A practical approach to goal-directed echocardiography in the critical care setting.

Urgent cardiac ultrasound examination in the critical care setting is clinically useful. Application of goal-directed echocardiography in this setting is quite distinct from typical exploratory diagnostic comprehensive echocardiography, because the urgent critical care setting mandates a goal-directed approach. Goal-directed echocardiography most frequently aims to rapidly identify and differentiate the cause(s) of hemodynamic instability and/or the cause(s) of acute respiratory failure.

Neurosyphillis presenting with normal pressure hydrocephalus in a 76 year old man.

Background: Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is composed of gait abnormalities, urinary incontinence and decline in mentation. It is uncommonly induced by syphilitic infection.

Case Report: A 76 year-old male present with gait disturbances, urinary incontinence, declining vision and cognition, with a known diagnosis of NPH.

Risk of cardiac arrhythmias and conduction abnormalities in patients with acute myocardial infarction receiving packed red blood cell transfusions.

Purpose: Although transfusion has been linked to the development of atrial fibrillation (AF) in cardiac surgical patients, this association has not been investigated in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Evidence supports an inflammatory mechanism in the development of AF, and red cell transfusions also elicit an inflammatory response. We therefore sought to evaluate whether packed red blood cell transfusion increases the risk of AF, ventricular tachycardia (VT), and other arrhythmias and conduction abnormalities in patients with AMI.