Medicina
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A 49-year-old male with a history of left ventricular systolic function dilated cardiomyopathy and severe symptomatic bicuspid aortic stenosis recently diagnosed (syncope, chest pain and dyspnea) was admitted to the coronary care unit. During hospitalization, he developed cardiogenic shock requiring double inotropic support. High surgical risk and an elevated chance of graft rejection contraindicated surgical replacement or heart transplant. We performed a transcatheter aortic valve replacement with a favorable evolution.
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Syphilis is an infectious disease caused by the spirochete Treponema pallidum. It can cause ocular compromise at any stage, in immunocompetent or immunocompromised patients. Even though the ocular form is not frequent, due to the increase in the incidence of syphilis in recent years, it is mandatory to take it into consideration as a differential diagnosis in visual disorders. ⋯ Diagnosis is based on the presence of clinical signs and symptoms consistent with ophthalmologic involvement in a patient with syphilis. The CSF study should be performed on a clinical basis, to rule out concomitant neurological involvement. We present 5 cases of ocular syphilis, its clinical manifestations, treatment and evolution.
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The complex, heterogeneous, and dynamic interaction between the interstitial and intravascular fluid compartments is one of the main reasons for the wide variability in the distribution and severity of congestion among patients with acute heart failure. The "hemodynamic congestion" often goes undetected clinically; as opposed to "clinical congestion", which occurs later and is evidenced by dyspnea and orthopnea, rales, peripheral edema, and jugular venous distension. Clinical signs, chest X-ray, brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) or N-terminal-proBNP (NT-proBNP), central venous pressure (CVP), echocardiogram, inferior vena cava (IVC) diameter, and pulmonary wedge pressure are the most commonly used elements to assess congestion. Other alternatives are pulmonary and visceral ultrasound (VEXUS), CA 125 and other markers, and recently, the CardioMems system.
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Case Reports
[Advanced monitoring during weaning of invasive mechanical ventilation in single-lung transplantation].
Bilateral lung transplantation is the treatment of end-stage lung diseases. However, sometimes a single lung transplant is performed. ⋯ The combination of advanced monitoring tools, such as electrical impedance tomography and ultrasonography, to diagnose the cause of this failure, recognizing and quantifying the distribution of lung volume and its dynamic behavior could be crucial to improve outcomes. We present the case of a patient with a one-lung transplant and prolonged mechanical ventilation who, after presenting successive failures in the weaning process, underwent advanced monitoring in order to find the causes of the failure.
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Primary pericardial synovial sarcoma is an extraordinarily very rare tumor with a poor prognosis, and little is known about its therapeutic management. We describe the case of a 51-year-old woman patient who underwent incomplete surgical resection, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. To the best of our knowledge, no primary pericardial synovial sarcoma has been described which, after surgery, remains asymptomatic for 5 years, and until a control CT scan detects cardiac metastases that compromised the lumen of the right cavities and with chemotherapy, echocardiography demonstrated complete resolution of cardiac metastases.