Bratisl Med J
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Soluble TREM-1 (sTREM-1; Triggering receptor expressed on myelocytes) is a new inflammatory marker indicating the intensity of myeloid cells activation and the presence of infection caused by extracellular bacteria and mould. The aim of our work was to detect and compare the levels of sTREM-1 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) in patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis (PS) and other ILD of non-infectious origin. The sTREM-1 levels were assessed by ELISA in 46 patients suffering from ILD, out of them 22 with PS. ⋯ Detection of sTREM-1 in BALF indirectly points to myeloid cells activation in the lungs and helps to complete the information about the number of myeloid cells commonly determined in BALF with additional information concerning the intensity of their activation. This is the first study that analyses BALF sTREM-1 levels in patients with PS (Tab. 8, Ref. 28). Text in PDF www.elis.sk.
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Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a disease characterised by a gradual increase in resistance of pulmonary circulation leading to right ventricular failure and death. In only 10 % of cases, there is a response to acute vasoreactivity testing with a significant reduction in mean pulmonary artery pressure (PAP), while in this group of patients, less than one half of cases benefit from long-term treatment with calcium channel blockers (CCB). This paper describes a case report of a young patient with dyspnoea and suspicion of pulmonary hypertension who was referred to a specialised centre. ⋯ Because there was a positive response to vasoreactivity testing, the treatment for IPAH was initiated with a high dose of CCB. This treatment markedly improved her clinical state as well as echocardiographic and hemodynamic findings. In this study, the authors present a diagnostic algorithm in pulmonary hypertension and emphasise the role of CCB in treatment of PAH in carefully selected patients (Tab. 1, Fig. 5, Ref. 7).
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Biography Historical Article
John Heysham Gibbon and the 60th anniversary of the first successful heart-lung machine: brief notes about the development of cardiac surgery in Europe and Slovakia.
The development of the heart-lung machine and its first successful clinical application in 1953 was the culmination of Dr. Gibbon's lifetime research project. Despite many technical obstacles, financial problems, and discouragement from colleagues, his goal was achieved after twenty tedious years of tireless work. ⋯ In Eastern Europe and particularly in the former Czechoslovakia, the lack of access to foreign medical literature forced a group of emerging young physicians from the Second Department of Surgery at Comenius University to furtively collect data on the topic. After building the Simkovic-Bolf heart-lung machine, the first successful open-heart surgery with the new device was performed only 5 years after Dr. Gibbons' experience (Tab. 1, Fig. 4, Ref. 22).
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The aim of prospective study was to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of piritramide in patients after removal of parathyroid glands in relation to MDR1 genotype. In the treatment of moderate acute postoperative pain, piritramide plays a major role. It is difficult to predict its optimal therapeutic efficacy and tolerability in individual patients. ⋯ We observed a better analgesic effect of piritramide and a decreased incidence of side effects in the wild-type genotype (2677GG) group, when compared with variant-allele carrying patients (Tab. 2, Fig. 1, Ref. 7).
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We present a rare complex variation of the inferior vena cava and internal iliac veins demonstrated by a multidetector computed tomography. It was shown that patient had double inferior vena cava with azygos continuation of the right inferior vena cava, retroaortic left renal vein and the left and right internal iliac veins converged and drained to the right external iliac vein through a common trunk. These variations of the inferior vena cava and iliac veins are important in the retroperitoneal surgery. We present multidetector computed tomography findings of this complex variation (Fig. 3, Ref. 12). ⋯ double inferior vena cava, azygos continuation, retroaortic left renal vein, iliac vein variation, multidetector computed tomography.