Many cardiac pathologies involve changes in tissue structure. Conventional analysis of structural features is extremely time-consuming and subject to observer bias. The possibility to determine spatial interrelations between these features is often not fully exploited. We developed a staining protocol and an ImageJ-based tool (JavaCyte) for automated histological analysis of cardiac structure, including quantification of cardiomyocyte size, overall and endomysial fibrosis, spatial patterns of endomysial fibrosis, fibroblast density, capillary density and capillary size. This automated analysis was compared to manual quantification in several well-characterized goat models of atrial fibrillation (AF). In addition, we tested inter-observer variability in atrial biopsies from the CATCH-ME consortium atrial tissue bank, with patients stratified by their cardiovascular risk profile for structural remodeling. We were able to reproduce previous manually derived histological findings in goat models for AF and AV block (AVB) using JavaCyte. Furthermore, strong correlation was found between manual and automated observations for myocyte count (r = 0.94, p < 0.001), myocyte diameter (r = 0.97, p < 0.001), endomysial fibrosis (r = 0.98, p < 0.001) and capillary count (r = 0.95, p < 0.001) in human biopsies. No significant variation between observers was observed (ICC = 0.89, p < 0.001). We developed and validated an open-source tool for high-throughput, automated histological analysis of cardiac tissue properties. JavaCyte was as accurate as manual measurements, with less inter-observer variability and faster throughput.

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COVID-19, coronavirus, HIV, AIDS, chemotherapy, SARS-CoV-2, pneumonia Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory illness caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus that was identified in December 2019. The impact of COVID-19 virus on Acquired Immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients has been reported with variable outcome. We reported a patient that was immunosuppressed by AIDS disease and chemotherapy for cancer who contracted SARS-CoV-2 infection and had a mild disease. We did literature review for the cases published that had human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and COVID-19 disease and analyzed the characteristics and outcomes of the reported cases. Our review yielded three case reports and four case series for patients with HIV infection and COVID-19 disease. The majority of patients had mild disease, and some had critical disease or death. Those who had severe disease usually had other comorbidities. The findings from the case reports and case series indicate that the risk of death or severe disease from COVID-19 in HIV positive patients was lower than observed in the general population, which may indicate a possible protective effect of uncontrolled HIV in preventing the complications associated with the massive inflammatory response.

The use of intravenous (IV) oxytocin has been commonly associated with the development of nausea, vomiting, headache, flushing, and hypotension. To date, only a few previously published studies have linked the administration of IV oxytocin, in high doses exceeding 15 mU/min, with the development of acute pulmonary edema. In this article, we aim to report the rare occurrence of acute pulmonary edema following administration of IV oxytocin at a small dose of 2 mU/min, in a 20-year-old pregnant female, to allow its recognition and prompt treatment by the clinician caring for the patient.