[Therapy with high-doses of antithrombin III in patients with septic shock and agranulocytosis].

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to assess efficacy of high-doses ofantithrombin 111 (AT) for treatment of septic shock in patients with an agranulocytosis. DESIGN: Prospective, controlled study. PATIENTS: 29 patients from 18 to 74 years old, with blood diseases complicated with septic shock Dates of study: from 2006 to 2012. METHODS: The patients were randomized into two groups. Group-1 included 14 patients, who did not receive AT and group-2 included 15 patients who received AT. RESULTS: Demographic indicators, condition severity according to APACHE II, level of thrombocytopenia, levels ofplasma procalcitonin, interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were the same in both groups. Level of AT was decreased in both groups; however it was higher in the group-1 (50% vs. 60%, p < 0.05). In the group-1, microorganisms were found in the blood of 9 patients. In the group-2, the microorganisms were found in the blood of 11 patients. Inflammation markers were decreased after the treatment of septic shock in both groups (p<0.05). The decreasing of procalcitonin in group-1 was from 43.8 to 1 ng/ml in 14 days and from 12.8 to 1.6 ng/ml in 7 days in group-2. The decreasing of CRP in group-1 was from 224 to 114 mg/l in 7 days and from 146 to 60 mg/l in 14 days in group-2. The decreasing of IL-6 in group-1 was from 1617 to 100 pg/ml in 3 days and from 5895 to 77 pg/ml in 7 days in group-2. A level of AT was increased only in group-2 (under 12% per day). 28-day survival was higher in group-2 (60 +/- 13% vs. 45 +/- 13%, p<0.05). We did not find any complications of the treatment with AT concentrate. CONCLUSION: Treatment of septic shock with high-doses of antithrombin III was effective and safe in patients with an agranulocytosis.

[Combined chemotherapy for hemoblastoses and therapy for acute respiratory failure in intensive care conditions].

AIM: To study the efficiency of polychemotherapy (PCT) for hemoblastoses in acute respiratory failure (ARP). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The case histories of 63 hemoblastosis patients with ARF who received PCT were examined. The patients were divided into 3 groups: 1) 40 patients with acute leukemia (AL); 2) 15 patients with lymphomas; 3) 8 with multiple myeloma (MM). RESULTS: The duration of lung lesion in leukemia was less than that in myeloma and lymphomas (2.5 +/- 5.3 versus 12.8 +/- 30.6 and 21 +/- 10.2 days, respectively). In the patients with leukemia and lymphomas, PCT was initiated earlier than in those with myeloma (1.5 +/- 0.5 versus 1.75 +/- 3.1 and 8.3 +/- 10.9 days, respectively). In 65.1% of the patients, PCT resulted in agranulocytosis, the rate and duration of which did not differ in the groups. APACHE II scores were 23.5 +/- 4.2; PaO2/FiO2 was 182.1 +/- 60.5. The groups did not differ in disease severity. Noninvasive ventilation was made in 22 patients. Artificial ventilation (AV) was used in 39 patients; it was successfully completed in 13 (33.3%) patients. The most common infectious complications were sepsis (60%), septic shock (27%), and bacteremia (16%). Sepsis was encountered twice more frequently in lymphomas and myeloma, and septic shock was 4 times more commonly in leukemias. In myeloma, bacteremia was seen more frequently than in leukemia (50 and 10%; p = 0.024); serum procalcitonin was > 10 ng/ml (100 and 35%); p = 0.028). In leukemias, lymphomas, and myeloma, 28-day survival was 60, 60, and 75%, respectively. The baseline APACHE II disease severity, the degree of hypoxemia, and the presence and duration of agranulocytosis did not determine prognosis. The poor predictors were consciousness impairment, AV, renal failure, and no response to chemotherapy.

[Treatment of life-threatening airway obstruction in patients with malignant lymphomas].

