Journal of clinical medicine research
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Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a consistently progressive, ultimately fatal disease for which no treatment exists capable of either reversing or even interrupting its course. It afflicts more than 5% of the population in many countries, and it accordingly represents the third most frequent cause of death in the US, where it accounts for more than 600 billion in health care costs, morbidity, and mortality. Adipose tissue contains within its stromal compartment a high abundance of adipose stem/stromal cells (ASCs), which can be readily separated from the adipocyte population by methods which require less than 2 h of processing time and yield a concentrated cellular preparation termed the stromal vascular fraction (SVF). The SVF contains all cellular elements of fat, excluding adipocytes. Recent clinical studies have begun to explore the feasibility and safety of the local injection or intravascular delivery of SVF or more purified populations of ASCs derived by culture protocols. Several pre-clinical studies have demonstrated a remarkable ability of ASC to nearly fully ameliorate the progress of emphysema due to cigarette smoke exposure as well as other causes. However, no prior clinical studies have evaluated the safety of administration of either ASC or SVF in subjects with COPD. We hypothesized that harvest, isolation, and immediate intravenous infusion of autologous SVF would be feasible and safe in subjects with COPD; and that such an approach, if ultimately determined to be efficacious as well as safe, would provide a highly practical method for treatment of COPD. ⋯ This study is the first to demonstrate safety of SVF infusion in humans with serious pulmonary disease. Specifically, the use of intravenous infusion as a route to achieve pulmonary cellular targeting did not lead to clinical pulmonary compromise. The intravenous administration of SVF should be further explored as a potentially feasible and safe method for delivery leading to possible therapeutic benefit.
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Double right coronary artery (RCA) is an extremely rare coronary artery anomaly. We here report an atherosclerotic double RCA which appeared after primary percutaneous intervention performed to treat a 34-year-old male presenting with acute inferior myocardial infarction, cardiogenic shock and complete heart block. This is an unusual case as double RCA had been hidden by total atherosclerotic occlusion of the proximal part of the RCA and complete restoration of patency led complete heart block back to normal sinus rhythm.
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ICU admission is uncommon among obstetric patients. Nevertheless, the epidemiology of ICU utilization is considered to be a useful proxy for study of severe maternal morbidity and near-miss events. However, there is paucity of population-level studies in obstetric patients in the United States. ⋯ This study documents the highest incidence of ICU utilization in obstetric patients in the US to date. The findings suggest low threshold for obstetric ICU admissions in the state and do not support comparative use of ICU utilization as surrogate measure for populations' burden of severe maternal morbidity and near-miss events. Nevertheless, the demonstrated tremendous heterogeneity in ICU utilization across examined subgroups identifies new high-risk groups of obstetric patients that would benefit from heightened clinician vigilance and timely ICU triage and care. Further studies are needed to inform reduction in avoidable variability in ICU utilization to both enhance maternal, fetal, and neonatal outcomes and to improve resource allocation.
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Patients who have undergone cardiac surgery are generally mechanically ventilated postoperatively. Early postoperative extubation is currently recommended in anesthesia guidelines. No current technology can accurately, non-invasively, measure respiratory competence after extubation. Pulse oximetry has been helpful, but this is a late indicator of respiratory compromise. A novel, non-invasive, respiratory volume monitor (RVM) has been shown to deliver accurate continuous, real-time minute ventilation (MV), tidal volume (TV) and respiratory rate (RR) measurements and provide an objective measure of respiratory competence. The RVM will accurately reflect MV, TV and RR in cardiac surgery patients before and after extubation. ⋯ RVM-based MV, TV and RR correlated well with similar data collected from ventilators. After extubation, RVM shows promise as a means to monitor respiratory competence of non-intubated patients, and has implications for use in other settings and improving patient safety.
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There is no existing adequate blood transfusion needs determination tool that Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel can use for prehospital blood transfusion initiation. In this study, a simple and pragmatic prehospital blood transfusion needs scoring system was derived and validated. ⋯ An early blood transfusion scoring system was derived and internally validated to predict severe trauma patients requiring blood transfusion during prehospital or initial emergency department resuscitation.