Revista brasileira de cirurgia cardiovascular : órgão oficial da Sociedade Brasileira de Cirurgia Cardiovascular
-
Rev Bras Cir Cardiovasc · Apr 2009
Case ReportsHemoptysis and hemothorax as presentation of thoracic aortic rupture.
Thoracic aortic dissection is a disease of great mortality in its initial phase, but in some cases it can assume chronic course. We report a case of a patient with Stanford type A1 aortic dissection, admitted with mental confusion, dyspnea and event of severe hemoptysis. ⋯ The patient developed cardiovascular collapse and evolved to death. This case describes two unusual presentations of aortic dissection: hemothorax and severe hemoptysis.
-
Rev Bras Cir Cardiovasc · Apr 2009
ReviewBasic notions of heart rate variability and its clinical applicability.
Autonomic nervous system (ANS) plays an important role in the regulation of the physiological processes of the human organism during normal and pathological conditions. Among the techniques used in its evaluation, the heart rate variability (HRV) has arising as a simple and non-invasive measure of the autonomic impulses, representing one of the most promising quantitative markers of the autonomic balance. The HRV describes the oscillations in the interval between consecutive heart beats (RR interval), as well as the oscillations between consecutive instantaneous heart rates. ⋯ Changes in the HRV patterns provide a sensible and advanced indicator of health involvements. Higher HRV is a signal of good adaptation and characterizes a health person with efficient autonomic mechanisms, while lower HRV is frequently an indicator of abnormal and insufficient adaptation of the autonomic nervous system, provoking poor patient's physiological function. Because of its importance as a marker that reflects the ANS activity on the sinus node and as a clinical instrument to assess and identify health involvements, this study reviews conceptual aspects of the HRV, measurement devices, filtering methods, indexes used in the HRV analyses, limitations in the use and clinical applications of the HRV.