Medicina
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Research suggests that patients spend most of the last year of their life at home and that this is the place where they often choose to stay. Family caregiving has become an important issue of palliative care. The purposes of this study were: 1) to identify salient issues of caregiving for family members of palliative care patients and 2) to propose a classification based on different profiles of caregivers. ⋯ Quantitative data were collected with a self-completion questionnaire and were analyzed with SPSS (12.01). Three dimensions were evaluated: a) attitudes of the caregiver towards the treatments, b) perceptions of the caregivers of the needs and wishes of the patient and c) evaluation of their own role as caregiver. Four types of informal caregivers were identified: 1) satisfactory carers, based on a well-organized system of relatives and friends involved in the caring situation, 2) potentially vulnerable carers, those involved in situations apparently controlled, but with factors which could trigger a spiral of deterioration, 3) overwhelmed carers, who explicitly express difficulties in being able to achieve the daily goals for the patients' comfort and 4) isolated carers, composed by lonely wives wishing "not to bother" others.
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Case Reports
[Geographic expansion of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in Argentina. The southernest case report].
Since 1995 more than 1000 cases of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) were reported in Argentina, a severe disease and often fatal to humans. Most cases were associated with Andes virus (AND) that caused few events of person-to-person transmission. Several lineages of pathogenic AND viruses have been described, including AND South, hosted by the rodent Oligoryzomys longicaudatus which affects the Patagonian region of Argentina and Chile. ⋯ The clinical presentation of the case was the classical and moderate, caused by AND South virus. Its viral nucleotide sequence was compared with cases from Southern Argentina and Chile. This case was found to be the most Southern (48 degrees 46' 1.2'' S; 70 degrees 15' O) case reported and involved a new Argentinean province.
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The purpose of neurometabolic screening is the earliest possible detection of treatable disorders. The disorders currently offered to general population screening are phenylketonuria, congenital hypothyroidism, galactosemia, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, cystic fibrosis, biotinidase deficiency, maple syrup urine disease, sickle cell disease, homocystinuria. The methods used for these evaluations are mass spectroscopy and genetic testing.