The Netherlands journal of medicine
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Over the last decade, there has been an increasing awareness for the potential harm of the administration of too much oxygen. We aimed to describe self-reported attitudes towards oxygen therapy by clinicians from a large representative sample of intensive care units (ICUs) in the Netherlands. ⋯ A representative sample of ICU clinicians from the Netherlands were concerned about oxygen-induced lung injury, and reported that they preferred PaO2 and SaO2 targets in the lower physiological range and would adjust ventilation settings accordingly.
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Within-visit variability of repeated sequential readings of blood pressure (BP) is an important phenomenon that may affect precision of BP measurement and thus decision making concerning BP-related risk and hypertension management. However, limited data exist concerning predictive ability of within-visit BP variability for clinical outcomes. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the association between the variability of three repeated office BP measurements and the risk of all-cause mortality, independent of BP levels. ⋯ Within-visit variability of three sequential office DBP readings may allow for the identification of high-risk patients better than mean SBP and DBP levels. The predictive value of within-visit BP variability and methods to improve its clinical application are worthy of further research.
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Case Reports
HIV-associated and idiopathic-acquired haemophilia A: A single-centre case series from Cape Town, South Africa.
Acquired haemophilia A is a rare coagulation disorder, which can lead to life-threatening haemorrhages if not identified and treated promptly. It is characterised by the presence of autoantibodies (inhibitors) to factor VIII. ⋯ We comparatively describe four patients - two with HIV and two without - that presented with unusual bleeding episodes with a prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time secondary to factor VIII inhibitors. An empiric observation is that the patients with acquired haemophilia A associated with HIV had higher antibody titres at presentation, that required more prolonged immunosuppressive therapy to induce remission.