Medicina clinica
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Hyponatraemia has negative effects on cognitive function and gait stability and is a risk factor for osteoporosis, falls, fractures and hospital mortality. Acute hyponatraemia can lead to neurological dysfunction due to cerebral oedema. Its rapid correction can also be fatal, leading to osmotic demyelination syndrome. For some antiepileptics, thiazides, benzodiazepines or antidepressants this reaction is widely described. Knowing which drugs are most likely to cause hyponatraemia will allow early detection and prevention of its complications, as well as individualising the prescription of these drugs according to the patient's characteristics. ⋯ There are increasing reports of drug-induced hyponatraemia. It can be serious and seems to most often affect women over 65 years of age who take more than 1 medication. The time to onset varies and can be very long, so patient monitoring should be continuous throughout treatment. Hydrochlorothiazide is the drug with the highest number of reported cases in our setting. In terms of disproportionate reporting, diuretics leads the list, followed by antiepileptics as oxcarbazepine and eslicarbazepine. Safety signals were found for several drugs, more plausibly for pregabalin and paliperidone, thus a possible association between these drugs and hyponatraemia/SIAD is identified. This signal must be further studied. Meanwhile healthcare professionals should pay attention to this possibility. The reporting of suspected ADRs is essential to understand the risks associated with medicines once they are on the market.
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Red flags (RF) are typical cardiac and extracardiac manifestations that may precede the definitive diagnosis of cardiac amiloidosis (CA) by several years, playing a pivotal role in the early diagnosis of the disease. The principal aim of the research was to determine the chronology of onset of RF throughout the natural history of CA as well as its prognostic influence. ⋯ RFs proved highly prevalent among patients with CA and substantially preceded disease diagnosis. RF burden was associated with prognosis in the follow-up of ATTR patients.
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Infective endocarditis (IE) caused by oral streptococci is considered to be a 'more benign' IE than those caused by other microorganisms. Our aim is to analyse the changes in its incidence and its differential characteristics in our setting. ⋯ Oral streptococcal IEs account for almost 20% of all IEs in our setting. They have a better prognostic clinical profile, with a lower incidence of serious complications, and their mortality is significantly lower than that of other IE. Their incidence seems to be decreasing in recent years.
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The treatment of cancer when associated with autoimmune diseases (AID) has been the subject of immunotherapy investigation, especially with the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI). Clinical studies have restricted the evaluation of its use in special populations such as patients with AID, leaving a gap regarding the safety of using immunotherapy. ⋯ IRAE increased in patients using ICI with cancer and AID. This suggests that the presence of IAD, in cancer patients, can increase the severity of IRAE. Therefore, the adoption of more appropriate therapeutic strategies is essential for better therapeutic results.
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Tricuspid regurgitation (TR) induced by the implantation of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED) is an increasingly common cause of severe TR. Our aim was to describe the echocardiographic phenotypic characteristics of CIED-induced severe TR. ⋯ Our patients with CIED-induced severe TR are characterized by a heterogeneous phenotype with a high prevalence of severe RA and tricuspid annulus dilatation. RVGLS, RVFWLS, and arterial ventricular coupling were the most sensitive parameters for early assessment of RV systolic dysfunction.