Acute coronary syndrome in HIV patients: from pathophysiology to clinical practice.

A majority of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected subjects in developed countries have access to highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART), which is associated with significantly improved long term survival. In this setting, clinical attention needs to be focused on the impact of premature atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD), which already represents a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in these patients. While the higher prevalence of traditional risk factors remains the main culprit of increased CVD risk, HIV infection itself and antiretroviral toxicity are confounding proatherogenic factors.

Bridging to lung transplantation by extracorporeal support.

Ideally, bridging patients with end stage severe respiratory failure to lung transplantation should significantly extend the pretransplant life expectancy to increase the chances to receive a suitable organ, as well as efficiently preserve the post-transplant long-term life expectancy by maintaining physiological homeostasis and avoiding multi-organ dysfunction. Various advanced strategies of extracorporeal circulation can replace at least in part the respiratory function of the lung and can potentially provide the appropriate mode and level of cardiopulmonary support for each patient's physiologic requirements. Therefore, patients on the lung transplant waiting list developing severe hypoxemic and/or hypercapnic respiratory failure can be supported for a prolonged period of time before the transplant, preserving a satisfactory post-transplant life expectancy.

Acute coronary syndromes in human immunodeficiency virus patients: a meta-analysis investigating adverse event rates and the role of antiretroviral therapy.

Aims: Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) dramatically reduces human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated morbidity and mortality, but adverse effects of HAART are becoming an increasing challenge, especially in the setting of acute coronary syndromes (ACS). We thus performed a comprehensive review of studies focusing on ACS in HIV patients.

Methods And Results: MEDLINE/PubMed was systematically screened for studies reporting on ACS in HIV patients.

Sleep disturbances in the critically ill patients: role of delirium and sedative agents.

Background: Impairment of sleep quality and quantity has been described in critically ill patients. Delirium, an organ dysfunction that affects outcome of the critically ill patients, is characterized by an acute onset of impaired cognitive function, visual hallucinations, delusions, and illusions. These symptoms resemble the hypnagogic hallucinations and wakeful dreams seen in patients with neurological degenerative disorders and suffering of disorders of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.

Percutaneous coronary intervention for small vessel coronary artery disease.

Symptomatic coronary artery disease may be commonly due to significant atherosclerotic disease involving coronary vessels of relatively small caliber (i.e., with reference vessel diameter <2.

Anal transitional zone adenocarcinoma following restorative proctocolectomy for ulcerative colitis: case report and review of literature.

Conservative proctocolectomy with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) has become the intervention of choice for severe ulcerative colitis (UC) requiring surgery. Sporadically, the occurrence of carcinoma arising in or near the ileo-anal pouch after IPAA for UC has been reported. This issue is of utmost importance as an endoscopic follow-up is mandatory also after the operation.

Respiratory management of acute respiratory failure in neuromuscular diseases.

Neuromuscular diseases (NMD) can affect all major respiratory muscles, leading to the development of respiratory failure, which is the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in patients affected by those conditions. Based on the clinical onset of acute respiratory failure (ARF), NMD can be classified into two main categories: 1) slowly progressive NMD with acute exacerbations of chronic respiratory failure, and 2) rapidly progressive NMD with acute episodes of respiratory failure. The most common slowly progressive NMDs, such as motor neuron diseases and inherited myopathies, account for the majority of NMD patients developing chronic neuromuscular respiratory failure at risk of acute exacerbations.

Clinical and biochemical parameters related to cardiovascular disease after Helicobacter pylori eradication.

Aim: Since the major established risk factors explain the pathogenesis of ischemic heart disease (IHD) in a proportion of cases, it is crucial to search for other causal mechanisms. The possible link between IHD and Helicobacter pylori (H.pylori) infection has been reported.

A long-term comparison of drug-eluting versus bare metal stents for the percutaneous treatment of coronary bifurcation lesions.

Background: After the first exciting results on drug-eluting stents (DES), many concerns have been raised on their potential risk for late stent thrombosis. Whereas DES appear beneficial at early and mid-term for coronary bifurcation lesions, no data are available on their long-term safety in this setting in comparison to bare metal stents (BMS). We thus aimed to appraise the long-term (> 2 years) outcomes of patients with bifurcation lesions treated with DES vs.

Impact of routine angiographic follow-up after percutaneous coronary drug-eluting stenting for unprotected left main disease: the Turin Registry.

