Prediction and Analysis of Heart Failure Decompensation Events Based on Telemonitored Data and Artificial Intelligence Methods.

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death globally, taking an estimated 17.9 million lives each year. Heart failure (HF) occurs when the heart is not able to pump enough blood to satisfy metabolic needs.

Intermittent inotropic support with levosimendan in advanced heart failure as destination therapy: The LEVO-D registry.

Aim: Patients with advanced heart failure (AHF) who are not candidates to advanced therapies have poor prognosis. Some trials have shown that intermittent levosimendan can reduce HF hospitalizations in AHF in the short term. In this real-life registry, we describe the patterns of use, safety and factors related to the response to intermittent levosimendan infusions in AHF patients not candidates to advanced therapies.

Continuous quadratus lumborum block as post-operative strategy for pain control in spinal fusion surgery.

Background And Aims: Lumbar spinal fusions have post-operative pain levels that can be difficult to treat. The objective of this study was to determine if using bilateral quadratus lumborum (QL) nerve block catheters for lumbar fusions changes the patient's post-operative recovery experience by reducing opioid consumption, thereby limiting potential risks and side effects and reducing recovery time.

Methods: There were a total of 52 surgical lumbar fusion patients in this single-center, retrospective cohort review.

Impact of environmental factors on heart failure decompensations.

Aims: Heart failure (HF) is a clinical syndrome caused by a structural and/or functional cardiac abnormality, resulting in a reduced cardiac output and/or elevated intracardiac pressures at rest or during stress. This disease often causes decompensations, which may lead to hospital admissions, deteriorating patients' quality of life and causing an increment on the healthcare cost. Environmental exposure is an important but underappreciated risk factor contributing to the development and severity of cardiovascular diseases, such as HF.

[Standardized evaluation of obsessive phenomena in patients in general medicine. Prevalence and correlations].

Clinical experience in general hospital psychiatry and literature reviews supported the conjecture that psychopathological disturbances are frequent among medical patients. Wide discrepancies of prevalence data reported by different authors, however, suggested the importance of undertaking screening studies with standardized methods of assessment. Our initial studies in oncological patients confirmed the hypothesis, but also documented obsessive phenomena, assessed with Present State Examination (PSE) criteria, in more than one third of patients diagnosed of depression Consecutive studies in different medical samples have replicated those preliminary findings in the last one, close to one quarter of first day consecutive patients seen in an internal medicine out-patient clinic, and more than three quarters of the ones diagnosed of either anxiety or depression with Research Diagnostic Criteria, had obsessive symptoms as defined by the Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS).