Preliminary Assessment of Pre-Electroconvulsive Therapy Evaluation Practices in European Countries: The Need for Guidelines.

Objectives: Pre-electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) evaluation is an essential part of ECT preparation, a standard treatment in the psychiatric field. However, no routine pre-ECT evaluation has been published so far. This preliminary study aimed to explore different practices in pre-ECT evaluation across European countries.

Complications of central venous catheterization in hemodialysis patients.

When an acute hemodialysis in a patient with no arterio-venous shunt is needed, placement of a central venous catheter (CVC) is the ultimate solution. Otherwise a simple procedure may present with numerous complications. The authors describe their experiences with early and late complications of CVC in 106 patients.

[Intracavitary thrombosis--unusual complications in ulcerative colitis].

The statement of echocardiographic differential diagnosis of intracavitary masses is not simple even for an experienced echocardiographist. It is mainly caused by the resemblance in echo-densities of thrombi and myxoma. Atypical localization of masses makes the differential diagnosis even more difficult.

[Can permanent sinus arrhythmia in conscious dogs be suppressed with anesthesia?].

Objective: Large prospective studies in dogs with healed myocardial infarction (MI) recently show a positive relation between heart rate variability (HRV) and sudden cardiac death.

Methods: We have done similar experiments in dogs and we studied HRV, ECG and body surface potential maps (BSPM) in 26 normal mongrel dogs (10-15 kg) and 12 dogs with an experimental MI (ligation of LAD). A two-channel 8 hours lasting ECG recording was performed in all conscious dogs.

[Comprehensive prevention of postoperative thrombosis].

Thromboembolic disease with its high mortality and morbidity is currently one of the most serious postoperative complications. Its occurrence in high-risk patients in surgical wards is 25-50%. Since 1979, the authors have examined 160 risk patients in whom no prevention had been performed.