Post pacemaker insertion pericarditis is a rare form of post cardiac injury syndrome. It is an inflammatory process involving the pericardium and/or pleura due to a recent cardiac injury. Post cardiac injury syndrome may develop after myocardial infarction (Dressler syndrome), cardiac surgery or trauma. However, in rare cases it can occur following minor cardiac procedures. We report a case of ...

The specificity of serum CPK-MB for acute myocardial infarction was examined by retrospective analysis of 401 consecutive patients admitted to a Coronary Care Unit over a three and one-half year period with suspected infarction in whom the isoenzyme was subsequently detected. Four patients (1% ) who died during the hospital admission had no autopsy evidence of acute myocardial infarction. All f...

Whereas controversial, several studies have suggested that nitric oxide (NO) alters cardiac contractility via cGMP, peroxynitrite, or poly(ADP ribose) synthetase (PARS) activation. This study determined whether burn-related upregulation of myocardial inducible NO synthase (iNOS) and NO generation contributes to burn-mediated cardiac contractile dysfunction. Mice homozygous null for the iNOS gen...

Introduction The London Trauma Conference (#LTC2014) & London Cardiac Arrest Symposium (#LCAS2014) have become an extraordinary international showcase for the innovation, research, talent and passion that is dedicated to the medical care of major trauma and critically ill patients. The 8 London Trauma Conference did not disappoint and, in a reversal of the Royal Geographical Society’s history o...

Cardiac impalement injury is rare and one of the most severe penetrating chest injuries, often fatal. The management of penetrating cardiac injuries is a challenging one. The success in management of impaling cardiac trauma requires stabilization of the impaling object, expeditious transfer to a facility for open heart surgery, rapid imaging, access to blood and blood products and a ready surgi...

Chylopericardium is an uncommon condition, reported to occur following routine cardiac surgery, orthotopic heart transplantation, cardiac trauma, intrathoracic tumors, or infection. It has not, to date, been reported following uncomplicated orthotopic lung transplantation. This article describes chylopericardium following bilateral orthotopic lung transplantation.

Severe trauma has become the most frequent cause of death in industrialized countries and, for this reason, the fastness of a diagnostic approach and the precocity of the proper treatment are both essential and best influenced by the trauma team collaboration and the existence of a specific algorithm in which each specialist has a definite place and role. In the first stage time of a proposed s...

A case of mitral incompetence and multiple ventricular septal defects following a non-penetrating chest injury is described. Cardiac injury was detected by electrocardiogram and by the appearance of a heart murmur in the second week after trauma. Superimposition of bacterial endocarditis seven years later caused cardiac decompensation and necessitated successful surgical treatment. Previous rep...

A growing body of evidence indicates that heme degradation products may counteract the deleterious consequences of hypoxia and/or ischemia-reperfusion injury. Because heme oxygenase (HO)-1 induction after adverse circulatory conditions is known to be protective, and because females in the proestrus cycle (with high estrogen) have better hepatic function and less hepatic damage than males after ...

BACKGROUND The assessment of hemodynamic status is a crucial task in the initial evaluation of trauma patients. However, blood pressure and heart rate are often misleading, as multiple variables may impact these conventional parameters. More reliable methods such as pulmonary artery thermodilution for cardiac output measuring would be necessary, but its applicability in the Emergency Department...