Impairment of central retinal artery hemodynamics in affected and fellow eyes in giant cell arteritis patients with unilateral vision loss.

Objectives: Permanent visual impairment is a major complication of giant cell arteritis (GCA). We investigated the added value of color Doppler imaging (CDI) of the central retinal artery (CRA) in patients with suspected GCA for early risk evaluation before temporal artery biopsy (TAB) results become available.

Methods: We conducted a non-interventional observational study of 30 consecutive patients hospitalized for suspected GCA, including a comprehensive analysis of clinical, laboratory, imaging, CDI and pathology data.

Blood Flow and Shear Stress Allow Monitoring of Progression and Prognosis of Tumor Diseases.

In the presence of tumor angiogenesis, blood flow must increase, leading to an elevation of blood flow velocities (BFVels) and wall shear stress (WSS) in upstream native arteries. An adaptive arterial remodeling is stimulated, whose purpose lies in the enlargement of the arterial inner diameter, aiming for normalization of BFVels and WSS. Remodeling engages delayed processes that are efficient only several weeks/months after initiation, independent from those governing expansion of the neovascular network.

Pathophysiological Processes Underlying the High Prevalence of Deep Vein Thrombosis in Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) predisposes to deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) particularly in mechanically ventilated adults with severe pneumonia. The extremely high prevalence of DVT in the COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit (ICU) has been established between 25 and 84% based on studies including systematic duplex ultrasound of the lower limbs when prophylactic anticoagulation was systematically administrated. DVT prevalence has been shown to be markedly higher than in mechanically ventilated influenza patients (6-8%).

Risk of venous thromboembolism in rheumatoid arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune joint disease with persistent systemic inflammation. Patients with RA suffer from joint pain and physical disability, but have their prognosis mostly driven by cardiovascular events, including venous thromboembolism (VTE). The risk of VTE is more than double in patients with RA compared with the general population.

Imbalance between procoagulant factors and natural coagulation inhibitors contributes to hypercoagulability in the critically ill COVID-19 patient: clinical implications.

Objective: Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) predisposes patients to thrombosis which underlying mechanisms are still incompletely understood. We sought to investigate the balance between procoagulant factors and natural coagulation inhibitors in the critically ill COVID-19 patient and to evaluate the usefulness of hemostasis parameters to identify patients at risk of venous thromboembolic event (VTE).

Patients And Methods: We conducted an observational study recording VTEs defined as deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism using lower limb ultrasound (92% of the patients), computed tomography pulmonary angiography (6%) and both tests (2%).