Renal resistive index by transesophageal and transparietal echo-doppler imaging for the prediction of acute kidney injury in patients undergoing major heart surgery.

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) following major heart surgery (MHS) is associated with early decrease in renal blood flow and worsened prognosis. Doppler-derived renal resistive index (RRI), which reflects renal vascular resistance, may predict the development of AKI in patients undergoing MHS.

Methods: We studied 60 consecutive patients (mean age 69.

[Hyponatremia in clinical practice].

Hyponatremia is the most frequent electrolyte disorder in hospitalized patients and it is associated with unfavorable clinical outcomes as well as increased hospital costs. Its clinical presentation may be highly variable, ranging from asymptomaticity to neurologic emergencies with seizures or coma as signs of rapidly worsening cerebral edema. In these cases, prompt treatment is mandatory to avoid the patients death.

Efficacy and safety of a citrate-based protocol for sustained low-efficiency dialysis in AKI using standard dialysis equipment.

Background And Objectives: A simple anticoagulation protocol was developed for sustained low-efficiency dialysis (SLED) in patients with AKI, based on the use of anticoagulant citrate dextrose solution formulation A (ACD-A) and standard dialysis equipment. Patients' blood recalcification was obtained from calcium backtransport from dialysis fluid.

Design, Setting, Participants, & Measurements: All patients treated with SLED (8- to 12-hour sessions) for AKI in four intensive care units of a university hospital were studied over a 30-month period, from May 1, 2008 to September 30, 2010.

Cerebral perfusion during intermittent hemodialysis in patients with acute kidney injury and advanced liver cirrhosis.

Background: Cerebral blood flow (CBF) decreases during intermittent hemodialysis (HD) in patients with acute kidney injury (AKI). Since cerebral hemodynamics may be impaired in liver cirrhosis (LC), this condition could aggravate cerebral hypoperfusion during HD in patients with AKI. We examined CBF during the first HD session in patients admitted for AKI, with or without LC.

Cerebral blood flow decreases during intermittent hemodialysis in patients with acute kidney injury, but not in patients with end-stage renal disease.

Background: Cerebral blood flow (CBF) may decrease during intermittent hemodialysis (IHD). Patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) may be more vulnerable to cerebral hypoperfusion than patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), due to concomitant critical illness and hemodynamic instability.

Methods: In this observational, prospective study, we measured mean flow velocity at the level of the middle cerebral artery by transcranial Doppler at the start, after 2 h and at the end of a hemodialysis session in 15 consecutive patients with AKI and critical illness referred to the nephrological intensive care unit of a university hospital and in 12 patients with ESRD on regular treatment thrice weekly, who served as controls.

Gait analysis in patients undergoing ACL reconstruction according to Kenneth Jones' technique.

The anterior cruciate ligament is essential for knee stability, and its injury, both acute and in the case of chronic knee instability, promotes meniscal degenerative alterations, as well as the onset and progression of gonarthrosis. In this retrospective study, young adults engaged in nonprofessional sportive activities undergoing ACL reconstruction by the Kenneth-Jones technique were assessed clinically and with gait analysis, to detect any deficits persisting even after rehabilitation at a follow- up of approximately 6 months. Eight patients who had undergone elective ligament reconstruction by Kenneth-Jones were assessed between the 5th and 7th month postsurgery with clinical-anamnestic investigation, including the Hughston Clinic subjective knee questionnaire and by gait analysis with the EL.

Total knee replacement. Postacute phase in rehabilitation: objectives and strategies in postacute treatment.

Identification of a population with homogeneous characteristics is the fundamental introduction to elaborate a rehabilitation plan after operation of total knee arthroplasty (TKA). The main objectives of our rehabilitative protocol are: improvement of the preoperative clinical state, prevention and management of the common postoperative problems and complications. The first objective requires the improvement of the function of the operated knee (good articular excursion, muscular strengthening and recovery of ambulation and of gait pattern), as well as the reduction of pain.

Upper and lower cluster headache: clinical and pathogenetic observations in 608 patients.

Unlabelled: OBJECTIVE, BACKGROUND, AND METHODS: Ever since it was proposed by Ekbom and Kugelberg back in 1968 on the basis of the different location of head pain during attacks, the differentiation of cluster headache into an upper syndrome (US) and a lower syndrome (LS) has been regarded as a purely academic distinction. To evaluate whether this differentiation is indeed well founded and to understand its possible significance in the light of current pathogenetic knowledge, we rigorously applied Ekbom and Kugelberg's classification criteria to a sample of 608 patients with cluster headache (CH; 440 men and 168 women), including 483 with episodic CH, 69 with chronic CH, and 56 with CH periodicity undetermined.

Results: Of these patients, 278 could be classified as US sufferers and 330 as LS sufferers.