December 2020
27 ArticlesNo Section
Erectile dysfunction and adherence to antihypertensive therapy: Focus on β-blockers
Arterial hypertension is a major public health issue because it affects more than 1.1 billion patients worldwide [1], and represents a very important risk factor for the development of cardiac,... more
Commentary
Erectile dysfunction and arterial hypertension: Still looking for a scapegoat
Hypertension awareness, treatment and control have improved substantially in the past 40 years. However, control rates have plateaued in the past decade in many countries, and a substantial... more
Gender differences in long-term prognosis after NSTEACS: Now you see me, now you don't!
It is known that women are often underrepresented, or even excluded, in randomized clinical trials, the results of which consequently may not be entirely reproduced in the general population. At the... more
Internal Medicine Flashcard
What ‘s the link between otological signs and oral contraception?
A 48-year-old woman presented chronic headache and serous otitis with feeling of fullness of the right ear. She had no medical or surgery history. ENT and clinical neurological examination revealed... more
Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation on Flecainide Therapy
Flecainide pill-in-the-pocket therapy is a pharmacologic treatment option for patients with infrequent episodes of symptomatic atrial fibrillation. We report a case of wide complex tachycardia due to... more
Chest pain in a middle-aged smoker with heart failure and missing lung
A 45-year-old man presented with sharp, left-sided chest pain of one-hour duration that radiated to the right chest and back, and started two hours after snorting cocaine. He was an active smoker and... more
Bilateral hilar opacities
A 20-year-old male was admitted to the emergency department with a 1-week history of fever, right pleuritic chest pain and aggravating sporadic hemoptoic cough.
Letter to the Editor
Change over time of COVID-19 hospital presentation in Northern Italy
After the first autochthonous case described on February 19, also in Italy the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection rapidly circulated, mainly in the Northern... more
COVID-19 randomized controlled trials in medRxiv and PubMed
Fast-track preprints have garnered increased attention since the COVID-19 pandemic. However, little is known about the quality of clinical research published as preprints. The objective of this study... more
Do biomarkers add anything to clinical prediction of mortality in older medical emergency department patients?
Recently, we described in this Journal a simplified, yet accurate clinical decision model (the RISE UP score) to predict 30-day mortality in older patients who visit an emergency department [1].... more
Italian Vò municipality cohort and COVID-19 epidemiology: The “Framingham” study of the 21st century
The small Italian municipality of Vò, located in the Veneto region, northeast of Italy, with a population of nearly 3200 inhabitants, suffered the first COVID-19-related death of the country on... more
Waste in COVID-19 clinical trials conducted in western Europe
Amid huge efforts to address the therapeutic uncertainties clinicians are facing with COVID-19 patients’ management, many clinical trials are badly designed [1]. Trials with no control group and with... more
Romeo and Juliet: Revisited (at the time of COVID-19)
Once upon a time, EM, a 27-years old female resident in Internal Medicine, fell in love with JP, a 27-yrs male, a resident as well. It happens, in the pre-COVID-19 Milan, Lombardy, Italy.
The additive diagnostic value of heart-type fatty acid binding protein in patients presenting early with chest pain
Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is one of the most serious conditions encountered in the emergency room (ER), with outcomes that are highly affected by the time elapsed since symptoms onset. The... more
Original Article
Limited prognostic accuracy of the CRB-65 and qSOFA in patients presenting with pneumonia and immunosuppression
Pneumonia remains an important health concern in the western world, with highly variable mortality rates [1]. Initial risk stratification to objectify prognosis is the first step in managing patients... more
Interdependence of VA-ECMO output, pulmonary congestion and outcome after cardiac surgery
Venoarterial-extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) is a life-saving method for patients with low-output failure after cardiac surgery. Although the use of VA-ECMO after cardiac surgery is... more
Sympathetic activation and outcomes in chronic heart failure: Does the neurohormonal hypothesis apply to mid-range and preserved ejection fraction patients?
body mass index
Safety and efficacy of anticoagulant monotherapy in atrial fibrillation and stable coronary artery disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Coronary artery disease (CAD) and atrial fibrillation (AF) have emerged as new cardiovascular epidemics in the modern era posing a high risk for acute coronary and cerebrovascular events,... more
Rifabutin-Based Triple Therapy Or Bismuth-Based Quadruple Regimen As Rescue Therapies For Helicobacter pylori Infection
H. pylori causes chronic gastritis and peptic ulceration, and concurs to gastric MALT lymphoma and carcinoma development [1]. Treatment of the infection remains a challenge for clinicians, as no... more
Systemic sclerosis is an independent risk factor for ischemic heart disease, especially in patients carrying certain antiphospholipid antibodies: A large cross-sectional study
Rheumatic diseases are characterized by chronic inflammation that affects the joints but also internal organs such as lungs, heart and other organs [1,2]. These disorders, if untreated, may lead to... more
Malignancy in patients with myocardial infarction and non-obstructive coronary arteries: A systematic review and meta-regression
A growing number of investigations has recently called attention to patients with myocardial infarction (MI) and non-obstructive coronary arteries (MINOCA) [1], who constitute an intriguing subgroup... more
Sex-related differences in long-term mortality and heart failure in a contemporary cohort of patients with NSTEACS. The cardiochus-HSUJ registry
Non-ST segment elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTEACS) is the most frequent manifestation of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) [1, 2]. Acute heart failure (HF) remains a common complication of ACS,... more
Clinical profile and 1-year clinical outcomes of super elderly patients admitted with acute heart failure
HFpEF, heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.
Kidney dysfunction and short term all-cause mortality after transcatheter aortic valve implantation
Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has been proven to be the preferred procedure for patients with symptomatic aortic stenosis (AS) who do not qualify for surgery [1-2]. TAVI has been... more
Review Article
Management of chronic refractory cough in adults
Cough is a physiological response to mechanical and chemical stimuli due to irritation of cough receptors located mainly in the epithelium of the upper and lower respiratory tracts, pericardium,... more
Point of care ultrasound for rapid assessment and treatment of palliative care patients in acute medical settings
The combination of an ageing population with improving survival in malignant and non-malignant disease processes results in a growing cohort of the population who live with advanced or end-stage... more