We spent 18 days in Stockholm studying welfare facilities for the aged, a subject in which we have a strong interest. It was a short visit but turned out to be an extremely informative and wonderful experience thanks to Prof. Bredberg, Dr. Linde, and many other people who took care of us in Stockholm. We found Sweden to be a country which is organized in such a way that everybody can enjoy life. Next time it will be your turn ! I You should have the opportunity to share our experiences in Sweden.

It is essential to differentiate pseudo-Bartter's syndrome from Bartter's syndrome because both are accompanied by hypokalemia and metabolic alkalosis. In this study, we encountered a newborn girl with marked hypokalemia and metabolic alkalosis who was born vaginally at 41 weeks' gestation to a mother with pseudo-Bartter's syndrome and associated eating disorder. Venous blood gas analysis for transient respiratory distress revealed hypokalemia. Because hypokalemia did not improve, the newborn was transferred to our hospital 3 days after birth. Hema tological findings on admission showed serum potassium 2.6 mEq/L, bicarbonate 36.3 mmol/L, and base excess 12.8 mmol/L, with pH 7.56 and metabolic alkalosis. Electrocardiography (ECG) revealed sinus bradycardia as well as ST-segment depression, T-wave flattening, and prominent U-waves in all chest leads. Administration of enteral potassium began on postnatal day 5 but was terminated on postnatal day 7 because of rapid elevation of serum potassium, with consequent reversion of ECG abnormalities to age-appropriate levels. We later learned that the mother's serum potassium level was around 2 mEq/L because of the eating disorder, which frequently caused vomiting. Our findings suggest that this was a case of neonatal pseudo-Bartter's syndrome accompanied by severe electrolyte abnormalities and ECG changes due to maternal pseudo-Bartter's syndrome.

Background: and Purpose Recent studies suggested an increased incidence of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We evaluated the volume of CVT hospitalization and in-hospital mortality during the 1st year of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the preceding year. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional retrospective study of 171 stroke centers from 49 countries. We recorded COVID-19 admission volumes, CVT hospitalization, and CVT in-hospital mortality from January 1, 2019, to May 31, 2021. CVT diagnoses were identified by International Classification of Disease-10 (ICD-10) codes or stroke databases. We additionally sought to compare the same metrics in the first 5 months of 2021 compared to the corresponding months in 2019 and 2020 (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04934020). Results: There were 2,313 CVT admissions across the 1-year pre-pandemic (2019) and pandemic year (2020); no differences in CVT volume or CVT mortality were observed. During the first 5 months of 2021, there was an increase in CVT volumes compared to 2019 (27.5%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 24.2 to 32.0; P<0.0001) and 2020 (41.4%; 95% CI, 37.0 to 46.0; P<0.0001). A COVID-19 diagnosis was present in 7.6% (132/1,738) of CVT hospitalizations. CVT was present in 0.04% (103/292,080) of COVID-19 hospitalizations. During the first pandemic year, CVT mortality was higher in patients who were COVID positive compared to COVID negative patients (8/53 [15.0%] vs. 41/910 [4.5%], P=0.004). There was an increase in CVT mortality during the first 5 months of pandemic years 2020 and 2021 compared to the first 5 months of the pre-pandemic year 2019 (2019 vs. 2020: 2.26% vs. 4.74%, P=0.05; 2019 vs. 2021: 2.26% vs. 4.99%, P=0.03). In the first 5 months of 2021, there were 26 cases of vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT), resulting in six deaths. Conclusions During the 1st year of the COVID-19 pandemic, CVT hospitalization volume and CVT in-hospital mortality did not change compared to the prior year. COVID-19 diagnosis was associated with higher CVT in-hospital mortality. During the first 5 months of 2021, there was an increase in CVT hospitalization volume and increase in CVT-related mortality, partially attributable to VITT.