Pulmonary Embolism in COVID-19 Pneumonia: An Overlapping Diagnosis or a Misdiagnosis?

Coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) is a novel infectious disease with a high mortality rate due to severe acute respiratory syndrome. A 57-year-old woman was admitted to the emergency department (ED) with fever, cough, atypical chest pain, and dyspnea. She remained in the ED for about 48 h while waiting for the result of the COVID-19 oropharyngeal swab.

Transient Type 1 Brugada Pattern without Ongoing Fever during COVID-19 Pneumonia.

Unlabelled: Patients with COVID-19 pneumonia can develop heart problems and may also may be susceptible to proarrhythmia, virus-related issues such as fever, stress, electrolyte disturbance and adverse effects from the use of antiviral drugs. We report a transient Brugada-like ECG pattern without ongoing fever in a 57-year-old man, admitted with a diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia, who did not have syncope or a family history of sudden cardiac death.

Learning Points: Patients with COVID-19 pneumonia can develop heart problems.

Stress Cardiomyopathy in COVID-19 Disease.

Unlabelled: Patients affected by COVID-19 pneumonia may develop stress cardiomyopathy, also known as Takotsubo syndrome (TTS), at different stages during the disease and with different degrees of left ventricular dysfunction. We describe three cases of TTS in COVID-19-positive patients with different clinical presentations and outcomes. One of them died, while in the other two coronary angiography confirmed the diagnosis but was postponed until after pneumonia resolution because of the risk of virus spread.

Elemental Distribution and Structural Characterization of GaN/InGaN Core-Shell Single Nanowires by Hard X-ray Synchrotron Nanoprobes.

Improvements in the spatial resolution of synchrotron-based X-ray probes have reached the nano-scale and they, nowadays, constitute a powerful platform for the study of semiconductor nanostructures and nanodevices that provides high sensitivity without destroying the material. Three complementary hard X-ray synchrotron techniques at the nanoscale have been applied to the study of individual nanowires (NWs) containing non-polar GaN/InGaN multi-quantum-wells. The trace elemental sensitivity of X-ray fluorescence allows one to determine the In concentration of the quantum wells and their inhomogeneities along the NW.

Added Value of 3- Versus 2-Dimensional Echocardiography Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction to Predict Arrhythmic Risk in Patients With Left Ventricular Dysfunction.

Objectives: This study sought to evaluate the potential clinical impact of using 3-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) to measure left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in patients considered for implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) implantation and to assess the predictive value of 3DE LVEF for arrhythmic events.

Background: ICD therapy is currently recommended to prevent sudden cardiac death in patients with symptomatic heart failure and LVEF ≤35%, and in asymptomatic patients with ischemic heart disease and LVEF ≤30%. Two-dimensional echocardiography (2DE) is currently used to calculate LVEF.

Gender differences and role of pregnancy in the history of post-surgical women affected by tetralogy of Fallot.

Background: The aim of this study was to describe gender differences in patients operated on for TOF and to define the impact of pregnancy in late post-surgical follow-up in women.

Methods: In this research, we studied 145 patients after correction of TOF: 66 male, 79 women, 41 of which reported history of 68 pregnancies, means age 37±10 years, age at operation 7±8 years, mean duration of post-surgical follow-up 30±7 years. Selected variables were compared according to sex and according to history of pregnancy with statistical tests.