Background: Most cardiologists performing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug-eluting stents (DES) for unprotected left main disease (ULM) mandate mid-term angiographic follow-up, yet there are few data supporting this approach. We aimed to retrospectively compare the outcome of patients with ULM treated with DES according to their follow-up management strategy.

Methods: Patients with ULM stenosis undergoing PCI with DES and surviving up to 6 months were retrospectively identified from our ongoing database.

Buddy balloon to deliver a percutaneous aortic valve device: a percutaneous shoehorn?

Percutaneous aortic valve replacement is performed with increasing frequency in patients with severe aortic stenosis at prohibitive surgical risk. Currently available devices are however in their early development stage, and are thus quite bulky with a large profile, with ensuing difficulties in delivery of the device through a stenotic aortic valve. We report hereby a case in which we employed a buddy wire and balloon technique as a "shoehorn" to enable accurate delivery of a balloon-expandable aortic valve prosthesis from the transfemoral route.

Very long-term results comparing a simple versus a complex stenting strategy in the treatment of coronary bifurcation lesions.

Background: The optimal stenting strategy for coronary bifurcation lesions has not yet been defined, especially given the lack of very long-term data (>24 months). We compared our long-term results of a simple vs complex stenting strategy in patients with bifurcation lesions.

Methods: We retrospectively selected subjects undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with stenting in a bifurcation lesion between June 2002 and December 2005, comparing those treated with a simple technique vs those treated with a complex one.

Nickel allergy, how deep?

A 41-year-old woman was referred to our Cardiology Unit to evaluate the feasibility of a percutaneous closure of her 20-mm atrial septal defect. During the last few months she had increasing dyspnoea, and an echocardiographic study had disclosed an atrial septal defect with significant right ventricular enlargement. Her past medical history was silent, except for Nickel (Ni2+) allergy confirmed by a skin patch test.

Helicobacter pylori eradication: metronidazole or tinidazole? Data from Turin, Italy.

Aim: Triple therapy consisting of a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) and two antibiotics is used as first choice in treating Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection. Since in the North Italian population, metronidazole resistance is less than 40%, this antibiotic would be preferable as first approach.

Safety of drug-coated stents.

Background: Drug-coated (i.e., drug-eluting) stents (DES) are frequently used nowadays in the treatment of coronary artery disease given their superior antirestenotic effect and clear benefits in terms of reduction of repeat revascularizations and major adverse cardiac events.

Percutaneous coronary intervention on left main coronary artery trifurcation.

Trifurcating coronary artery disease is a complex atherosclerotic process involving the origin of one or more of three side branches arising from a left main coronary artery. With the emergence of drug-eluting stents, interventional cardiologists have become more aggressive in treating this kind of complex diseases, also in patients with an unprotected left main disease. Few series of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) on significant lesions of the left main trifurcations have been described, approached with dissimilar techniques in the best attempt of avoiding life-threatening complications.

Management to optimize organ procurement in brain dead donors.

The demand for donor organs continues to exceed the number of organs available for transplantation. Many reasons may account for this discrepancy, such as the lack of consent, the absence of an experienced coordinator team able to solve logistical problems, the use of strict donor criteria, and suboptimal, unstandardized critical care management of potential organ donors. This has resulted in efforts to improve the medical care delivered to potential organ donors, so as to reduce organ shortages, improve organ procurement, and promote graft survival.

Assessment of liver fibrosis in the clinical setting: something is changing?

Clinical management of compensated chronic liver diseases (CLD) requires precise definition of the stage of liver fibrosis which is the key histologic predictor of progression to cirrhosis. Several methods are used to assess liver fibrosis. Among those, percutaneous liver biopsy is still the gold standard.

Side-to-side stapled anastomosis strongly reduces anastomotic leak rates in Crohn's disease surgery.

Purpose: Anastomotic configuration may influence anastomotic leak rates. The aim of this study was to determine whether a side-to-side stapled ileocolonic anastomosis produces lower anastomotic leak rates than those with a handsewn end-to-end ileocolonic anastomosis after ileocecal or ileocolonic resection for Crohn's disease.

Methods: A series of 122 consecutive patients underwent elective ileocecal or ileocolonic resection with ileocolonic anastomosis for Crohn's disease from January 1998 to June 2003: 71 had handsewn end-to-end anastomosis and 51 had side-to-side stapled anastomosis.

Molecular approaches to the identification and treatment monitoring of periodontal pathogens.

Two different PCR-based molecular approaches, a commercial kit for detection of A. actinomycetemcomitans, P. gingivalis, P.