Temporary cardiac tamponade secondary to chest tube placement for pneumothorax.

A 87-year-old woman was hospitalised because of a third-degree atrioventricular block. After the insertion of a temporary pacemaker lead through the left subclavian vein, she developed an ipsilateral pneumothorax. Although there were clinical and echocardiographic signs of cardiac tamponade after chest tube placement for pneumothorax, a second echocardiogram performed after transportation for surgical drainage failed to demonstrate the presence of any pericardial fluid, while the patient showed an unexpected clinical improvement.

Comparative haemodynamic responses to the first dose of short- and long-acting ACE inhibitors in patients with congestive heart failure.

Background: Angiotensin Converting Enzyme inhibitors (ACEi's) confer significant mortality and morbidity benefits in all functional grades of chronic heart failure (CHF). However, physicians' concerns regarding the possible occurrence of first-dose hypotension appear to be a contributing factor to their under-utilisation in both hospital and primary care settings. We investigated whether long-acting and short-acting ACEi's differ in their haemodynamic responses to the first-dose in patients with CHF.

Hemodynamic classification in acute myocardial infarction.

Objective: Current mortality (M(1)) in hemodynamic subgroups of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) was compared to that observed 30 years ago (M(0)), when hemodynamic classification was established. The prognostic value of oxyhemodynamic indexes in predicting M(1) for patients receiving right heart catheterization (RHC) was investigated.

Patients And Methods: We assigned 393 patients with AMI (mean age, 72 +/- 10 years) to four Killip categories.