Amiodarone-induced pulmonary toxicity--a fatal case report and literature review.

Amiodarone is a widely used and very potent antiarrhythmic substance. Among its adverse effects, pulmonary toxicity is the most dangerous without a causal treatment option. Due to a very long half-life, accumulation can only be prevented by strict adherence to certain dosage patterns.

Influence of Red Blood Cell Storage Time on Clinical Course and Cytokine Profile in Septic Shock Patients.

BACKGROUND: Previous investigations have suggested beneficial effects of fresh versus stored red blood cell transfusion in critically ill patients. The present study investigates the effects of red blood cell storage time on the clinical course and hemodynamic and laboratory parameters in patients with septic shock. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 18 patients with septic shock received 2 erythrocyte units stored for ? 7 days (n = 8) or > 7 days (n = 10).

7-year survey after percutaneous dilatational tracheotomy on a medical intensive care unit.

Purpose: Percutaneous dilatational tracheotomy (PDT) is a well-established procedure in intensive care medicine. Several reports confirm a low acute and long-term complication rate. However, dilatational tracheotomy is still often postponed even in patients that are under ventilator support for more than 2 weeks.

Prevalence, associations, and trends of biliary-tract candidiasis: a prospective observational study.

Background: Biliary obstruction and cholangitis are common problems in gastroenterology. Infections of the biliary tract with Candida and other fungal species have increasingly been seen in the last few years.

Objective: To investigate the prevalence, associations, and trends of biliary-tract candidiasis.

[Management of the acute myocardial infarction in the prehospital emergency setting. Reperfusing and antithrombotic therapy].

The early reperfusion of the occluded epicardial coronary artery and the antithrombotic therapy is of eminent importance in the management of the acute myocardial infarction with ST-segment-elevation. The emergency physician has a key role in establishing the diagnosis and deciding about the therapy. The following article describes modern concepts and the evidence of the emergency management of patients with myocardial infarction.

Proarrhythmia as a class effect of quinolones: increased dispersion of repolarization and triangulation of action potential predict torsades de pointes.

Background: Numerous noncardiovascular drugs prolong repolarization and thereby increase the risk for patients to develop life-threatening tachyarrhythmias of the torsade de pointes (TdP) type. The development of TdP is an individual, patient-specific response to a repolarization-prolonging drug, depending on the repolarization reserve. The aim of the present study was to analyze the underlying mechanisms that discriminate hearts that will develop TdP from hearts that will not develop TdP.