Minerva medica
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Behçet disease is a multi-systemic complex vasculitis with unknown etiology characterized by different clinical involvements, including mucocutaneous, ocular, vascular, articular, neurological, and gastrointestinal manifestations. Growing evidence supports that different phenotypes, characterized by clusters of co-existing involvements, can be distinguished. Namely, the vascular phenotype identifies a specific group of patients who suffer from recurrent inflammatory thrombosis and arterial involvement. ⋯ Glucocorticoids and immunosuppressants are the recommended first-line treatments in vasculo-Behçet. Furthermore, controlled trials are still needed to assess the role of adding anticoagulation to the treatment regimen, with an accent on new oral anticoagulants. Treatment with anti-TNF alpha agents seems promising, but the management strategies are not clear yet.
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Retinal vein occlusion is an important cause of vision loss. The current treatment options are mainly directed to the prevention of neovascular complications and few studies have addressed to potential use of anticoagulant agents and other interventions targeting the coagulation system. Herein we review the general aspects of this condition focusing on the potential benefits of anticoagulant treatment.
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Long-lasting heavy alcohol intake has been progressively recognized as a leading cause of nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy, involving 10% of all people who use alcohol. It is of huge importance to identify the earliest markers of this dysfunction and it is known that the newest echocardiographic techniques such as speckle tracking may allow to do it. In this study we investigated if standard basal echocardiogram features allow to obtain predictors of asymptomatic cardiac dysfunction in alcoholics. ⋯ This study has demonstrated that standard echocardiography may allow to predict cardiac dysfunction in asymptomatic alcoholics, and sex-related differences may be identified in this regard. These data need to be confirmed by further studies involving larger population.
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Letter Case Reports
Polygraphy: a useful tool to discover undetected atrial fibrillation.