The American journal of emergency medicine
-
Emergency medicine dogma traditionally teaches that aortic dissection presents as tearing chest pain, radiating to the back. This case report describes a 55-year-old woman presenting with a left homonymous hemianopsia and resultant gait disturbance. ⋯ This report provides further evidence for atypical, painless presentations of aortic dissection. Given recent literature on the increasing prevalence of painless dissection, the disease entity should be included in the differential diagnosis for stroke, and a simple portable chest x-ray should always be obtained before administering thrombolytics.
-
Therapeutic hypothermia is now regarded as the only effective treatment of global ischemic injury after cardiac arrest. Numerous studies of the neuroprotective effects of 17β-estradiol have yielded conflicting results depending on administration route and dose. Herein, we investigated the neuroprotective effect of postischemic 17β-estradiol administration combined with therapeutic hypothermia. ⋯ Postischemic administration of low-dose 17β-estradiol appears to be neuroprotective after transient global ischemia, and its effect is potentiated by therapeutic hypothermia.