Life threating onset of Cardiac Sarcoidosis with mediastinal involvement.

We have described a clinical case with atypical onset of sarcoidosis. A young patient presented to the emergency room with acute heart failure and severe cardiac dysfunction simulating dilated cardiomyopathy or severe myocarditis. Hypoxic respiratory failure refractory to oxygen therapy was treated with steroids. The diagnosis was made by a multidisciplinary team who decided to perform EndoBronchial UltraSound-guided TransBronchial Needle Aspiration (EBUS TBNA) in addition to a cardiac MRI. The result was to obtain, in this case, a prompt therapeutic response in order to preserve the patient cardiac function.

A comparative evaluation of thermodilution and partial CO2 rebreathing techniques for cardiac output assessment in critically ill patients during assisted ventilation.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the reliability and clinical value of partial noninvasive CO2 (NICO2) rebreathing technique for measuring cardiac output compared with standard thermodilution in a group of intensive care nonpostoperative patients. DESIGN AND SETTING: Clinical investigation in a university hospital ICU. PATIENTS: Twelve mechanically ventilated patients with high (n=6) and low (n=6) pulmonary shunt fractions. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Thirty-six paired measurements of cardiac output were carried out with NICO2 and thermodilution in patients ventilated in pressure-support mode and sedated with a sufentanil continuous infusion to obtain a Ramsay score value of 2. The mean cardiac output was: thermodilution 7.27+/-2.42 l/min; NICO2 6.10+/-1.66 l/min; r2 was 0.62 and bias -1.2 l/min+/-1.5. Mean values of cardiac output were similar in the low shunt group (Qs/Qt < 20), with r2=0.90 and a bias of 0.01 l/min+/-0.4; conversely, in the high pulmonary shunt group (Qs/Q > 35%) the mean was 9.32+/-1.23 l/min with thermodilution and a mean NICO2CO value was 6.97+/-1.53 l/min, with r2 of 0.38 and a bias of -2.3 l+/-1.2 min. CONCLUSIONS: The partial CO2 rebreathing technique is reliable in measuring cardiac output in nonpostoperative critically ill patients affected by diseases causing low levels of pulmonary shunt, but underestimates it in patients with shunt higher than 35%.

Prophylactic fenoldopam for renal protection in sepsis: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot trial.

OBJECTIVE: Acute renal failure is common in septic patients. Fenoldopam, a dopamine-1 receptor agonist, increases renal blood flow and may, therefore, reduce the risk of acute renal failure in such patients. Accordingly, we sought to determine the safety and efficacy of fenoldopam for the prevention of acute renal failure in septic patients. DESIGN: Prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. SETTING: Three multidisciplinary intensive care units at a university hospital. PATIENTS: Three hundred septic patients with baseline serum creatinine concentrations <150 micromol/L. INTERVENTIONS: We randomized patients to a continuous infusion of either fenoldopam (n = 150) at 0.09 microg x kg x min or placebo (n = 150) while in the intensive care unit. The primary outcome measure was the incidence of acute renal failure, defined as a serum creatinine concentration increase to >150 micromol/L, during study drug infusion. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The incidence of acute renal failure was significantly lower in the fenoldopam group compared with the control group (29 vs. 51 patients; p = .006). The odds ratio of developing acute renal failure for patients treated with fenoldopam was estimated to be 0.47 (p = .005). The difference in the incidence of severe acute renal failure (creatinine >300 mumol/L), however, failed to achieve statistical significance (10 vs. 21; p = .056). The length of intensive care unit stay in surviving patients was significantly lower in the fenoldopam group compared with the control group (10.64 +/- 9.3 vs. 13.4 +/- 14.0; p < .001). There were no complications of fenoldopam infusion. A direct effect of treatment on the probability of death, beyond its effect on acute renal failure, was not significant (odds ratio = 0.68, p = .1). CONCLUSIONS: Compared with placebo, low-dose fenoldopam resulted in a smaller increase in serum creatinine in septic patients. The clinical significance of this finding is uncertain. A large multiple-center trial is now needed to confirm these findings.