Treatment of supracondylar humeral non-union by bone autograft and Hoffmann II external fixation.

Supracondylar humeral nonunions are difficult to heal by internal fixation. Prosthetic arthroplasty is a solution in elderly patients. Both therapeutic options are contraindicated in the case of an infection.

Echocardiographic Detection of Occult Diastolic Dysfunction in Pulmonary Hypertension After Fluid Challenge.

Background Identification of occult diastolic dysfunction often requires invasive right heart catheterization with provocative maneuvers such as fluid challenge. Non-invasive predictors of occult diastolic dysfunction have not been identified. We hypothesized that echocardiographic measures of diastolic function are associated with occult diastolic dysfunction identified at catheterization.

Acute myocardial infarction in early postpartum.

We present a case of acute anterior myocardial infarction in a breastfeeding woman, 10 days after delivery. The presumed cause was proximal left anterior artery vasospasm, induced by a combination of smoking a first cigarette in the early morning and salbutamol inhalation, in the particular context of peripartum. We discuss briefly the epidemiology, pathophysiology, risk factors, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of myocardial infarction related to pregnancy and the postpartum period.

Single arterial occlusion to locate resistance in patients with pulmonary hypertension.

The purpose of this study was to determine the site of increased resistance using the arterial occlusion technique in patients with severe pulmonary hypertension. Pulmonary vascular resistance was partitioned in arterial and venous components based on double exponential fitting analysis of the pulmonary artery pressure decay curve: after balloon occlusion in 36 patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH); at baseline and during the inhalation of 20 parts per million of nitric oxide (NO); in four patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension; and in two patients with pulmonary veno-occlusive disease. In the patients with PAH, at baseline, mean pulmonary artery pressure was 56+/-2 mmHg (mean+/-SE), with an arterial component of resistance of 63+/-1%.

Simplification of the blood stem cell transplantation (BSCT) procedure: large volume apheresis and uncontrolled rate cryopreservation at -80 degrees C.

Very high-dose chemotherapy with autologous blood stem cell (BSC) rescue becomes more and more widely performed. In order to simplify the technique, a large volume apheresis programme combined with an uncontrolled rate cryopreservation at -80 degrees C was developed. Twenty-six patients suffering from multiple myeloma (n = 8), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (n = 7), dysgerminoma (n = 4), breast cancer (n = 3), Hodgkin's disease (n = 2), acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (n = 1) and acute myelocytic leukaemia (n = 1) were autografted after a classical high-dose chemotherapy regimen.