Chest
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Parasitoses are infectious diseases of global distribution, with predominance in areas of poor sanitation. Parasites cause damage through direct tissue injury and the inflammatory response generated by their migration and establishment in various organs. ⋯ Based on a literature review of the last few decades, this article aimed to characterize the main radiologic findings related to thoracic manifestations of parasitic diseases, correlating them with radiographic and tomographic images of patients with confirmed diagnosis of such pathologies. The included parasitic diseases are malaria, Chagas disease, toxoplasmosis, amoebiasis, ascariasis, toxocariasis, strongyloidiasis, dirofilariasis, cysticercosis, echinococcosis, schistosomiasis, and paragonimiasis.
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Observational Study
Neurological Pupil Index for Early Prognostication Following Veno-Arterial Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.
Venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation therapy (VA-ECMO) after refractory cardiogenic shock or cardiac arrest has significant morbidity and mortality. Early outcome prediction is crucial in this setting, but data on neuroprognostication are limited. We examined the prognostic value of clinical neurologic examination, using an automated device for the quantitative measurement of pupillary light reactivity. ⋯ Quantitative NPi alone had excellent ability to predict a poor outcome from day 1 after VA-ECMO insertion, with no false positives. Combining NPi and 12-h PREDICT-VA ECMO score increased the sensitivity of outcome prediction, while maintaining 100% specificity.
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The long-term clinical course of asthma in patients with eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) remains unclear. We aimed to characterize long-term asthma in EGPA and to identify baseline predictors of long-term asthma severity. ⋯ In patients with asthma with EGPA, long-term severe/uncontrolled asthma is associated with baseline pulmonary and ear, nose, and throat manifestations but not with clear-cut vasculitic features.
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Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome (BHDS) is a genetic tumor syndrome characterized by lung cysts, spontaneous pneumothorax, fibrofolliculomas, and renal cell cancer. Because of its rarity and clinical heterogeneity, much is still unknown regarding the course of the disease and individual risk assessment. Therefore, we studied nonenvironmental risk factors for pneumothorax in a large sample of patients with BHDS. ⋯ We observed significant differences for the spontaneous pneumothorax risk regarding both age and sex in patients with BHDS. Furthermore, two FLCN mutations were identified that are associated with significantly increased pneumothorax risk. Thus, formerly unknown individual predictors have been identified that provide improved risk stratification for patients with BHDS.
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A 33-year-old woman experienced 90 min of in-hospital cardiac arrest following an intentional overdose of anhydrous caffeine powder. In the face of prolonged and apparently futile resuscitation attempts, high-dose insulin euglycemic therapy was initiated. ⋯ The patient recovered full neurologic function and survived to discharge. Although high-dose insulin is effective in beta-blocker, calcium channel blocker, and tricyclic antidepressant overdose, this is seemingly the first description of its successful use in caffeine toxicity.