OBJECTIVES To determine the effectiveness of corticosteroids in reducing respiratory disorders in infants born at 34-36 weeks' gestation. Design Randomised triple blind clinical trial. Setting A large tertiary teaching hospital in northeast of Brazil. Participants Women at 34-36 weeks of pregnancy at risk of imminent premature delivery. Interventions Betamethasone 12 mg or placebo intramuscular...

Abstract There is some recent evidence that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) increases risk of venous thromboembolism by creating a prothrombotic state. COVID-19 and pulmonary embolism (PE) are both associated with tachypnoea, hypoxemia, dyspnoea, increased D-dimer. Diagnosis in patient compared to an individual without it, using conventional clinical biochemical challenging somehow impo...

Introduction and purpose: Sepsis is defined by the Sepsis-3 definition as life-threatening organ dysfunction caused a dysregulated host response to infection1. Common manifestations of sepsis are fever, tachycardia, tachypnoea, confusion, hemodynamic dysfunction, worsening tissue perfusion. may cause septic shock. The immune system produces reactive oxygen species which can also have an adverse...

The mechanism of re-expansion pulmonary oedema (Re-PE) is unclear. There are multiple variables in play when evaluating the response to evacuation of pleural fluid. We present an educational case of a critically ill patient admitted for respiratory failure who was fully dependent on ventricular pacing set at a constant rate throughout the episode of Re-PE. The transthoracic echocardiography (TT...

One-third of 327 newborn infants referred to the perinatal service of the Hospital for Sick Children during 1975 with suspected cardiopulmonary disorders proved to have nonstructural heart disease. Most of these were term infants with transient tachypnoea or cyanosis who recovered. A history of fetal distress or difficult delivery was commonly associated. The haemodynamic disorder for most was ...

The details of the deliveries of 10 infants whose cords were clamped before the onset of respiration and within one minute of delivery of the chin but whose residual placental volumes were unexpectedly low are compared with 20 control infants whose cords were clamped under similar conditions but who had the expected residual placental volumes. The only statistically significant difference betwe...

Definition of community acquired pneumonia (CAP) CAP can be defined clinically as the presence of signs and symptoms of pneumonia in a previously healthy child due to an acute infection (of less than 14 days’ duration) of the lower respiratory tract (usually occurs below terminal bronchioles) leading to cough or difficult breathing, tachypnoea, or lower chest-wall indrawing, which has been acqu...

A 55 year old female was admitted as a case of pyrexia of unknown origin (PUO) of 2 months duration. She had developed throat ache, progressive dysphagia for both solids and liquids, dry cough and retrosternal pain for one week. Examination revealed fever, tachycardia, tachypnoea and a soft tissue warm tender, erythematous, non-fluctuant swelling in lower anterior neck with chest findings sugge...

Clinicians of all specialties need to be aware of a recent, nationwide increase in the number of Actinomyces bloodstream infections. We report a case of bimicrobial bloodstream infection with Actinomyces odontolyticus and Escherichia coli in an intravenous drug user. A 36-year-old, male intravenous drug user was admitted with acute-onset pleuritic chest pain, back pain, pyrexia, tachycardia, ta...