A Multicenter, Prospective Study Comparing Subxiphoid and Parasternal Views During Brief Echocardiography: Effect on Image Quality, Acquisition Time, and Visualized Anatomy.

Background: Recent literature has suggested echocardiography (echo) may prolong pauses in chest compressions during cardiac arrest.

Objectves: We sought to determine the impact of the sonographic approach (subxiphoid [SX] vs. parasternal long [PSL]) on time to image completion, image quality, and visualization of cardiac anatomy during echo, as performed during Advanced Cardiac Life Support.

Acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis due to clindamycin.

Acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis (AGEP) is a rare skin eruption most commonly caused by medications. It is characterized by fever and the acute eruption of non-follicular pustules overlying erythrodermic skin. Histopathology shows subcorneal pustules with a background of dermal edema and spongiosis, leukocytoclastic vasculitis, perivascular eosinophils, and focal necrosis of keratinocytes.

Inner ear fluid volumes and the resolving power of magnetic resonance imaging: can it differentiate endolymphatic structures?

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can accurately recognize minute volumes as small as 1 mm3. The volumes of the utricle and saccule of the inner ear are within the resolving power of MRI, but these structures cannot be recognized because the endolymph and perilymph signals are identical. To clarify the interpretation and description of inner ear structures on MRI, we measured and calculated the volumes of the perilymphatic and endolymphatic spaces of the human ear.

Middle ear gas generation in myringoplasties.

No Gelfoam was used to support the vein in 10 simple underlay vein graft myringoplasties. Computed tomographic studies 24 hours postoperatively showed gas filling 75% to 100% of the middle ears in three ears. The epitympanum and mastoid were also evaluated.

The ovoid lesion: a new MR observation in patients with multiple sclerosis.

We investigated the frequency of oval-shaped, high-signal-intensity lesions oriented perpendicular to the anteroposterior axis of the brain on abnormal, axial T2-weighted MR brain scans in 59 patients with clinically documented multiple sclerosis. This finding, not heretofore described in patients with multiple sclerosis, was observed in 86% of patients, and correlates with the neuropathologic description of demyelination in multiple sclerosis.

Use of gas-forming agents in esophageal food impactions.

Twenty-six patients were treated with a gas-forming mixture of tartaric acid and sodium bicarbonate to relieve esophageal food impactions. A success rate of 65% was achieved, with one patient suffering a mucosal tear of the esophagus. Recommendations are made to limit the use of such gas-forming agents to impactions less than six hours old and in patients without chest pain.