Inferior Vena Cava Filter in a Patient with COVID-19 Pneumonia to Prevent a Massive Pulmonary Embolism.

COVID 19 predispose to deep vein thrombosis. We describe an early placement of inferior vena cava filter added to the therapeutic anticoagulation to prevent a massive pulmonary embolism.

Neurally adjusted ventilatory assist preserves cerebral blood flow velocity in patients recovering from acute brain injury.

Neurally adjusted ventilatory assist (NAVA) has never been applied in patients recovering from acute brain injury (ABI) because neural respiratory drive could be affected by intracranial disease with detrimental effects on cerebral blood flow (CBF) velocity. Our primary aim was to assess the impact of NAVA and pressure support ventilation (PSV) on CBF velocity. In fifteen adult patients recovering from ABI and undergoing invasive assisted ventilation, PSV and NAVA were applied over 30-min-lasting trials, in the following sequence: PSV, NAVA, and PSV.

Diaphragmatic Ultrasound Assessment in Subjects With Acute Hypercapnic Respiratory Failure Admitted to the Emergency Department.

Background: Early identification of noninvasive ventilation (NIV) outcome predictors in patients with COPD who are experiencing acute hypercapnic respiratory failure consequent to exacerbation or pneumonia is a critical issue. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of performing diaphragmatic ultrasound for excursion, thickness, and thickening fraction in highly dyspneic subjects with COPD admitted to the emergency department for exacerbation or pneumonia, before starting NIV (T0) and after the first (T1) and second hour (T2) of treatment. Secondarily, we determined whether these variables predicted early NIV failure.

[Transthoracic echocardiographic assessment of cardiac output in mechanically ventilated critically ill patients by intensive care unit physicians].

Background And Objectives: Transthoracic echocardiography may potentially be useful to obtain a prompt, accurate and non-invasive estimation of cardiac output. We evaluated whether non-cardiologist intensivists may obtain accurate and reproducible cardiac output determination in hemodynamically unstable mechanically ventilated patients.

Methods: We studied 25 hemodynamically unstable mechanically ventilated intensive care unit patients with a pulmonary artery catheter in place.

Does noninvasive ventilation delivery in the ward provide early effective ventilation?

Background: Although noninvasive ventilation (NIV) is increasingly used in general wards, limited information exists about its ability to provide effective ventilation in this setting. We aim to evaluate NIV delivered in the ward by assessing (1) overall time of application and occurrence of adverse events and (2) differences between daytime and nighttime NIV application.

Methods: We studied subjects with hypercapnic acute hypercapnic respiratory failure not fulfilling strict criteria for ICU admission, and excluded those who interrupted NIV prior to 48 h.

Post gravidic superior sagittal sinus thrombosis with elevated levels of homocystinemia.

Cerebral ischemia in the young (less than 45 years) is an uncommon finding, its ethiology remaining undefined in up to half of cases even if all the common diagnostic paths have been followed. Pregnancy and puerperium are characterised by an increased risk of ischemic stroke and intracranial venous thrombosis. We present a case of a young woman with post gravidic thrombosis of the superior sagittal sinus, occurred 10 days after eutocic delivery.

Stroke patients, what to do and what to avoid.

In Italy (130,000 new strokes in the general population per year) ischemic stroke is the third cause of death, after cardiovascular disease and neoplastic disease with a prevalence of 6.5%. Different physicians are involved in the emergent evaluation and treatment of the acute ischemic stroke.