Acute type A aortic dissection with cardiac tamponade: unexpected late survival without aortic surgery.

Acute type A aortic dissection complicated by cardiac tamponade portends a lethal prognosis. We report the unusual case of an older female who unexpectedly survived for more than one year after presentation with acute dissection and tamponade. She was treated with a pericardial window and remains alive now four years after presentation.

Black box warning: is ketorolac safe for use after cardiac surgery?

Objective: In 2005, after the identification of cardiovascular safety concerns with the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), the FDA issued a black box warning recommending against the use of NSAIDs following cardiac surgery. The goal of this study was to assess the postoperative safety of ketorolac, an intravenously administered NSAID, after cardiac surgery.

Design: Retrospective observational study.

Does high-density lipoprotein influence the development of saphenous vein graft disease after coronary bypass surgery?: exploratory analysis from the CASCADE trial.

Background: Low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) purportedly increase the risk after coronary bypass surgery. This may relate to the development of saphenous vein graft (SVG) disease early postoperatively, but this premise has never been evaluated in the context of a prospective trial.

Methods: The CASCADE Trial was a multi-center study of 113 patients evaluating the use of postoperative clopidogrel.

Sexual dimorphism in development of kidney damage in aging Fischer-344 rats.

Background: Aging kidneys exhibit slowly developing injury and women are usually protected compared with men, in association with maintained renal nitric oxide.

Objectives: Our purpose was to test 2 hypotheses: (1) that aging intact Fischer-344 (F344) female rats exhibit less glomerular damage than similarly aged males, and (2) that loss of female ovarian hormones would lead to greater structural injury and dysregulation of the nitric oxide synthase (NOS) system in aging F344 rat kidneys.

Methods: We compared renal injury in F344 rats in intact, ovariectomized, and ovariectomized with estrogen replaced young (6 month) and old (24 month) female rats with young and old intact male rats and measured renal protein abundance of NOS isoforms and oxidative stress.