Cardiac Involvement in COVID-19 Patients: A Contemporary Review.

: The widely variable clinical manifestations of SARS-CoV2 disease (COVID-19) range from asymptomatic infections to multiple organ failure and death. Among the organs affected is the heart. This does not only affect people who already have previous cardiovascular problems, but also healthy people.

Philosophy and Hippocratic Ethic in Ancient Greek Society: Evolution of Hospital - Sanctuaries.

The aim of this paper is to offer a new perspective of the Hippocratic thought and how it influenced the evolution of the medical art till now, highlighting the ethical aspects and hospital born from ancient temples and sanctuary. Ethics is defined as a set of values, principles, and rules that regulate human behavior and relate to how human actions can significantly affect not only their own lives but also the lives of others. The essence of a culture can be perceived by the philosophy and the means by which is placed against the illness and its treatment.

The Preoperative Inflammatory Status Affects the Clinical Outcome in Cardiac Surgery.

Aims: There are many reasons for the increase in post-operative mortality and morbidity in patients undergoing surgery. In fact, an activated inflammatory state before cardiac surgery, can potentially worsen the patient's prognosis and the effects of this preoperative inflammatory state in the medium-term remains unknown.

Methods: There were 470 consecutive patients who underwent cardiac surgery, and were divided in three groups according to the median values of preoperative C-reactive protein (CRP) and fibrinogen (FBG): The first group was the low inflammatory status group (LIS) with 161 patients (CRP < 0.

Current Issues and Perspectives in Patients with Possible Sepsis at Emergency Departments.

In the area of Emergency Room (ER), many patients present criteria compatible with a SIRS, but only some of them have an associated infection. The new definition of sepsis by the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine and the Society of Critical Care Medicine (2016), revolutionizes precedent criteria, overcoming the concept of SIRS and clearly distinguishing the infection with the patient's physiological response from the symptoms of sepsis. Another fundamental change concerns the recognition method: The use of SOFA (Sequential-Sepsis Related-Organ Failure Assessment Score) as reference score for organ damage assessment.

Hyperoxia confers myocardial protection in mechanically ventilated rats through the generation of free radicals and opening of mitochondrial ATP-sensitive potassium channels.

1. One hour exposure to hyperoxia has been shown previously to limit a subsequent ischaemia-reperfusion injury in spontaneously breathing rats. We tested the cardioprotective effect of a shorter period of hyperoxia during mechanical ventilation and the possible contribution of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and mitochondrial ATP-sensitive potassium (mitoK(ATP)) channels.

Post-traumatic blunt rupture of the aorta: endo-aortic stenting therapy.

With the increased use of the endovascular approach, the management and outcome of traumatic aortic injuries have changed dramatically over the past 10 years. Understanding pathogenic mechanism underlying aortic injury is critical in choosing the kind of stent-graft to be used. The possible mechanisms of non-penetrating blunt trauma of the aorta have been studied for a long time and are not completely clarified yet.

Isthmus endoprosthesis stent-graft treatment: implantation of relay dedicated device.

Among the 123 patients treated in our department by endovascular stent graft, 113 (91.8%) were identified as having involvement of the isthmus. Therefore, the incorrectly defined descending aortic disease is essentially a pathology of the isthmus that represents the distal portion of the arch.

Brief hypoxia before normoxic reperfusion (postconditioning) protects the heart against ischemia-reperfusion injury by preventing mitochondria peroxyde production and glutathione depletion.

Several recent works have shown that a brief ischemia applied during the onset of reperfusion (postconditioning) is cardioprotective in different animal models and that the early minutes of reperfusion are critical to its cardioprotection. This effect has been related to prevention of oxidative stress, but mechanisms have not been clearly demonstrated. The present study tested the hypothesis that mitochondria play a central role in peroxide production and oxidative stress during reperfusion and are responsible for the protective effect of postconditioning.

Stent graft treatment of thoracic aortic disease.

This study was a retrospective analysis of both the efficacy and long-term outcome of endovascular management of thoracic aortic disease. From March 1999 to August 2003, 129 patients (110 males; 19 females) were enrolled. They were divided into four groups: aneurysms (41, 5 of which acutely ruptured, Group A), post-traumatic lesions (24, 14 acute and 10 chronic, Group B) and complicated type B dissections (42, 23 acute and 19 chronic, Group C).

Endovascular treatment of thoracic aortic disease: four years of experience.

Background: The aim of this retrospective study is to investigate efficacy and middle-term results of the stent graft treatment for diseases of descending thoracic aorta.

Methods And Results: From March 1999 to October 2003, 132 patients (113 male and 19 female, mean age 62+/-14 years) were enrolled. They were divided into 4 groups: aneurysms (43, group A), post-traumatic lesions (24, group B), and complicated type B dissections (43, group C).

Immediate versus delayed endovascular treatment of post-traumatic aortic pseudoaneurysms and type B dissections: retrospective analysis and premises to the upcoming European trial.

Background: Stent grafting has been reported as a viable therapeutic option for the delayed treatment of traumatic rupture of the aortic isthmus as well as reconstruction of thoracic aortic dissections. We tested the hypothesis of whether immediate endovascular management offers clinical and pathological advantages over a delayed approach in patients with post-traumatic aortic pseudoaneurysms (PAPs) and Stanford type-B dissections (TBDs).

Methods: Thirty-one consecutive patients who were admitted with diagnosis of either PAP (n=10; 33.