the most common finding, occurring in 73 patients, and included focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), 25; IgA nephropathy (IgAN), 11; membranous (MN), 11; proliferative, 11; membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN), 10; glomerular basement membrane (anti-GBM), 3; and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), two. Diabetic nephropathy was present in 22, hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) in two, and oxalosis in one. Graft loss occurred in 60 of 98 (61%) recipients. Half-life of the allograft was diminished in patients with recurrent disease, 2,038 +/- 225 versus 3,135 +/- 385 days, P = 0.002. The actuarial allograft survival at 1, 3, 5, and 8 years posttransplantation with recurrence was 88%, 74%, 57%, and 34%, respectively; and the corresponding graft survival for patients without recurrent disease was 80%, 70%, 64%, and 53%, respectively (P = 0.003). The risk of recurrent disease increased with length of graft survival from 2.8% at 2 years to 9.8% and 18.5% at 5 and 8 years, respectively. We conclude that recurrent disease is a significant problem after renal transplantation and is associated with decreased graft survival.