The Netherlands journal of medicine
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The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of patient- and non-patient-related factors (co-morbidity, demographics, and method of surveillance) on the frequency of "do-not-resuscitate" (DNR) orders in aged inpatients. ⋯ The DNR decision is related to the PAM index score and age. The variance in DNR decisions is partly related to the method of data collection, a non-patient-related factor in DNR decision-making. Without attention to the DNR/CPR decision, the DNR frequency decreased markedly.
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To assess the effect of combined therapy (CT) of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) with prednisone on symptoms and biochemistry in patients with non-advanced primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), who had responded insufficiently to either drug alone. ⋯ In PBC, combined treatment with UDCA and prednisone appears to improve symptoms and biochemical parameters to a larger extent than either treatment alone; randomized controlled trials should be performed to establish the benefit/risk ratio of this combination therapy.