Bioimpedance spectroscopy for fluid status assessment in patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis: Implications for peritoneal dialysis.

Bioimpedance spectroscopy (BIS) is routinely used in peritoneal dialysis patients and might aid fluid status assessment in patients with liver cirrhosis, but the effect of ascites volume removal on BIS-readings is unknown. Here we determined changes in BIS-derived parameters and clinical signs of fluid overload from before to after abdominal paracentesis. Per our pre-specified sample size calculation, we studied 31 cirrhotic patients, analyzing demographics, labs and clinical parameters along with BIS results.

Intravenous Fluid Challenge Decreases Intracellular Volume: A Bioimpedance Spectroscopy-Based Crossover Study in Healthy Volunteers.

The effects of intravenous fluid therapy on fluid compartments and hemodynamics of the human body remain enigmatic. We therefore tested the efficacy of bioimpedance spectroscopy in a crossover study, where 15 males received 0.5 ml/kg/min ELO-MEL-isoton (osmolarity = 302 mosmol/l) during 60 minutes, or nothing at all.

Admission of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims to a high volume cardiac arrest center is linked to improved outcome.

Aim: Cardiac arrest centers have been associated with improved outcome for patients after cardiac arrest. Aim of this study was to investigate the effect on outcome depending on admission to high-, medium- or low volume centers.

Methods: Analysis from a prospective, multicenter registry for out of hospital cardiac arrest patients treated by the emergency medical service of Vienna, Austria.

Incidence and outcome of weaning from mechanical ventilation according to new categories.

Weaning from mechanical ventilation was categorised as simple, difficult or prolonged by an international task force of the American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society/European Society of Intensive Care Medicine/Society of Critical Care Medicine/Sociéte de Réanimation de Langue Française in 2007. This new classification has not been tested in clinical practice. The objective of the present study was to determine the incidence and outcome of weaning according to the new categories.

[Retroperitoneal fibrosis as the etiology for recent onset of abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting--a rare and easily missed differential diagnosis].

Retroperitoneal fibrosis is a rare disease with unspecific symptomatic signs. Mortality rates are high with a 10-year mortality rate of 10 to 20%. We describe a case of a 55 year old woman with retroperitoneal fibrosis and discuss clinical findings, symptomatic signs, diagnosis, and treatment of this rare disease.

[Gastrointestinal hemorrhage needing blood transfusion as the first manifestation of small bowel carcinoid tumor].

Carcinoid tumors arise from enterochromaffin or enterochromaffin-like cells that are present in the gastrointestinal tract, ovaries, and lungs. Over 90% of carcinoids originate in the gastrointestinal tract with the most common sites in order of frequency being the appendix, terminal ileum, rectum, and the remainder of the colon. Gastroduodenal and pancreatic carcinoids are infrequent.

[Cholestatic hepatitis as a rare side effect of therapy with ticlopidine].

A 71-year-old man with chronic atrial fibrillation was treated with aspirin because of a right cerebral infarction. Oral anticoagulation was not initiated because of a secondary hemorrhagic transformation. Six years later after a left cerebral transient ischemic attack aspirin was replaced by ticlopidine.