pituitrin and Dyspnea

Early in the management of acute illness, it is critically important that volume status is accurately estimated. If inappropriate therapy is given because of errors in volume assessment, acute mortality rates are increased. Unfortunately, as the gold standard of radioisotopic volume measurement is costly and time-consuming, in the acute care environment clinicians are forced to rely on less accurate measures. In this manuscript, the authors review the currently available techniques of volume assessment for patients presenting with acute illness. In addition to discussing the accuracy of the history, physical examination, and radiography, acoustic cardiography and bedside ultrasonography are presented.

Topics: Blood Volume; Body Fluids; Cardiography, Impedance; Dyspnea; Heart Auscultation; Heart Failure; Humans; Natriuretic Peptides; Physical Exertion; Radiography, Thoracic; Vasopressins; Vital Signs; Water-Electrolyte Balance

A recent commentary, "Resuscitation That's (Un)Shockable: Time to Get the Adrenaline Flowing", published in the New England Journal of Medicine Journal Watch called attention to a relatively recent study showing that a large and increasing percentage of patients with in-hospital cardiac arrests exhibit initial nonshockable rhythms (asystole or pulseless electrical activity [PEA]; 82% in 2009 vs 69% in 2000) and a most recent study that concluded that neurologically intact survival to hospital discharge after in-hospital cardiac arrest was significantly more likely after earlier epinephrine administration. It was found that delayed administration of epinephrine was associated significantly with lower chance for survival to hospital discharge, in stepwise fashion (12%, 10%, 8%, and 7% survival, respectively, for patients receiving their first epinephrine dose≤3, 4-6, 7-9, and >9 minutes after arrest). Although early use of epinephrine to manage patients with nonshockable rhythms lacks strong evidence to support efficacy, focus on time to epinephrine administration-in addition to high-quality chest compressions-might be the best early intervention. However, evidence may strongly support the recommendation that adrenaline needs to be used very early because without effective-depth cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with complete recoil, epinephrine may only be effective when gasping is present, which is a time-limited phenomenon. However, because very few rescuers can perform effective-depth chest compressions with complete recoil, gasping is critically necessary for adequate ventilation and generation of adequate coronary and cerebral perfusion. However, under acidemic conditions and high catecholamine levels and/or absence of gasping, vasopressin should be administered instead.

Topics: Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation; Dyspnea; Epinephrine; Heart Arrest; Heart Massage; Humans; Vasopressins

This "syndrome" has been observed in 4 of 23,935 in-patients registered in the years 1974-1987 in the Comprehensive Hospital Drug Monitoring (Bern/St. Gallen), with 6 reactions. Signs of an attack of bronchial asthma, laryngeal or pulmonary edema or a (heart-)circulatory event were not observed. Each patient was cyanotic and 3 had the feeling of impending death. The eliciting drugs were penicillin-G (twice) and cefazolin (once), given i.v.; iron dextran i.m. (once); pitressin tannate i.m. (once) and dicobalt edetate (Kelocyanor) i.v.(once). In each case the reaction started during or shortly after injection of the drug; the duration of the reaction in 5 of these events was 20-80 minutes. The pathomechanism could be a special form of anaphylactic reaction with acute pulmonary hypertension, comparable to IgE-induced anaphylaxis in the rabbit or aggregate anaphylaxis in the monkey or the dog. Further observations are needed for more detailed study.

Topics: Acute Disease; Adult; Arginine Vasopressin; Cefazolin; Chelating Agents; Cyanosis; Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions; Dyspnea; Edetic Acid; Female; Humans; Iron-Dextran Complex; Male; Middle Aged; Penicillin G; Vasopressins