AIMS Electrical storm (ES) is a life-threatening condition that predicts bad prognosis. Treatment includes antiarrhythmic drugs (AAD) and catheter ablation (CA). The present study aims to retrospectively compare prognosis in terms of survival and ES recurrence in 52 consecutive patients experiencing a first ES episode. METHODS AND RESULTS Patients were admitted from 1995 to 2011 and treated f...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Concentrated heparin solutions are instilled into the catheter lumens after each hemodialysis session to prevent catheter thrombosis. The heparin lock concentration at many centers has been decreased recently to reduce the risk of systemic bleeding and contain costs. However, the effect of this change on catheter patency is unknown. We compared catheter patency between...

OBJECTIVES This study describes 5-year follow-up results of catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation (AF). BACKGROUND Long-term efficacy following catheter ablation of AF remains unknown. METHODS A total of 100 patients (86 men, 14 women), age 55.7 ± 9.6 years, referred to our center for a first AF ablation (63% paroxysmal; 3.5 ± 1.4 prior ineffective antiarrhythmic agents) were followed f...

BACKGROUND Some observational studies suggest that the use of pulmonary-artery catheters to guide therapy is associated with increased mortality. METHODS We performed a randomized trial comparing goal-directed therapy guided by a pulmonary-artery catheter with standard care without the use of a pulmonary-artery catheter. The subjects were high-risk patients 60 years of age or older, with Amer...

Methods: This is an observational study which was carried out in a university hospital over 3 years. The study involved 153, three-cuff PD catheter insertions in 150 incident PD patients. The study was carried out in our PD center and extended from December, 2012 till January 2016 with a mean follow-up period of 15 months. All patients used automated peritoneal dialysis (APD). Throughout the st...

BACKGROUND Malignant ascites is a pathological condition caused by intra- or extra-abdominal disseminated cancer. The object of treatment is palliation. In search of an effective and minimally invasive palliative treatment of malignant ascites placement of a permanent intra peritoneal catheter has been suggested. PURPOSE To evaluate our experiences with treatment of malignant ascites by impla...

There is growing concern about the development of antibacterial resistance with the use of antibiotics in catheter lock solutions. The use of an antibiotic that is not usually used to treat other serious infections may be an alternative that may reduce the clinical impact should resistance develop. We conducted a randomized controlled trial to compare a solution of minocycline and EDTA with the...

Abstract Background and Aims The prolonged survival of patients on dialysis has resulted in a higher frequency complications failure related to vascular access. As result, the situation depleted vasculature hemodialysis is becoming increasingly prevalent. use an atrial tunneled catheter (ATDC) been reported as effective solution for access these patients, but limited data available associated c...

the use of diagnostic and therapeutic methods for assessing pulmonary vein due to its status as a main source of ectopic beats for the initiation of atrial dysrrythmias is strongly recommended.   we report the case of a 13-year-old girl who was admitted to our hospital with the electrocardiogram manifestation of an ectopic atrial tachycardia. the focus of arrhythmia was inside the right upper p...