December 2024
31 ArticlesCommentary
Putting frailty at the forefront of hypertension management in the elderly
In a progressively aging world, the concept of frailty is becoming increasingly relevant. Frailty is a dynamic, age-related biological syndrome with multifactorial causes leading to impaired... more
A potential novel stratification model to predict cardiovascular disease in patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease
Steatotic Liver Disease (SLD) is defined as excessive built-up of fat in the liver (>5 %) diagnosed by imaging or a liver biopsy [1]. Recently, a novel term metabolic dysfunction-associated... more
Cannabis is probably not the best choice for weight reduction
The field of medical cannabis has made significant advancements in recent years from both research and clinical perspectives [1]. These developments were driven by substantial shifts in public... more
Optimal timing of antibiotic administration in septic patients: The need to reformulate this question
Sepsis represents the most severe clinical manifestation of infectious diseases. Despite advances in understanding this pathology, recent global data document an estimated incidence of 48.9 million... more
Internal Medicine Flashcard
A man with large periumbilical masses
A 82-year old man presented to the Outpatient Department due to difficult-to-treat type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), initially diagnosed 15 years ago. His rest medical history included coronary artery... more
A peculiar cause of dysphagia
An 82-year-old man with middle stage Alzheimer's dementia presented to the emergency clinic with poor general condition, productive cough, sputum, wheezing, and falling. He was found on the floor by... more
Letter to the Editor
Predictive performance of hepatocellular carcinoma risk scores in chronic hepatitis C patients with advanced fibrosis after achieving sustained virological response: Insights from European Association for the study of the Liver Policy recommendations
Current European guidelines recommend hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) surveillance in patients with an annual HCC risk of 1.5% or higher comprising serial ultrasound imaging ± alpha fetoprotein (AFP)... more
Inhaled corticosteroids in severe COPD patients with cardiovascular diseases. Authors’ reply
We thank Pruc and Szarpak [1] for their interest in our article [2]. They address several questions, nicely summarised in the last sentence of their letter, “future research should focus on the... more
Long-term inhaled corticosteroid treatment in patients with chronic obstructive lung disease, cardiovascular disease, and recent hospitalization for exacerbation
The article “Long-term inhaled corticosteroid treatment in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease, and recent hospitalization for exacerbation: A pragmatic... more
How do we diagnose Miyoshi Muscular Dystrophy in the absence of symptoms?
Elevated liver enzyme is a common incidental laboratory finding. Evaluating such problems particularly in asymptomatic patients might be challenging. Alterations in liver enzymes are not enterily... more
Insights into recurrence of hypertriglyceridemia-associated acute pancreatitis: Methodological challenges
We read the article by Ling Ding et al. with great interest [1]. We would like to commend the authors for their comprehensive study, which found that hypertriglyceridemia-associated acute... more
The relationship between large vessel vasculitis and glucocorticoid responsiveness of musculoskeletal inflammation: An unverified issue on polymyalgia rheumatica
Dear Editor,
Risk of psoriatic arthritis development with interleukin-17 inhibitors compared to tumour necrosis factor inhibitors
Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is one of the most important comorbidities in patients with psoriasis (PsO), with approximately one third of PsO patients developing arthritis over their whole lifetime [1... more
Direct oral anticoagulants or vitamin K antagonists in adult patients with congenital heart disease?
Dear Editor,
Divergent views on prescription adherence: A qualitative comparison of perspectives from the patient, pharmacist, and physician triad
Up to 70 % of patients fail to follow prescribed regimens [1], resulting in detrimental health and economic consequences. While existing adherence research often focuses on either the traditional... more
Myocardial infarction in foreign-born individuals in the total population of Sweden
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are still frequent globally with a high mortality rate, even if the incidence has decreased since the 1980s in Europe, especially in Northern Europe [1], including a... more
Beneficial effects of early low-dose methylprednisolone with long-term treatment in ARDS
Since the concept of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) was first proposed by Ashbaugh in 1967 [1], it has been refined several times for better reflect the phenotype in recent decades. The... more
Cardiovascular outcome with SGLT2i and GLP1RA
Dear editor,
Original Article
Distinct biophysiological effects of Ramadan fasting and traditional intermittent fasting on markers of body fat storage. A real-life study
Obesity is a metabolic disease characterized by fat over-storage in multiple districts. The continuous increase of the obesity epidemic makes mandatory innovative interventions and new guidelines to... more
Prediction of plasma sodium changes in the acutely ill patients: the potential role of tissue sodium content
Dysnatremias, disorders of plasma sodium concentration ([Na+]), are frequently encountered in daily clinical practice and pose a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for many clinicians[1]. Rapid... more
Intra-abdominal infection and sepsis in immunocompromised intensive care unit patients: Disease expression, microbial aetiology, and clinical outcomes
Sepsis-related multiple organ dysfunction is fundamentally driven by the host response to infection, rather than by the direct effect of the microorganism. This was accepted in the consensus... more
Native skeletal muscle T1-time on cardiac magnetic resonance: A predictor of outcome in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction
Heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a major public health problem that is associated with a high morbidity and mortality [1] leading to an excess in hospitalizations and... more
Door-to-antibiotic time and mortality in patients with sepsis: Systematic review and meta-analysis
Timely administration of antibiotics is one of the most important interventions in sepsis management to improve patient outcomes and reduce mortality. However, the impact on mortality of the early... more
Plasma levels of myeloperoxidase and resistin independently predict mortality in dialysis patients
Dialysis is a vital treatment for patients with kidney failure on dialysis (KF). Yet, it associates with a high risk of death mainly due to both cardiovascular (CV) and non-CV causes [1,2]. Indeed,... more
A machine learning algorithm for stratification of risk of cardiovascular disease in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease
Steatotic liver disease (SLD) has emerged as a prevalent and significant condition that contributes to the rising burden of liver diseases worldwide [1]. Given the increasing prevalence of SLD, it is... more
Associations of cannabis use and body mass index–The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study
In the US in 2020, 18 % of the population reported use of cannabis in the past year. Use among middle and older-aged people is rising [1,2]; from 2016 to 2018 the percentage of US adults ≥55 years... more
Effectiveness Of Tocilizumab In Aortitis And Aneurysms Associated With Giant Cell Arteritis
Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA) is a vasculitis involving the large and medium vessels, especially the extracranial branches of the carotid arteries, and particularly, the temporal artery. Arterial wall... more
Comparison of different frailty instruments for prediction of functional decline in older hypertensive outpatients (HYPER-FRAIL pilot study 2)
Frailty is a geriatric syndrome characterized by a cumulative decline in multiple body systems, which results in the reduction of individuals’ physiological functional reserve with increased... more
Evolution and outcomes of aortic dilations in giant cell arteritis
Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a systemic vasculitis that typically affects large and medium vessels in patients over 50 years of age [1–3]. In addition to the cephalic presentation mainly explained... more
Review Article
The clinical relevance of the reversal of coronary atherosclerotic plaque
Despite tremendous progress in study of the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying atherosclerosis and the subsequent development of innovative preventive therapies, atherosclerotic cardiovascular... more
Pulmonary hypertension associated to left heart disease: Phenotypes and treatment
According to the last updated ESC guidelines 2022, the term Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) describes a clinical condition characterised haemodynamically by the presence of mean pulmonary artery pressure... more