Joäo Valente Barbas Filho

Bronchoalveolar lavage improves diagnostic accuracy in patients with diffuse lung disease

Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is an established diagnostic tool in diffuse parenchyma lung disease. The objective of the present study was designed to investigate whether immunophenotyping affects BAL results and improves diagnostic accuracy.

Behçet's Disease: A Rare Case of Simultaneous Pulmonary and Cerebral Involvement

B ehcets disease is a clinical syndrome of unknown etiology, originally described in 1937, in which the classic triad was iritis and oral and genital ulceration [1]. Since then, the advances of immunology and anatomopathology as well as numerous reports of other manifestations indicate that Behcets disease is a systemic vasculitis affecting the skin, joints, eyes, gastrointestinal tract, neural tissue, and blood vessels [2,3]. Thoracic involvement, which includes pulmonary artery aneurysms, superior and inferior venocaval obstruction, pulmonary infiltrates, pulmonary infarction, recurrent pneumonias, pleural effusion, and irreversible airways obstruction, is uncommon [4]. Central nervous system disorders include a brain stem syndrome, an organic confusional state, and a meningomyelitic illness. The cerebral vein thrombosis manifesting as intracranial hypertension can be seen in Behcets disease and may be the initial manifestation [5-8]. We report a rare case of Behcets syndrome in which pulmonary artery aneurysms and intracranial venous thromboses occurred simultaneously.

Admitting an elderly patient with solid tumor in the intensive care unit: what do we have to look for?

Admitting an elderly critically ill patient with solid tumor in the intensive care unit (ICU) for treatment was always a matter of debate among intensive care practioners because the doubts about the impact that the critical therapy could have in the prognosis of the cancer patients concerning the survival rate and moreover, in the quality of life after the critical event.