Azul de metileno no tratamento da síndrome vasoplégica em cirurgia cardíaca. Quinze anos de perguntas, respostas, dúvidas e certezasMethylene blue for vasoplegic syndrome treatment in heart surgery. Fifteen years of questions, answers, doubts and certainties AbstractObjective: There is strong evidence that methylene blue (MB), an inhibitor of guanylate cyclase, is an excellent therapeutic option for vasoplegic syndrome (VS) treatment in heart surgery. The aim of this article is to review the MB's therapeutic function in the vasoplegic syndrome treatment.Methods: Fifteen years of literature review.Results: 1) Heparin and ACE inhibitors are risk factors; 2) In the recommended doses it is safe (the lethal dose is 40 mg/ kg); 3) The use of MB does not cause endothelial dysfunction; 4) The MB effect appears in cases of nitric oxide (NO) upregulation; 5) MB is not a vasoconstrictor, by blocking of the GMPc system it releases the AMPc system, facilitating the norepinephrine vasoconstrictor effect; 6) The most used dosage is 2 mg/kg as IV bolus followed by the same continuous infusion because plasmatic concentrations strongly decays in the first 40 minutes; 7) There is a possible "window of opportunity" for the MB's effectiveness.Conclusions: Although there are no definitive multicentric studies, the MB used to treat heart surgery VS, at the present time, is the best, safest and cheapest option, being a Brazilian contribution for the heart surgery.

ObjectiveThis study was conducted to reassess the concepts established over the past 20 years, in particular in the last 5 years, about the use of methylene blue in the treatment of vasoplegic syndrome in cardiac surgery.MethodsA wide literature review was carried out using the data extracted from: MEDLINE, SCOPUS and ISI WEB OF SCIENCE.ResultsThe reassessed and reaffirmed concepts were 1) MB is safe in the recommended doses (the lethal dose is 40 mg/kg); 2) MB does not cause endothelial dysfunction; 3) The MB effect appears in cases of NO up-regulation; 4) MB is not a vasoconstrictor, by blocking the cGMP pathway it releases the cAMP pathway, facilitating the norepinephrine vasoconstrictor effect; 5) The most used dosage is 2 mg/kg as IV bolus, followed by the same continuous infusion because plasma concentrations sharply decrease in the first 40 minutes; and 6) There is a possible "window of opportunity" for MB's effectiveness. In the last five years, major challenges were: 1) Observations about side effects; 2) The need for prophylactic and therapeutic guidelines, and; 3) The need for the establishment of the MB therapeutic window in humans.ConclusionMB action to treat vasoplegic syndrome is time-dependent. Therefore, the great challenge is the need, for the establishment the MB therapeutic window in humans. This would be the first step towards a systematic guideline to be followed by possible multicenter studies.

Submitral left ventricular aneurysm is a cardiac pathology widely recognized, but relatively unknown, occurred almost exclusively in African black patients. Although still this idea of racial prevalence exists, cases have been described in patients of all the races. Ten Brazilian cases were reported. One of them was presented inside an Italian paper that refers the surgical treatment of a Brazilian patient of black race. We reported one more submitral left ventricular aneurysm case in a brown female patient, with antecedents of peripheral thromboembolism initially not identified as consequence of the cardiac pathology

PURPOSE: To verify if the methylene blue (MB) administration prevents and/or reverses the compound 48/80 (C48/80)-induced anaphylactic shock in pigs. METHODS: Female Dalland pigs were anesthetized and had the hemodynamic parameters recorded during the necessary time to administer some drugs and observe their effect. The animals were randomly assigned to one of the five groups: 1) control; 2) MB: the animals received a bolus injection of MB (2 mg/kg) followed by continuous infusion of MB (2.66 mg/Kg/h delivered by syringe infusion pump); 3) C48/80: the animals received a bolus injection of C48/80 (4 mg/kg); 4) C48/80+MB: the animals received a bolus injection of C48/80 (4 mg/kg) and 10 minutes after the C48/80 administration the animals received a bolus injection of MB (2 mg/kg) followed by continuous infusion of MB (2.66 mg/Kg/h delivered by syringe infusion pump); 5) MB+C48/80: the animals received a bolus injection of MB (2 mg/kg) and 3 minutes later they received a bolus injection of C48/80 (4 mg/kg). RESULTS: The intravenous infusion of MB alone caused no changes in the mean arterial pressure (MAP) showing that the administered MB dose was safe in this experimental model. The C48/80 was effective in producing experimental anaphylactic shock since it was observed a decrease in both MAP and cardiac output (CO) after its administration. The MB did not prevent or reverse the C48/80-induced anaphylactic shock in this model. In fact, the MAP of the animals with anaphylactic shock treated with MB decreased even more than the MAP of the animals from the C48/80 group. On the other hand, the C48/80-induced epidermal alterations disappeared after the MB infusion. CONCLUSION: Despite our data, the clinical manifestations improvement brings some optimism and does not allow excluding the MB as a possible therapeutic option in the anaphylactic shock.

