Cardiovascular outcomes improve in children with renovascular hypertension following endovascular and surgical interventions.

BACKGROUND: Renovascular hypertension (RenoVH) is a cause of hypertension in children. A common cause of RenoVH is renal artery stenosis which acts by reducing blood supply to renal parenchyma and activating the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone axis, often leading to cardiac remodelling. This longitudinal observational study aims to describe occurrence of cardiovascular changes secondary to RenoVH and also any improvement in cardiac remodelling after successful endovascular and/or surgical intervention. METHODS: All patients with RenoVH referred to our centre, who received ≥ 1 endovascular intervention (some had also undergone surgical interventions) were included. Data were collected by retrospective database review over a 22-year period. We assessed oscillometric blood pressure and eight echocardiographic parameters pre- and post-intervention. RESULTS: One hundred fifty-two patients met inclusion criteria and had on average two endovascular interventions; of these children, six presented in heart failure. Blood pressure (BP) control was achieved by 54.4% of patients post-intervention. Average z-scores improved in interventricular septal thickness in diastole (IVSD), posterior Wall thickness in diastole (PWD) and fractional shortening (FS); left ventricular mass index (LVMI) and relative wall thickness (RWT) also improved. PWD saw the greatest reduction in mean difference in children with abnormal (z-score reduction 0.25, p < 0.001) and severely abnormal (z-score reduction 0.23, p < 0.001) z-scores between pre- and post-intervention echocardiograms. Almost half (45.9%) had reduction in prescribed antihypertensive medications, and 21.3% could discontinue all antihypertensive therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Our study reports improvement in cardiac outcomes after endovascular + / - surgical interventions. This is evidenced by BP control, and echocardiogram changes in which almost half achieved normalisation in systolic BP readings and reduction in the number of children with abnormal echocardiographic parameters. A higher resolution version of the Graphical abstract is available as Supplementary information.

Biotechnical measurement and software system for the prediction and diagnosis of osteochondrosis of the lumbar region with the use of fuzzy logic rules.

We propose a biotech measurement scheme and software based on new features for the diagnosis of backbone osteochondrosis. Together with the traditional methods of diagnosis, the energy characteristics of biologically active points (acupuncture points, or APs) are used. This new software is based on mathematical models of the internal and biologically active points of meridian structures' interaction. The information from the APs is used in the solving rules based on fuzzy logic for decision-making, together with the factors of confidence of Shortliffe, the membership functions of Zadeh, and Kullback's informativeness measures. In terms of prognostic decision rules, clinical test shows that the quality of prediction using only the energy characteristics of APs is high, with high coefficient of confidence for the control sample as well. A check on control samples allows us to recommend the obtained results for use in medical practice as a part of corresponding systems of support for decision-making.

Severe transfuse related acute lung injury (TRALI) syndrome in a 14 years old girl with a history of type I von Willebrand disease.

Von Willebrand disease (vWD) is the most common inherited bleeding disorder based on an autosomal abnormality of von Willebrand factor. Transfusion is a lifesaving medical intervention among patients with bleeding disorders. Patients with vWD are exposed to Transfuse Related Acute Lung Injury (TRALI) when they become recipients of multiple blood products and repeated transfusions. TRALI is a non-hemolytic transfusion reaction induced by infusions of intravenous immunoglobulin, platelets (suspended in plasma), whole blood, cryoprecipitates, and fresh frozen plasma (FFP). We report a 14 years old white girl, with a history of type 1 von Willebrand disease (vWd), recipient of 2 units' fresh-frozen plasma (FFP) and 1 unit whole blood transfusion who developed an acute respiratory distress with severe hypoxemia and bilateral pulmonary infiltrate on chest X-ray within 3 hours of the whole blood transfusion, completely reversible after mechanical ventilation. Concluding, patients with vWd who received recurrent transfusions have an increased risk of TRALI. Physicians must be familiar with it as a cause of white lung X-ray pattern.