Prevalence of nosocomial infections in high-risk units in the university clinical center of Kosova.

A point-prevalence study was performed to determine the prevalence of nosocomial infections in University Clinical Center of Kosova. Of 167 surveyed patients, 27 had a total of 29 nosocomial infections, with an overall prevalence rate of 17.4%. Nosocomial bloodstream infections were most prevalent (62%). The prevalence was highest among neonates in intensive-care units (77.8%).

Thought Field Therapy-soothing the bad moments of Kosovo.

Trauma in Kosovo was treated with Thought Field Therapy (TFT) during five separate trips by members of the Global Institute of Thought Field Therapy, in the year 2000. Clinicians from Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States were joined in Kosovo by four physicians who transported them to remote war-torn villages where patients with severe trauma were treated. Treatment was given to 105 patients with 249 separate traumas. Total relief was reported by 103 of the patients, and for 247 of the separate traumas. Follow-up data averaging five months revealed no instance of relapse.

Echocardiography of the coronary sinus in adults.

The coronary sinus (CS) is a small tubular structure just above the posterior left atrioventricular junction. The CS can be imaged in several different echocardiographic views. Using zoom M-mode recordings of the CS in apical two-chamber view, CS caliber can be sharply imaged and easily measured during different phases of the cardiac cycle. We have recently shown that the CS narrows during atrial contraction in persons with sinus rhythm, but does not narrow at all if atrial fibrillation is present. Attenuation of CS narrowing occurs in patients with congestive heart failure and inferior vena cava plethora. Maximal CS caliber occurs during ventricular systole. Patients with poor left ventricular systolic function show mild CS dilatation. Greater CS dilatation is present in patients with persistent left superior vena cava, and huge dilatation when this anomaly is accompanied by absence of a right superior vena cava. Injection of sonicated saline into a left and then a right arm vein is diagnostically useful in confirming these two venous anomalies. Pulsed-wave Doppler of the CS can be recorded in the parasternal right heart inflow view. From this and from the CS cross-section area it may be possible to estimate coronary blood flow.

Dynamic cyclic changes in coronary sinus caliber in patients with and without congestive heart failure.

M-mode echography of the coronary sinus in the apical 2-chamber view enabled us to measure coronary sinus caliber at specific phases of the cardiac cycle. Coronary sinus narrowing occurs consistently during atrial contraction, but is always absent in atrial fibrillation; in patients with congestive heart failure and systemic venous congestion, this narrowing is significantly attenuated.

Echocardiography of the Inferior Vena Cava, Superior Vena Cava, and Coronary Sinus in Right Heart Failure.

Echocardiographic evaluation of the three major systemic venous channels that drain directly into the right atrium has hitherto received less attention than it deserves. Attention had been paid initially to inferior vena cava dilatation and lack of collapsibility (plethora) as signs of systemic venous congestion. Superior vena cava imaging has not been part of routine echographic evaluation; however, our recent observations on superior vena cava appearance by the right supraclavicular approach provide evidence that dilatation of superior vena cava correlates with that of inferior vena cava as a marker for venous congestion. The coronary sinus caliber, which has been virtually ignored, may also provide echographic signs of systemic congestion, namely, dilatation and lack of normal narrowing during atrial contraction.