Lewis lead enhances atrial activity detection in wide QRS tachycardia.

BACKGROUND: The differential diagnosis of wide QRS tachycardia is a challenge for the emergency physician. The major tool is the electrocardiogram (ECG), even though the sensitivity and specificity may be variable, depending on presentation. Additional leads could be used to improve the diagnostic accuracy of the ECG. OBJECTIVE: To document the use of the Lewis lead in improving the diagnostic accuracy of the ECG in wide QRS tachycardia. CASE REPORT: A 52-year-old woman with rheumatoid arthritis, in treatment with methotrexate, was admitted with progressive dyspnea that evolved to acute respiratory distress and shock at arrival. Pneumonia was diagnosed as the infection and she received antibiotics, and respiratory and inotropic support. She was also using amiodarone for more than 10 years, but she couldn't state the reason. On cardiac monitoring, wide QRS tachycardia was detected and ventricular tachycardia was considered on the differential diagnosis. The standard 12-lead ECG was complemented with the Lewis lead, obtained with higher speed and amplitude, demonstrating atrioventricular concordance and excluding ventricular tachycardia. The patient was treated for septic shock, and she died 2 days later. CONCLUSION: The Lewis lead is a simple and easy strategy to enhance atrial activity detection in wide QRS tachycardia.

Post-transcriptional markers associated with clinical complications in Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

The delayed diagnosis and the inadequate treatment of diabetes increase the risk of chronic complications. The study of regulatory molecules such as miRNAs can provide expression profiles of diabetes and diabetes complications. We evaluated the mononuclear cell miRNA profiles of 63 Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes patients presenting or not microvascular complications, and 40 healthy controls, using massive parallel sequencing. Gene targets, enriched pathways, dendograms and miRNA-mRNA networks were performed for the differentially expressed miRNAs. Six more relevant miRNAs were validated by RT-qPCR and data mining analysis. MiRNAs associated with specific complications included: i) neuropathy (miR-873-5p, miR-125a-5p, miR-145-3p and miR-99b-5p); ii) nephropathy (miR-1249-3p, miR-193a-5p, miR-409-5p, miR-1271-5p, miR-501-3p, miR-148b-3p and miR-9-5p); and iii) retinopathy (miR-143-3p, miR-1271-5p, miR-409-5p and miR-199a-5p). These miRNAs mainly targeted gene families and specific genes associated with advanced glycation end products and their receptors. Sets of miRNAs were also defined as potential targets for diabetes/diabetes complication pathogenesis.