Internal medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Prevention of contrast-induced nephropathy with ascorbic acid.
Some studies have shown that antioxidant ascorbic acid has renal protective effects, but the beneficial effects of contrast-induced nephropathy prevention remain to be clearly shown. Therefore, we aimed to determine whether ascorbic acid pretreatment reduces the risk of contrast-induced nephropathy in a high-risk population of patients with renal insufficiency undergoing coronary angiography. ⋯ Ascorbic acid pretreatment for short-term at high dose do not prevent renal function deterioration after administration of contrast medium in patients with baseline renal insufficiency undergoing coronary angiography.
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A 60-year-old woman developed opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome (OMS) a week after being diagnosed with influenza A infection by a rapid antigen test. She had no loss of consciousness. Opsoclonus, myoclonus, and truncal ataxia were noted. ⋯ There has been no previous report of postinfectious OMS following confirmed influenza A infection. OMS without a loss of consciousness has been reported to be statistically less common in cases of non-paraneoplastic OMS. This finding was consistent with the present patient's clinical manifestations.
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Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is an effective treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). After performing an initial titration study, most physicians do not have the CPAP equipment retitrated unless the patient complains about the CPAP use. Several automated CPAP devices are used clinically that can detect upper airway obstructive events and provide information about residual events while patients are on CPAP. The aim of this study was to compare the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) determined by automated CPAP devices to that obtained from polysomnography. ⋯ Strong correlations between the AHI-PSG and the AHI-RAM were observed. The correlations were weakened when the analysis was limited to the HI and the therapeutic phase.
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Comparative Study
Usefulness of tuberculin skin test and three interferon-gamma release assays for the differential diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis.
We compared the usefulness of tuberculin skin test (TST) and three interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) [QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT-2G), QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-tube (QFT-3G), T-SPOT.TB] as the supportive method for diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). ⋯ There were no significant differences among the three IGRA tests in this study. However, because the three IGRA tests showed a significantly higher positive response rate for patients with pulmonary TB and a lower positive response rate for patients with non-pulmonary TB than TST, the three IGRA tests seemed to be more useful than TST for the differentiation of patients with pulmonary TB.
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The present study was undertaken to determine the characteristics and outcome of in-hospital cardiac arrests and the effectiveness of BVM ventilation with airway adjuncts including the oropharyngeal airways and nasopharyngeal airways. ⋯ Bag-valve-mask ventilation with airway adjuncts improved neurological outcomes.