Cardiac involvement in COVID-19: a matter close to the heart, beyond the acute illness

© 2023 International Journal of Cardiovascular Sciences. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Human infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 have been ravaging the entire world since December 2019. As of February 17, 2023, records from the World Health Organization point to more than 756 million confirmed cases and approximately 6,845,000 deaths. In Brazil, until this date, approximately 36,961,000 cases have been reported, with about 698,000 deaths.Among the deaths, the main comorbidities reported are heart disease (40%), diabetes (28%), obesity (10%), neurological diseases (5%), kidney diseases (5%), and pneumopathies (5%). Furthermore, 70% of patients who died were 60 years old or older, and males were prevalent in 60% of the cases.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

COVID-19 : a matter close to the heart

© This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International – CC BYThe world is facing a new challenge, the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by a betacoronavirus named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), phylogenetically identical to the SARS-CoV (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus) and the MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) responsible for innumerable deaths in China in 2003 and in the Middle East in 2012, respectively.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Covid-19 and Safety in the Cath Lab: Where We Are and Where We Are Headed

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The Best Articles of 2022 in the Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia and Revista Portuguesa de Cardiologia

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RELAÇÃO ENTRE AMPLITUDE DE MOVIMENTO DE QUADRIS, JOELHOS E TORNOZELOS E A OCORRÊNCIA DE QUEDAS EM IDOSOS INSTITUCIONALIZADOS

Estudar a relação entre a amplitude de movimento de quadris, joelhos e tornozelos com a ocorrência de quedas em idosos. Estudo descritivo transversal realizado com 39 idosos institucionalizados na Casa dos Idosos Vila Mutirão em Goiânia (Goiás, Brasil). Foram constituídos dois grupos, idosos caidores (n = 16) e idosos não caidores (n = 14). A amplitude de movimento dos quadris, joelhos e tornozelos foi avaliada por meio da goniometria. Foram feitas análises estatísticas descritivas para todas as variáveis e para a comparação entre os grupos foram utilizados o teste T-Studant, no nível de significância de 5%. Houve diferenças estatisticamente significativas entre os grupos para as variáveis sexo, renda e escolaridade e não houve diferenças significativas entre os grupos para a amplitude de movimento de quadris, joelhos e tornozelos. Embora sem diferença estatisticamente significativa entre os grupos, percebemos menor amplitude de movimento entre os idosos caidores. A restrição da mobilidade está associada a ocorrência de quedas em idosos, sendo essa limitação passível de intervenção fisioterapêutica. Fazem-se necessários programas de exercícios terapêuticos a fim de prevenir eventos adversos como as quedas em idosos

Nerve Stimulator-Guided Brachial Plexus Block Performed in the Amputation of a Calf’s Forelimb

Background: Locoregional anesthesia techniques enable the performance of procedures in the distal portion of the limbs, through the parenteral administration of local anesthetic nerve block. There are devices that can increase the effectiveness of these blocks by accurately locating the nerves. These devices include peripheral nerve stimulators, which enable anesthetic to be injected near the plexus, thus reducing the volume of anesthetic required and allowing for the specific blockade of a nerve branch by desensitizing exclusively the area of interest. This paper describes the use of nerve stimulator in the brachial plexus block (BPB) of a calf subjected to amputation of the left foreleg.Case: A newborn calf weighing 30 kg, with a history of injury to the left foreleg, was treated at the Veterinary Hospital of the Federal Rural University of the Semi-Arid Region. Clinical and X-ray examinations revealed a fracture in the medial portion of the metacarpus and radiographic alterations indicative of osteomyelitis, so amputation of the affected limb was recommended. Prior the beginning, during and after the surgical procedure, the animal was submitted to the evaluation of its physiological parameters (heart and respiratory rate, capillary refill time, diastolic, systolic and mean blood pressure and rectal temperature). Because it is a newborn animal, it was decided not to pre-operatively fast. After applying preanesthetic medication (xylazine 0.01 mg/kg IV), anesthesia was induced with ketamine (2 mg/kg IV) and midazolam (0.3 mg/kg IV) and maintained with isoflurane. For the brachial plexus block, 0.4 mL/kg (1.5 mg/kg) of 0.375% bupivacaine was used and aided by a peripheral nerve stimulator to generate 10 mA current, 1 HZ frequency and 100 μs pulse duration, coupled to a nerve stimulation needle, it was possible to observe flexion movements of the limb. The stimulus was decreased until movements were triggered at currents lower than 5 mA and nonexistent at 2 mA, whereupon the anesthetic solution was slowly injected. The blockade promoted anesthesia of the entire distal region of the scapulohumeral joint after 30 min, providing supplemental analgesia throughout the surgical procedure, whose effect persisted up to 6 h after the blockade, thus enabling amputation surgery of the limb. The anesthetic recovery was smooth and without signs of excitation. Post-operatory therapy was dipyrone (25 mg / kg) intravenously (IV), every 12 h for five days, meloxicam (0.5 mg / kg) IV every 24 h for three days; and morphine (0.1 mg / kg) intramuscularly every 6 h for three days.Discussion: The use of nerve stimulation enabled the safe and effective use of BPB in a calf subjected to forelimb amputation surgery. In terms of its analgesic contribution during the intraoperative period, the effectiveness of the blockade was satisfactory, considering that the animal presented no variations in the parameters evaluated during the entire surgical period, when compared to those obtained in the preoperative, and no supplemental analgesic was needed during the surgery. In cattle, BPB is usually performed using a blind approach, using anatomical points as references for its execution, and the anesthesiologist’s experience and skills are a determining factor in the success rate of the technique. Nerve stimulator-guided plexus block is still rarely used in ruminants, and is described experimentally only in sheep, using a technique similar to that employed for dogs, which means this is a pioneering technique in calves.Naftáli Silva Fernandes, Simone Rodrigues Barbosa, Maria Gláucia Carlos de Oliveira, Fábio Franco Almeida, Desirée Coelho de Mello Seal, Ugo Monteiro de Moraes, Luã Barbalho de Macêdo &Valéria Veras de Paul

Effects of the Topical Application of Hydroalcoholic Leaf Extract of Oncidium flexuosum Sims. (Orchidaceae) and Microcurrent on the Healing of Wounds Surgically Induced in Wistar Rats

This study evaluated the wound healing activity of hydroalcoholic leaf extract of Oncidium flexuosum Sims. (Orchidaceae), an important native plant of Brazil, combined or not with microcurrent stimulation. Wistar rats were randomly divided into four groups of nine animals: control (C), topical application of the extract (OF), treated with a microcurrent (10 μA/2 min) (MC), and topical application of the extract plus microcurrent (OF + MC). Tissue samples were obtained 2, 6, and 10 days after injury and submitted to structural and morphometric analysis. The simultaneous application of OF + MC was found to be highly effective in terms of the parameters analyzed (P < .05), with positive effects on the area of newly formed tissue, number of fibroblasts, number of newly formed blood vessels, and epithelial thickness. Morphometric data confirmed the structural findings. The O. flexuosum leaf extract contains active compounds that speed the healing process, especially when applied simultaneously with microcurrent stimulation

COVID-19 and Hypercoagulable State: A New Therapeutic Perspective

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