OBJECTIVE:To examine if methylene blue (MB) can counteract or prevent protamine (P) cardiovascular effects.METHODS:The protocol included five heparinized pig groups: Group Sham -without any drug; Group MB - MB 3 mg/kg infusion; Group P - protamine; Group P/MB - MB after protamine; Group MB/P - MB before protamine. Nitric oxide levels were obtained by the nitric oxide/ozone chemiluminescence method, performed using the Nitric Oxide Analizer 280i (Sievers, Boulder, CO, USA). Malondialdehyde plasma levels were estimated using the thiobarbiturate technique.RESULTS:1) Groups Sham and MB presented unchanged parameters; 2) Group P - a) Intravenous protamine infusion caused mean arterial pressure decrease and recovery trend after 25-30 minutes, b) Cardiac output decreased and remained stable until the end of protamine injection, and c) Sustained systemic vascular resistance increased until the end of protamine injection; 3) Methylene blue infusion after protamine (Group P/MB) - a) Marked mean arterial pressure decreased after protamine, but recovery after methylene blue injection, b) Cardiac output decreased after protamine infusion, recovering after methylene blue infusion, and c) Sustained systemic vascular resistance increased after protamine infusion and methylene blue injections; 4) Methylene blue infusion before protamine (Group MB/P) - a) Mean arterial pressure decrease was less severe with rapid recovery, b) After methylene blue, there was a progressive cardiac output increase up to protamine injection, when cardiac output decreased, and c) Sustained systemic vascular resistance decreased after protamine, followed by immediate Sustained systemic vascular resistance increase; 5) Plasma nitrite/nitrate and malondialdehyde values did not differ among the experimental groups.CONCLUSION:Reviewing these experimental results and our clinical experience, we suggest methylene blue safely prevents and treats hemodynamic protamine complications, from the endothelium function point of view.

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In agreement with classical data from the Institute of Pathology of the Armed Forces (Washington, DC), primary tumors of the heart, benign or malign, are found in 0.001% -0.28% of all of autopsies, and the myxomas represent 50% of the benign tumors of the heart 1 . Clinical experiences at two of the largest Brazilian institutions (InCor-USP and Dante Pazzanese Institute of Cardiology) demonstrate the wide prevalence of the heart myxomas as primary heart tumors. At InCor-USP, in a series of 50 patients treated over a period of 18 years, 84% of the myxomas were of the histological type 2 . At the Dante Pazzanese Institute of Cardiology, the experience was similar. Over a period of 28 years, with a series of 52 patients with heart tumors, 82.7% of the tumors were myxomas 3 . At the Ribeirão Preto Heart Hospital, over a period of 23 years, surgeons at the CECORP -Ribeirão Preto Specialized Heart and Lung Center operated on 7 patients for removal of heart tumors, 6 patients with myxomas and 1 patient with leiomyosarcoma metastasis. Among the 6 patients with heart myxomas, the age varied from 14 to 78 years, 4 were females, and all tumors were located at the left atrium. Although syncope is a symptom thoroughly described, resulting from myxoma left ventricular inflow obstruction, its incidence in the adolescent is rare, creating difficulties for the clinical evaluation of syncope in this age group. A unique case was reported in the literature of syncope as a consequence of left ventricle outflow obstruction, caused by a myxoma localized in this cardiac chamber 4 . A case of ischemic stroke in an 8-year-old female child has been reported in the Brazilian literature 5 . These data justify this case report of syncope in an adolescent caused by the presence of a left atrial heart myxoma that intermittently obstructed the mitral valve. Case ReportA 14-year-old female, resident of São Simão (SP), had a clinical cardiology appointment in April 2000 because of 3 episodes of syncope over the previous 3 months. During this interval of time, she was evaluated by a neurologist, without any diagnostic conclusion about the syncope. She was then directed to the cardiologist due to the presence of palpitations experienced at rest.During the first cardiology consultation, a syncope diagnosis was the main focus of the investigation. The clinical anamnesis revealed palpitations, a heart rate of 130 bpm, and low corporal weight with accentuated loss in the prior 3 months. The heart auscultation, by this time, did not show evidence of a heart murmur. With the clinical hypothesis of hyperthyroidism, thyroid hormone dosages and an electrocardiogram were requested. The hormonal function was normal. The electrocardiogram identified a sinus tachycardia and a possible left atrium enlargement. The diagnostic

The usual surgical treatment of tricuspid endocarditis is valve replacement or valve excision alone without valve replacement. ‘Vegetectomy’, i.e. local excision of the vegetation and leaflet repair, has been previously described and can be applied to cases with well-circumscribed vegetations and little or no valve damage. A case of tricuspid valve endocarditis successfully managed by surgical excision of the vegetation is reported.