Case histories of patients with hemoblastosis admitted to a hospital for acute respiratory failure due to tumor-induced obstruction were retrospectively analyzed. The causes of obstruction, antitumor therapy, methods for provision of airway patency, and major critical syndromes were analyzed. Ten patients with life-threatening tumor-induced airway obstruction were hospitalized from 1995 to 2007. The patients suffered from malignant lymphomas in all cases. The causes of impaired airway patency were the compression of the trachea and large bronchi with a tumor, lymph nodes, affected thyroid, as well as the superior vena cava syndrome, and tumor-induced lesion of soft tissues of the neck and chest. Airway patency was effected with tracheal intubation in 9 cases, it was maintained by noninvasive mask ventilation in 1 patient. Translaryngeal tracheal intubation and tracheostomy were used for artificial ventilation (AV) in 6 and 3 patients, respectively. Multidrug therapy (MDT) was performed in all the patients. Airway patency restored in 9 patients after MDT initiation. The duration of AV was 5.8 +/- l.7 days. The length of stay in an intensive care unit was 90%; intrahospital survival was 70%; 28-day and 3-year survivals were 90 and 24%, respectively. Two of the 3 patients who had undergone were observed to have serious complications (cicatrical stenosis, tracheoesophageal fistula). Hemoblastosis patients with tumor-induced obstruction need for provision of airway patency and for immediate initiation of MDT and/or radiotherapy. Orothracheal or nasotracheal intubation of the trachea is the methods of choice in providing airway patency. Tracheostomy is not indicated in most cases. Short-term prognosis is good in this cohort of patients. Long-term prognosis is determined by a lot of factors of which tumor sensitivity to cytostatics and radiation is most important.

[Lung biopsy in the diagnosis of causes of lung involvement in hemoblastosis]. / Biopsiia legkogo v diagnostike prichin porazheniia legkikh u bol'nykh gemoblastozami.

AIM: To ascertain the role of lung biopsy in diagnosis of lung lesions in hemoblastosis (HB) patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The results of diagnostic biopsies of the lungs obtained from 22 HB patients are presented. Ten patients had no respiratory insufficiency (RI), twelve patients had RI. The biopsy was transbronchial in 1 case, thoracoscopic in 10 and open in 11 cases. RESULTS: In RI-free patients lung biopsy was informative in all the cases. The biopsy provided information which allowed therapy modification resulting in improvement of the patient condition. In RI patients biopsy was informative in 8 of 12 patients. Nonspecific changes in the lungs were identified histologically in 2 of 12 patients. In 2 RI patients lung biopsy confirmed the diagnosis made after examination of the bronchoalveolar lavage. Modification of therapy after the biopsy was conducted in 58.3% HB patients with RI. Improvement was seen in 2 of them. 10 of 12 patients with RI died within 1-2 weeks after biopsy. CONCLUSION: Lung biopsy in HB patients should be obtained only after examination with noninvasive methods and before development of RI as prognosis after lung biopsy in the presence of RI is unfavourable. The histological material should be examined for all expected pathogens.

[Dilatation tracheostomy in patients with hemorrhagic syndrome]. / Osobennosti dilatatsionnoi trakheostomii u bol'nykh s gemorragicheskim sindromom.

Specific features of dilatation tracheostomy (DTS) were studied in 45 patients with hemorrhagic syndrome; 37 of them had thrombocytopenia; 6 patients had thrombocytopenia and disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC); and 2 patients had congenital coagulopathy. Besides, there were patients, among the examined ones, with hemoblastosis (36), with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (1), with aplastic anemia (1), with HELLP-syndrome (1), with diabetes mellitus (1), with rheumatoid arthritis, with stomach cancer (2) and with hemophilia A (2). Commercial sets were made use of for DTS ("Portex"). DTS can be safely made provided the blood platelets' level is not below 40-50 x 10(9), and the time of bleeding is below 3 min; in hemophilia, the procedure is possible after the administration factor's preparations; and in DIC--after plasma transfusion and after ensuring the normal coagulation. Obturation of lumens of the trachea and bronchi with blood grumes is an often complication in DTS, which makes it necessary to make bronchoscopy immediately after DTS.

