Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia: Terminology, Mechanism, Diagnosis, and Emergency Therapy

Polymorphic ventricular tachyarrhythmias are highly lethal arrhythmias. Several types of polymorphic ventricular tachycardia have similar electrocardiographic characteristics but have different modes of therapy. In fact, medications considered the treatment of choice for one form of polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, are contraindicated for the other. Yet confusion about terminology, and thus diagnosis and therapy, continues. We present an in-depth review of the different forms of polymorphic ventricular tachycardia and propose a practical step-by-step approach for distinguishing these malignant arrhythmias.

SAFETY OF THE COMBINED EMERGENCY ANTIHYPERTENSIVE THERAPY

In 91 patients with increased blood pressure, the efficacy and safety of three combinations of antihypertensive drugs was clarified. It was proved that the use of hourly monitoring of changes in blood pressure immediately after the provision of emergency therapy with the help of sublingual use of combinations of antihypertensive drugs allows for objective control of the time of onset and duration of the preservation of the therapeutic effect and to assess the likelihood and severity of repeated increase and excessive decrease in blood pressure. It has been shown that combinations of antihypertensive drugs: captopril with furosemide, moxonidine with furosemide and moxonidine with nifedipine are not only highly effective, but also safe, and therefore can be used by a doctor or paramedic of emergency medical care to provide emergency therapy, even in elderly and senile patients with comorbid pathology.

Stigma Linked to COVID-19

When it is safe to do so, medical professionals should not delay the treatment of patients who present with respiratory difficulties. Stigmatization of such patients can result in the unnecessary deferral of emergency therapy; this may lead to fatalities that could have been avoided.

Controversies Regarding Compatibility in Xenotransfusion With Blood From Dog to Cat (Review)

As it is well known, any incompatible blood transfusion can generate adverse reactions in feline patients, because cats naturally have plasmatic alloantibodies. Even so, recent scientific studies have shown that transfusions with heterologous blood (canine) to cats, were indeed followed by mild hemolysis states, in cases of severely anemic patients. A repeated transfusion however will cause anaphylactic shock with fatal outcome. Based on the data we have studied, we consider xenotransfusion, even though still controversial, to be considered as an emergency therapeutic procedure when superior, homologous blood cannot be acquired for felines. Through this review we hope to offer clinicians the necessary information to consider xenotransfusion as an alternative in emergency therapy, when this is rigorously sustained by blood compatibility tests and when all other options have been excluded only.

Canine hypoparathyroidism: case report

Primary hypoparathyroidism is an uncommon endocrinopathy in dogs, resulting from absolute or relative deficiency in the secretion of parathormone (PTH). The dog presented signs of hypocalcemia, including muscular spasms, tetany and cramps, evolving to tonic-clonic seizures and fever. Emergency therapy for hypocalcemia included glucose physiological solution at 0.45% and calcium gluconate administered intravenously. Diagnosis was confirmed by the presence of hypocalcemia, hyperphosphatemia and a decrease in parathormone (PTH).