Introduction: Acute liver failure (ALF) is a rare disease with high mortality. Acute kidney injury (AKI) following ALF is frequent. We assessed AKI impact on long-term kidney function among ALF survivors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground & Aims: Ammonia is metabolized into urea in the liver. In acute liver failure (ALF), ammonia has been associated with survival. However, urea variation has been poorly studied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Acute liver failure (ALF) may represent an indication for liver transplantation (LT). However, in patients who do not meet the criteria or who have contraindications for LT, support measures remain indicated since they may improve survival. Continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) can be considered in the presence of hyperammonemia, 3 times above the upper normal limit, and hepatic encephalopathy (HE), even in the absence of the classic indications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFis an opportunistic human pathogen that has rapidly spread to multiple countries and continents and has been associated with a high number of nosocomial outbreaks. Herein, we report the first case of in Portugal, which was associated with a patient transferred from Angola to an ICU in Portugal for liver transplantation after a SARS-CoV-2 infection. was isolated during the course of bronchoalveolar lavage, and it was subjected to antifungal susceptibility testing and whole-genome sequence analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Critically ill patients with cirrhosis and ascites are at high risk for intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) which increases mortality. Clinical guidelines recommend maintaining intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) below 16 mmHg; nonetheless, more than three quarters of critically ill patients with cirrhosis develop IAH during their first week of ICU stay. Standard-of-care intermittent large-volume paracentesis (LVP) relieves abdominal wall tension, reduces IAP, optimizes abdominal perfusion pressure, and is associated with short-term improvement in renal and pulmonary dysfunction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Serum ammonia variation in critically ill patients with cirrhosis has been poorly studied.
Aim: To describe and assess the impact of serum ammonia variation in these patients' outcomes.
Methods: We studied patients ≥18 years old admitted to the intensive care units (ICUs) at University of Alberta Hospital (Edmonton, Canada) and Curry Cabral Hospital (Lisbon, Portugal; derivation cohort, n = 492) and Northwestern University Hospital (Chicago, USA; validation cohort, n = 600) between January 2010 and December 2021.
We report a fatal case of disseminated mpox infection that progressed over more than three months in an HIV-infected patient with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Mucocutaneous, pleuropulmonary, central nervous system, and gastrointestinal involvement was documented. This course of disease resembles progressive vaccinia, a formerly reported disease caused by uncontrolled replication of smallpox vaccination orthopoxviruses in immunosuppressed patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: The donor risk index (DRI) quantifies donor-related characteristics potentially associated with increased risk of early graft failure. We aimed to assess the impact of the DRI, recipient and perioperative factors on post liver transplant (LT) outcomes.
Methods: This was a single-center retrospective cohort study including all adult (≥18 years) patients who underwent LT from 01/2019 to 12/2019 at Curry Cabral Hospital, Lisbon, Portugal.
The risk factors for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) severity are still poorly understood. Considering the pivotal role of the gut microbiota on host immune and inflammatory functions, we investigated the association between changes in the gut microbiota composition and the clinical severity of COVID-19. We conducted a multicenter cross-sectional study prospectively enrolling 115 COVID-19 patients categorized according to: (1) the WHO Clinical Progression Scale-mild, 19 (16.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGE Port J Gastroenterol
April 2021
Introduction: Acute liver failure (ALF) is a rare disease that may lead to cerebral edema and death. An increased optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) may reflect an early increase in intracranial pressure. We assessed the feasibility and safety of the ONSD measurement and its association with outcomes in patients with ALF.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCatheter dysfunction is an important cause of catheter loss. In order to prevent this, locking solutions with minimal risk of systemic anticoagulation are used to ensure catheter patency. At present the most commonly used solutions are either heparin or sodium citrate.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis letter discusses the efficacy of current antiviral therapy used in severe COVID-19 infection. Since the first severe cases were documented, several antiviral options have been studied as adjuncts to standard supportive care [1, 2]. Firstly, the combination of lopinavir-ritonavir resurrected from SARS and MERS outbreaks and soon abandoned after the publication of several trials like the randomized controlled trial RECOVERY, which concluded that it was not associated with reductions in 28-day mortality, duration of hospital stay, or risk of progression to invasive mechanical ventilation or death [3].
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Kawasaki-like syndrome occurring in children during the COVID-19 pandemic has been labelled multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) by the CDC and paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection (PIMS-TS) by the ECDC.
Case Report: We report the case of an 18-year-old male patient presenting with a 72-hour history of abdominal pain, fever, erythematous skin rash, vomiting and diarrhoea. Examination showed he also had shock and he was first thought to have oedematous cholecystitis.
Purpose: We aimed to study the effect of FB in the outcomes of critically-ill patients with cirrhosis.
Materials: Retrospective analysis of all adult consecutive admissions of patients with cirrhosis and organ failures to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Curry Cabral Hospital (Lisbon, Portugal) and University of Alberta Hospital (Edmonton, Canada) on 08/2013-08/2017. Primary exposure was FB at 3 and 7 days post ICU admission.
Purpose: We sought to study the association between afterhours ICU admission and ICU mortality considering measures of strained ICU capacity.
Materials And Methods: Retrospective analysis of 4141 admissions to 2 ICUs in Lisbon, Portugal (06/2016-06/2018). Primary exposure was ICU admission on 20:00 h-07:59 h.
Rev Bras Ter Intensiva
December 2016
Objective: The determination of coma patient prognosis after cardiac arrest has clinical, ethical and social implications. Neurological examination, imaging and biochemical markers are helpful tools accepted as reliable in predicting recovery. With the advent of therapeutic hypothermia, these data need to be reconfirmed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRev Bras Ter Intensiva
December 2016
This is a case report of a 43-year-old Caucasian male with end-stage renal disease being treated with hemodialysis and infective endocarditis in the aortic and tricuspid valves. The clinical presentation was dominated by neurologic impairment with cerebral embolism and hemorrhagic components. A thoracoabdominal computerized tomography scan revealed septic pulmonary embolus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEchocardiography is a non-invasive tool, aimed towards the anatomical and functional characterization of the heart. In Intensive Care it is considered nowadays as a necessary tool for patient evaluation. However, the information obtained using echocardiography is not the same as provided by other means, namely the invasive ones.
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