Clinics
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To present the more frequent associations found in autopsies of immunocompromised patients who developed secondary interstitial pneumonia as well as the risk of death (odds ratio) in having specific secondary interstitial pneumonia according to the cause of immunocompromise. ⋯ Patients with secondary immunosuppression who developed secondary interstitial pneumonia during treatment in hospital should be evaluated to avoid death by diffuse alveolar damage, pulmonary edema, bronchopneumonia, lung hemorrhage, pulmonary thromboembolism, or lung metastasis. The high-risk patients are those immunosuppressed by hematologic disease; those under steroid treatment; or those with colon or hepatic carcinoma, cachexia, or arterial hypertension.
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To characterize the different components of metabolic acidosis in patients with hyperlactatemia in order to determine the degree to which lactate is responsible for the acidosis and the relevance that this might have in the outcome of these patients. ⋯ Hyperlactatemia is usually accompanied by metabolic acidemia, but lactate is responsible for a minor percentage of the acidosis; unmeasured anions account for most of the acidosis in patients with hyperlactatemia. The percentage of the acidosis due to hyperlactatemia was not relevant in terms of outcome.