Antibiotic regimen including linezolid for treating prosthetic valve endocarditis with cerebral embolism due to methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus after failure with oxacillin and teicoplanin.

A case of prosthetic valve endocarditis due to methicillin susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) with cerebral metastatic seeding is described. The patient is a 61 year old man with diabetes mellitus, chronic renal failure and previous bacterial endocarditis. Despite appropriate MSSA therapy, the patient was eventually cured with the introduction of linezolid, without needing surgical intervention.

[A comprehensive management system for heart failure improves clinical outcomes and reduces medical resource utilization].

Background: Hospital admissions for heart failure are common and readmission rates are high. Many admissions and readmissions may be avoidable, so that alternative strategies are needed to improve long-term management.

Methods: We conducted a randomized trial of the effect of a guideline-based intervention on rates of readmission within 90 days of hospital discharge and costs of care for patients who were hospitalized due to decompensated heart failure.

[Proposed protocol for the ambulatory management of patients discharged with heart failure diagnosis: collaborative project Venice-HF].

Background: Hospital admissions for heart failure are common and readmission rates are high. Many admissions and readmissions may be avoidable, so that alternative strategies are needed to improve long-term management.

Methods: We conducted a randomized trial of the effect of a guideline-based intervention on rates of readmission within 90 days of hospital discharge and costs of care for patients who were hospitalized due to decompensated heart failure.

[Integrated echocardiography (transthoracic-transesophageal) in the differential diagnosis of left atrial myxoma. Description of three clinical cases].

Myxomas are the most common of all primary cardiac tumors among adults; most of them originate from the left atrium in the area of the fossa ovalis. Although atrial myxomas are histologically and clinically benign tumors, they can rarely cause severe complications including embolization and sudden death caused by left ventricular outflow tract obstruction and coronary or cerebral embolization. Echocardiography (Transthoracic and transesophageal) has been considered as the procedure of choice for the diagnosis of atrial myxomas.

Skeletal muscle myosin heavy chains in heart failure: correlation between magnitude of the isozyme shift, exercise capacity, and gas exchange measurements.

Background: Patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) have a reduced exercise capacity because of the early appearance of fatigue and dyspnea. Qualitative changes in the skeletal muscle composition and metabolism can be responsible for the origin of symptoms

Methods: We correlated the myosin heavy chain (MHC) composition of the gastrocnemius in 20 patients with different degrees of CHF to NYHA class, diuretic consumption, echocardiographic parameters, and expiratory gases measured during cardiopulmonary exercise testing. MHC composition was determined electrophoretically in skeletal muscle needle microbiopsies and the percent distribution was calculated by densitometry.