By Jon-Emile S. Kenny [@heart_lung] “New York is cold, but I like where I’m living … There’s music on Clinton Street all through the evening.” -Leonard Cohen It’s the end of December; we collectively reflect on the year that was and try to find our footing for the next. In the short winter days of 2016, it [… read more]
By Jon-Emile S. Kenny [@heart_lung] When interpreting hemodynamic studies of drugs which – potentially – alter the resistance of the pulmonary vascular tree, we often turn to the calculated pulmonary vascular resistance [cPVR] as our guide. For instance, a vasopressor determined to increase the cPVR is wholly avoided in a patient with pulmonary arterial hypertension. We [… read more]
By Jon-Emile S. Kenny [@heart_lung] “Major Major had been born too late and too mediocre. Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. With Major Major it had been all three …” -Joseph Heller In my younger days, parked on a bench overlooking Stanley Park, I sought [… read more]
By Jon-Emile S. Kenny [@heart_lung] “I want to be your medicine, I want to feed the sparrow in your heart …” -Kristian Matsson Case A 39 year old woman is admitted to the intensive care unit for hypotension, anuria and altered mentation despite 3 litres of intravenous lactated ringers infusion. She is febrile and found to [… read more]
By Jon-Emile S. Kenny [@heart_lung] “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.” -Oscar Wilde The Case A 76 year old woman without known medical comorbidity is ambulating along 7th avenue, rounding the corner where St. Vincent’s Hospital once operated. It is an exceptionally humid August afternoon and she has not [… read more]
By Jon-Emile S. Kenny [@heart_lung] “Half of the time we’re gone but we don’t know where, and we don’t know where …” -Paul Simon The Case A 42 year old man is admitted with fever, right upper-quadrant pain and jaundice. Over the last few hours he has become progressively confused and hypotensive. He has normal renal [… read more]
Jon-Emile S. Kenny [@heart_lung] “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” -Thoreau The Case A 56 year old man with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy [LVEF 40% and mitral regurgitation] is admitted with severe sepsis due to appendicitis. One month prior to admission, his outpatient cardiologist saw him and noted a dry weight of 88 kg. [… read more]
Jon-Emile S. Kenny [@heart_lung] “Truth is like the sun, its value wholly depends upon our being at a correct distance away from it.” -Hjalmar Söderberg The evening is invigorating; the Stockholm Marathon has been run and cobblestoned cafés, concealed within winding, narrowed side-streets are in the throes of summer’s end. I take a coffee and [… read more]
Jon-Emile S. Kenny [@heart_lung] “We do not live in a privileged frame of reference.” -Carl Sagan It is a common human experience to feel that one is the exception. Indeed, the study of cosmology has demoted our – once privileged – place in the cosmos. We have fallen from the center of the universe to [… read more]
Jon-Emile S. Kenny [@heart_lung] A 23 year old woman is admitted with severe abdominal pain following 5 days of profound non-bloody diarrhea and 72 hours of recalcitrant non-bloody emesis. She has lost 7 pounds in this time frame and has been unable to maintain oral hydration. Her eyes are sunken and her vital signs are [… read more]
Jon-Emile S. Kenny [@heart_lung] “Let the wild rumpus start!” -Maurice Sendak Many of you are preparing for the Critical Care Medicine Board Examination; thank you to those who have downloaded my free review notes. I often receive a question or two about the exam and how germane my notes were, in retrospect. This is a [… read more]
Jon-Emile S. Kenny [@heart_lung] “It is important to realize that guidelines cannot always account for individual variation among patients. They are not intended to supplant physician judgement with respect to particular patients or special clinical situations.” -IDSA/ATS Guidelines 2016 A 73 year old man is admitted from a nursing home for an NSTEMI and is [… read more]
Jon-Emile S. Kenny [@heart_lung] “An’ it ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe, I’m on the dark side of the road …” -Bob Dylan A 44 year old man with cryptogenic cirrhosis is admitted with large ascites and acute kidney injury. A 50 mL, diagnostic paracentesis reveals 12 PMNs and he is admitted from the [… read more]
Jon-Emile S. Kenny [@heart_lung] “A rising tide lifts all boats.” -John F. Kennedy Two years ago, heart-lung.org went live – a project borne out of my deep interest of the inter-connectedness of the cardiovascular and respiratory pumps. I have been truly amazed and deeply appreciative of the kind words which I have received from around [… read more]
Jon-Emile S. Kenny [@heart_lung] “Doctrine once sown strikes deep its root, and respect for antiquity influences all men.” -William Harvey [1628] The use of hyperoncotic albumin to draw fluid from the interstitial space permeates dark corners of the critical care community. The ‘pull and push’ of 25% albumin followed by furosemide remains somewhat of a [… read more]
Jon-Emile S. Kenny [@heart_lung] “… it is a tale. Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Macbeth: Act V, Scene V The results of the ATACH II trial are out; we have even more guidance when managing the blood pressure of hypertensive patients with supratentorial, intra-cerebral hemorrhage of less than 60 cm3 [… read more]
Jon-Emile S. Kenny [@heart_lung] While parts 1 and 2 of this trilogy considered the mechanical power applied to the lung skeleton and the effects of lung inhomogeneity [i.e. ‘stress raisers’], respectively; this final installment will draw the reader towards the pulmonary vasculature as a key mediator of ventilator induced lung injury [VILI]. That the pulmonary [… read more]
Jon-Emile S. Kenny [@heart_lung] How might you answer this oral board examination question? Describe the systemic effect on pH following 2 litres infusion of each of the following solutions: A. normal saline with a pH of 7.0 B. normal saline with a pH of 5.6 C. normal saline with a pH of 4.6. Pick [… read more]
Jon-Emile S. Kenny [@heart_lung] The Journal of Intensive Care has newly published a series of sepsis-related organ dysfunction reviews. Additionally, a comprehensive yet concise overview of the cerebral circulation was just disseminated. This summary draws on both of these terrific primary resources as a point-of-departure for discussion of sepsis-associated delirium [SAD]. Cerebral blood flow [CBF] ultimately [… read more]
Jon-Emile S. Kenny [@heart_lung] Gattinoni and Quintel have, very recently, outlined their approach to managing the acute respiratory distress syndrome [ARDS] [1]. They argue that treatment of ARDS should minimize firstly, the mechanical power applied to the lungs – as described in part 1. Secondly, Gattinoni and Quintel note that, in the treatment of ARDS, [… read more]
Get PulmCCM’s Weekly Email Update
Stay up-to-date in pulmonary and critical care. No spam.