Management of patients with severe acute respiratory failure due to SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia with noninvasive ventilatory support outside Intensive Care Unit.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has high mortality rate mainly stemming from acute respiratory distress leading to respiratory failure (ARF). Aim of the study was to evaluate the management of severe ARF due to COVID-19 pneumonia using noninvasive ventilatory support (NIVS), studying safety and effectiveness of NIVS. METHODS: This is a retrospective, multicenter study. Primary outcomes were NIVS failure with intubation rate and hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes were hospital stay and factors related to NIVS failure and mortality. These outcomes were compared with patients intubated and admitted to ICU. RESULTS: One hundred sixty-two patients were hospitalized because of severe respiratory failure (PaO2/FiO2 ratio <250). One hundred thirty-eight patients were admitted to Respiratory Intermediate Care Unit (RICU) for a NIVS trial. One hundred patients were treated successfully with NIVS (74.5%); 38 failed NIVS trial (27.5%). In-hospital mortality was 23.18% in RICU group and 30.55% in ICU group. Patients with NIVS failure were older, had a lower number of lymphocytes, a higher IL-6, lower PaO2, PaC O2, PaO2/FiO2 ratio, higher respiratory rate (RR) and heart rate at admission and lower PaO2, and PaO2/FiO2 ratio and higher RR after 1-6 hours. Multivariate analysis identified higher age, C-reactive protein as well as RR after 1-6 hours and PaO2/FiO2 ratio after 1-6 hours as an independent predictor mortality. CONCLUSIONS: NIVS is a safe and effective strategy in the treatment of severe ARF due to COVID-19 related pneumonia, that reduces mortality and length of hospital stay in the carefully selected patients.

Whole-body mapping of spatial acuity for pain and touch.

OBJECTIVE: Tactile spatial acuity is routinely tested in neurology to assess the state of the dorsal column system. In contrast, spatial acuity for pain is not assessed, having never been systematically characterized. More than a century after the initial description of tactile acuity across the body, we provide the first systematic whole-body mapping of spatial acuity for pain. METHODS: We evaluated the 2-point discrimination thresholds for both nociceptive-selective and tactile stimuli across several skin regions. Thresholds were estimated using pairs of simultaneous stimuli, and also using successive stimuli. RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION: These two approaches produced convergent results. The fingertip was the area of highest spatial acuity, for both pain and touch. On the glabrous skin of the hand, the gradient of spatial acuity for pain followed that observed for touch. On the hairy skin of the upper limb, spatial acuity for pain and touch followed opposite proximal-distal gradients, consistent with the known innervation density of this body territory. Finally, by testing spatial acuity for pain in a rare participant completely lacking Aß fibers, we demonstrate that spatial acuity for pain does not rely on a functioning system of tactile primary afferents. This study represents the first systematic characterization of spatial acuity for pain across multiple regions of the body surface.

Entre la interdisciplina y la transdiciplina en las prácticas de salud: Dimensiones subjetivas y sociales / Between interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity in health practices: Subjective and social dimensions

En la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, el 7 de septiembre del 2001, la revista Claves, la Unidad Académica de Salud Mental de la U.D.H. Fernández de la Facultad de Medicina, UBA, el Proyecto UBACyT: Exclusión Social y Nuevos Padecimientos del Instituto de Investigaciones Gino Germani, de la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, y el Instituto Internacional de Psicología Social Analítica de Venecia, Italia, organizaron un Foro Participativo. Se incluyen las ponencias de cada uno de los integrantes a partir de la presentación de dos situaciones obstétricas; Cinthia y María. Fue Secretaria del Foro la Lic. Viviana García