SummaryObjective:Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a potentially fatal disease. In Angola, few data are available on its occurrence. The aim of the study was to characterise the clinical profile, management and outcomes of patients with PE.Methods:A retrospective observational study was conducted at the Girassol Clinic in Luanda, Angola. The medical records of patients admitted to the intensive care unit were analysed from 2011 to 2015.Results:Fifty patients were included and the median age was 50.5 ± 17.8 years. Dyspnoea and immobilisation for more than 72 hours were the most frequently seen risk factors at admission; 28% of the patients had massive PE, 36% sub-massive PE, 28% were haemodynamically unstable at admission and 30% had a very high risk of mortality. The in-hospital mortality rate was 20%.Conclusions:The clinical characteristics of our patients were similar to those described in the literature. The high prevalence of patients with very high risk at admisson highlights the need to investigate the cause of worst cardiovascular disease outcomes in Africans.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to characterize a Portuguese Intensive Care Unit experience in therapeutic plasma exchange in critically ill patients. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of the patients treated with therapeutic plasma exchange between 2000 and 2019. Data on patient characteristics, therapeutic plasma exchange prescription, adjuvant therapy used, adverse events and outcome under treatment were collected. Results: A total of 101 therapeutic plasma exchange procedures in 20 patients were studied. Mean number of therapeutic plasma exchange sessions per patient was 5.1±1.3. The most frequent indications to begin this treatment were myasthenia gravis (25.0%) and anti-neutrophil-cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis (15.0%). There were 45.5% adverse events and the most frequent was hypotension (15.2%). 98% of the complications were mild-to-moderate. The outcome was favorable in 60.0% of patients. Conclusion: Therapeutic plasma exchange is an effective and safe therapy in many diseases that had high morbidity and mortality prior to the use of this technique.