The American journal of medicine
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Review
Gram-negative bacteremia. IV. Re-evaluation of clinical features and treatment in 612 patients.
Clinical features and specific aspects of treatment were evaluated in 612 patients with gram-negative bacteremia observed over a 10 year period. Coagulation abnormalities or thrombocytopenia were observed in 64 per cent of the patients. Evidence of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) was found in approximately 10 per cent of them but was of sufficient severity to be associated with subcutaneous or visceral bleeding in 3 per cent of them. ⋯ Minimal differences in therapeutic efficacy could be demonstrated between individual antibiotics and various combinations of antimicrobials. Shock occurred in approximately 40 per cent of the patients and its frequency was not influenced by the species of etiologic agent. Contrary to previous reports, corticosteroid therapy in patients with shock did not enhance survival and treatment with an average of 4.0 g/day of hydrocortisone or its equivalents was associated with a significant increase in fatality rates.
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Review Case Reports
Lead poisoning from a gunshot wound. Report of a case and review of the literature.
A man was hospitalized on three occasions for symptoms of lead intoxication 20 to 25 years after a gunshot wound that resulted in retention of a lead bullet in his hip joint. The potential for lead toxicity as a complication of a lead missile injury appears to be related to (1) the surface area of lead exposed for dissolution, (2) the location of the lead projectile, and (3) the length of time during which body tissues are exposed to absorbable lead. ⋯ The solvent characteristics of synovial fluid and associated local arthritis are apparently important factors in the dissolution and absorption of lead from projectiles located in joints. Awareness that lead intoxication can be a complication of retained lead projectiles should allow rapid institution of appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic modalities when such a clinical situation arises.
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Digitalis and diuretics constitute conventional therapy of congestive heart failure, but systemic vasodilators offer an innovative approach in acute and chronic heart failure of decreasing increased left ventricular systolic wall tension (ventricular afterload) by reducing aortic impedance and/or by reducing cardiac venous return. Thus, vasodilators increase cardiac output (CO) by diminishing peripheral vascular resistance (PVR) and/or decrease increased left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) (ventricular preload) by diminishing venous tone. Concomitantly, there is reduction of myocardial oxygen demand, thereby reliably reducing angina pectoris in coronary disease, and potentially limiting infarct size and ischemia provided systemic arterial pressure remains normal. ⋯ Mechanical counterpulsation aids nitroprusside in acute myocardial infarction. The 30-minute venodilator action of sublingual nitroglycerin is extended for 4 to 6 hours by cutaneous nitroglycerin ointment, by sublingual and oral isosorbide dintrate, and by oral pentaerythritol tetranitrate and sustained-release nitroglycerin capsules. Ambulatory oral vasodilator therapy is provided by long-acting nitrates (relieve pulmonary congestion); hydralazine (improves fatigue); prazosin alone, combined nitrate-hydralazine combined prazosin-hydralazine (improve both dyspnea and fatigue).
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Although the morphologist continues to describe cholestasis on the basis of precipitated bile seen on light microscopic sections of the liver or dilated canaliculi with loss of microvilli seen by electron microscopy, the physiologist can distinguish clearly between hyperbilirubinemia and cholestasis. Both bilirubin and bile acids are specifically removed from sinusoidal plasma by the normal hepatocyte and appear in bile in high concentration. Bilirubin conjugation and excretion appear to be governed by hepatocellular mechanisms that are, for the most part, separate from the conjugation and excretion of bile acids. ⋯ By contrast, cholestatic syndromes are characterized by marked bile acidemia with normal to slightly elevated bilirubin levels. Severe cholestasis, because of the marked reduction in bile flow, can however, engender jaundice. Further exploration of these excretory pathways will provide interesting new insights on the numerous cholestatic and hyperbilirubinemic syndromes that occur in nature.