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Current American College of Cardiology/ American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) Guidelines recommend withholding non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) from patients who have suffered a myocardial infarction (MI) and substitution of another analgesic such as acetaminophen. If NSAID therapy is unavoidable, the guidelines recommend the shortest duration possible.
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The utility of inflammatory markers in acute pericarditis is not well understood. Thus, these investigators from Italy prospectively evaluated serial high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) serum levels in patients with acute pericarditis followed for 24 months on average.
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In a cohort of mechanically ventilated patients admitted with a variety of acute diagnoses, those diagnosed with COPD (but not in exacerbation) had higher ICU mortality but no difference in risk for ventilator-associated pneumonia as compared to patients without the diagnosis of COPD.
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This observational study noted that critically ill patients provided with clinical psychological support during their ICU stay had less anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder at one year post-discharge compared to historical controls.
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Frontal lobe dysfunction may predispose people to have psychogenic nonepileptic seizures; this dysfunction can be measured by analyzing a brief period of the awake EEG.
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Hypertension is usually asymptomatic, so adherence to drug therapy is an issue, especially if the drugs used cause symptoms.
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Cerebrovascular events (CVE), including stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA), are recognized complications of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
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Forty-four (23%) of 192 adventure race participants in a 2005 Florida event developed suspected leptospirosis, with confirmatory serologic testing positive in 45% of the tested individuals. A unique serovar (related to species Leptospira noguchii) was isolated from 1 patient.
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This retrospective study of more than 7000 patients from four combined medical-surgical ICUs demonstrated that ionized calcium levels are unrelated to mortality over a broad range of values but are independent predictors of mortality when levels are severely increased or decreased.
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In assessment of acute chest pain in the emergency room, a new or "presumably new" left bundle branch block (LBBB) is considered as an electrocardiographic (ECG) equivalent to ST elevation.
