Fibromuscular Dysplasia Presenting as Acute Unilateral Renal Infarction: A Case Report and Review of Two Diseases.

Fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) is a rare systemic vascular disease that has been found to present as a renal infarction (RI) in only a handful of cases.  We present a case of a 53-year-old Vietnamese patient presenting for sharp, severe left-sided abdominal pain of two-day duration associated with a migraine headache. On presentation, she was afebrile, and her vital signs were stable. Laboratory investigations were significant for mildly elevated leukocytosis but were otherwise normal. CT abdomen and pelvis with contrast revealed a left-sided renal infarct. The patient was then admitted to the hospital and started on therapeutic anticoagulation. A transthoracic echocardiogram was obtained and revealed no vegetation. CT angiography of the abdomen was pursued and was significant for mild beading within the mid-right and left renal arteries, consistent with fibromuscular dysplasia. Our patient was diagnosed with renal infarction in the setting of fibromuscular dysplasia, a combination that has been reported only a few times. Interestingly, our patient also had mild FMD based on imaging, making it even more of an unusual cause of renal infarction. This case highlights the connection between these two diseases and the need for more studies to characterize the association between them.

Calcium use during cardiac arrest: A systematic review.

Introduction: Calcium use during cardiac arrest has conflicting results in terms of efficacy. Therefore, we performed a systematic review evaluating the role of calcium administration in cardiac arrest. Methods: We searched PubMed, Cochrane, and EMBASE for studies comparing calcium administration versus no calcium administration during cardiac arrest. The study was prospectively registered in PROSPERO (CRD42022316641) adhering to PRISMA guideline recommendations. The primary outcome was return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) or survival at one hour. The secondary outcomes included survival to discharge or at 30 days, and favorable neurologic outcomes at 30 and 90 days. We planned to perform a random-effects meta-analysis of low risk of bias studies. We evaluated risk of bias with RoB-2 and ROBINS-I. Results: We identified 1,921 articles and included ten studies with 2509 patients. We were not able to perform a meta-analysis with low-risk of bias studies as only one study was found to be at low-risk of bias. However, for the primary outcome, the three RCTs included showed no benefit with calcium administration during cardiac arrest for ROSC. For the secondary outcomes, based on the most recent study and lower risk of bias, there was a neutral effect for survival to discharge or at 30 days and neurologic outcomes at 30 days. However, there was unfavorable neurologic outcomes at 90 days. Conclusion: Based on our results, calcium administration in cardiac arrests shows no benefit and can cause harm. Further studies on this matter are likely not advisable.

Phenotypes of sickle cell intensive care admissions: an unsupervised machine learning approach in a single-center retrospective cohort.

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is associated with multiple known complications and increased mortality. This study aims to further understand the profile of intensive care unit (ICU) admissions of SCD patients. In this single-center retrospective cohort (approval number 0926-11), we evaluated SCD-related ICU admissions at our hospital in São Paulo, Brazil. Admissions were clustered using clinical data and organ dysfunction at ICU admission. A hierarchical clustering method was used to distinguish phenotypes. From 140 admissions obtained, 125 were included. The mean age was 30 years, 48% were male, and SS genotype was predominant (71.2%). Non-surgical causes of admissions accounted for 85.6% (n = 107). The mean Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score (SOFA) was 4 (IQR 2-7). Vasopressors were required by 12% and mechanical ventilation by 17.6%. After analysis of the average silhouette width, the optimal number of clusters was 3: cluster 1 (n = 69), cluster 2 (n = 25), cluster 3 (n = 31). Cluster 1 had a mean age of 29 years, 87% of SS genotype, and mean SOFA of 4. Cluster 2 had a mean age of 37 years, 80% of SS genotype, and mean SOFA of 8. Cluster 3 had a mean age of 26 years, 29% of SS genotype, and mean SOFA of 3. The need for mechanical ventilation was 11.6%, 44%, and 9.7%, respectively. Mortality was significantly higher in cluster 2 (44%, p = 0.012). This cohort of critical SCD admissions suggested the presence of three different profiles. This can be informative in the ICU setting to identify SCD patients at higher risk of worse outcomes.