[Noninvasive ventilation of the lungs in the treatment of acute respiratory failure in immunocompromised patients]. / Neinvazivnaia ventiliatsiia legkikh v lechenii ostroi dykhatel'noi nedostatochnosti u immunokomprometirovannykh bol'nykh.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficiency and place of noninvasive ventilation of the lungs (NVL) in the treatment of hypoxemic acute respiratory failure (ARF) in patients with tumorous diseases of the blood. The study was carried out in 12 patients (3 men and 9 women) with tumorous diseases of the blood system, in whom NVL was used for treating ARF. Central hemodynamic and oxygen transport parameters were studied using Swan-Hanz catheter. NVL was uneventfully carried out in 5 (41.7%) of 12 patients (group 1). Group 2 consisted of 7 patients intubated after the beginning of NVL: 2 had to be transferred to forced ventilation of the lungs (FVL) because of loss of consciousness and 5 because of augmenting severity of ARD. All patients transferred to FVL died. During the first 3 h of NVL, oxygen delivery increased from 371.3 +/- 84.9 to 443.9 +/- 92.7 gm/m2 and oxygen consumption from 123.9 +/- 35.9 to 173.5 +/- 34 m/m2, oxygen alveolar-arterial difference decreased from 400.8 +/- 165.3 to 210 +/- 57.5 mm Hg, pulmonary shunt from 41.8 +/- 11.9 to 19 +/- 7.9%, PaO2/FiO2 from 140.4 +/- 210 +/- 84.9, left-ventricular stroke index increased from 38.2 +/- 14.9 to 50.6 +/- 21.8 ml/m2, left-ventricular output index from 37 +/- 19.5 to 47.4 +/- 23.7 gm/m2, and heart rate decreased from 119.2 +/- 17.5 to 111.4 +/- 23.8 min-1. In group 2 greater fraction of inhaled oxygen and higher positive pressure at the end of inspiration were required than in group 1. Heart rate and oxygen alveolar-arterial difference were higher in group 2. Side effects of NVL were skin maceration, hematomas on the bridge of the nose, and conjunctivitis. A specific complication associated with thrombocytopenia was the hemorrhagic syndrome (nasal bleeding, hemorrhagic stomatitis). Hence, NVL is the first stage of respiratory support in hypoxemic ARF. In immunocompromised patients NVL is effective only in cases when the cause of damage to the lung is rapidly diagnosed and effective pathogenetic therapy promptly started.

[Comparative evaluation of different tracheal accesses for artificial ventilation of the lungs in patients with depressed hematopoiesis]. / Sravnitel'naia otsenka razlichnykh dostupov k trakhee dlia provedeniia IVL u bol'nykh s depressiiami krovetvoreniia.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the complications and errors in tracheal intubation and tracheostomy, development of algorithm of steps for provision of endotracheal access in patients with hematological diseases. Provision of endotracheal access in 115 patients with blood system diseases is analyzed retrospectively. A total of 113 orotracheal, 50 nasotracheal intubations, and 48 tracheostomies were carried out. In 6 patients fibrobronchoscope was used for intubation because of pronounced hemorrhagic syndrome, inflammatory changes, and soft tissue edema of the face and neck; in 2 patients tracheostoma was inserted under local anesthesia. In 12 patients nasotracheal intubation was complicated by nasal bleeding. The most frequent and serious complication in patients with a tube in the trachea was obturation of the tube with sputum (9.7% of orotracheal intubations, 30% of nasotracheal intubations, and 15% of tracheostomas). Extubation/decannulation was carried out in 20 patients. One patient developed cicatricial stenosis of the trachea after tracheostoma. Hemorrhagic tracheobronchitis was endoscopically diagnosed most often (in 55 cases). Autopsy showed hemorrhages in the mucosa in 68.2%, in soft tissues adjacent to tracheostoma in 41.4%, and suppurative inflammation in 15.2% cases. Hence, hemorrhagic tracheobronchitis, hemorrhages in the mucosa, soft tissues of the trachea and bronchi are the most frequent clinical and morphological complications in patients with depressed hemopoiesis. Indications for nasotracheal intubation in this patient population should be limited. Early tracheostomy is recommended. Algorithm of steps ensuring the patency of airways in patients subjected to forced ventilation of the lungs is offered.