Non-invasive ventilation: comparison of effectiveness, safety, and management in acute heart failure syndromes and acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Continuous positive airway pressure ventilation (CPAP) and non-invasive positive pressure ventilation (NPPV) are accepted treatments in acute cardiogenic pulmonary edema (ACPE) and acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). The aim of the study was a comparison of effectiveness, safety, and management of NPPV in ACPE and AECOPD trying to find an approach for standard management in intensive care. Thirty patients with acute respiratory failure (14 due to ACPE, 16 due to AECOPD) were prospectively included into the study.

Genetic variation in members of the leukotriene biosynthesis pathway confer an increased risk of ischemic stroke: a replication study in two independent populations.

Background And Purpose: The recent finding that genetic variants in 5-lipoxygenase activating protein and leukotriene A4 hydrolase may confer an increased risk of ischemic stroke has implicated the leukotriene family as potential mediators of cardiovascular disease. Using a case control replication methodology, all members of the leukotriene synthesis pathway and their receptors were examined for genetic variants, which may act as risk factors for all ischemic stroke and stroke subtypes.

Methods: A case control methodology using a UK stroke cohort (872 cases, 933 controls) was adopted, with additional 5-lipoxygenase activating protein genotyping and replication of positive findings undertaken in an independent stroke population from Germany (601 cases, 736 controls).

[Cavernous haemangioma in the Muscularis propria of the oesophagus and in the paraoesophageal tissue].

This is a case report of a 45-year-old woman who presented herself in our hospital with increasing retrosternal tenderness to pressure, dysphagia, and symptoms of reflux oesophagitis. The clinical examination and laboratory results showed no pathological findings. Oesophagogastroduodenoscopy revealed a bluish-livid, bulging mass from 32-38 cm aborally.

[Acute life-threatening bradycardia: food poisoning by Turkish wild honey].

History And Findings: A 49-year-old Turkish man, previously well, suddenly developed severe vertigo and a feeling of retrosternal compression. The symptoms had set in within one hour of eating Turkish wild honey. The patient was in a poor general state with a heart rate of 38/min after administration of atropine by the general practitioner who had been called.