RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Unlike its use during stable conditions, central venous pressure (CVP) monitoring from a peripherally inserted central venous catheter (PICC) has not often been used in surgeries with significant hemodynamic alterations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of measuring PICC pressure (PICCP) as an alternative to measuring centrally inserted central catheter pressure (CICCP) in adult liver transplantation (LT) patients. METHODS: We measured PICCP and CICCP simultaneously during each main surgical period in adult LT. Statistical analysis was performed using simple linear regression analysis to observe whether changes in PICCP paralleled by simultaneous changes in CICCP. Correlation analysis and Bland-Altman analysis were used to determine the degree of agreement between the two devices. Differences were considered statistically significant when P values were less than 0.05. RESULTS: A total of 1342 data pairs were collected from 35 patients. The PICCPs and CICCPs were highly correlated overall (r = 0.970, P < 0.001) as well as at each period measured. The differences among each period were not clinically significant (0.33 mmHg for pre-anhepatic, 0.32 mmHg for anhepatic, -0.15 mmHg for reperfusion, and -0.10 mmHg for neohepatic periods). The overall mean difference was 0.14 mmHg (95% confidence interval: 0.09-0.19) and PICCP tended to give a higher reading by between 0.09 and 0.19 mmHg overall. The limit of agreement was -1.74 to 2.02 overall. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that PICCP can be a reasonable alternative to CICCP in situations of dynamic systemic compliance and preload, as well as under stable hemodynamic conditions.
RESUMO
A 35 year old woman with hypercalcitoninemia was scheduled for an operation to treat her medullary thyroid cancer (MTC). TIVA with propofol and remifentanil was planned, and about 3 minutes after the infusion of anesthetics, her heart rate was suddenly elevated to 180/min and the systolic blood pressure was lowered to nearly 50 mmHg. The blood pressure returned to normal after the injection of phenylephrine 100 microgram and a rapid infusion of 700 ml crystalloid solution. After the operation, bilateral pheochromocytoma and a RET proto-oncogene mutation related with multiple endocrine neoplasia 2A (MEN-2A) were found. Patients with MTC can present with peripheral vasodilation and relative hypovolemia that are related with hypercalcitoninemia. Patients with MEN-2A can be anesthetized for a MTC operation without the appropriate preparation for their pheochromocytoma. Therefore, we suggest that patients with MTC and hypercalcitoninemia should be cautiously anesthetized with TIVA. They also should be screened for pheochromocytoma and the RET proto-oncogene mutation to prevent deleterious hemodynamic events during anesthesia.
RESUMO
We evaluated the accuracy of FDG-PET in diagnosing metastatic para-aortic and pelvic lymph nodes in patients with cervical cancer by comparing this noninvasive imaging technique with surgicopathologic results. We performed FDG-PET in 54 patients with cervical cancer at FIGO stages IB-IVA who were about to undergo lymphadenectomy. For region-specific comparisons, we divided the nodes into eight regions (four on each side: para-aortic, common iliac, external iliac, and internal iliac/obturator). Histological examination revealed metastases in 15 (28%) of the patients, with region-specific analysis identifying 37 (8.6%) metastases in 432 regions. The region-specific findings of FDG-PET exhibited a sensitivity of 38% and a positive predictive value (PPV) of 56%. The sensitivity increased to 52% and 65% when we restricted the pathologic criterion for metastases to tumour-invasion diameters of >5 and >10 mm, respectively. These results indicate that FDG-PET exhibited low sensitivity and PPV (especially for microscopic metastases) and hence cannot replace surgical staging, although it might still be useful for detecting metastases in patients with clinical conditions that make surgical staging inappropriate.
