The Netherlands journal of medicine
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Observational Study
Severe acute respiratory infections surveillance for early signals in the community.
Surveillance of acute respiratory infections (ARI) in the Netherlands and other European countries is based mostly on primary care data, with little insight into the severe spectrum of the disease. We compared time-trends for ARI in secondary care with influenza-like illness (ILI), ARI and pneumonia in primary care, and crude mortality, in order to assess the value of routinely collected data on respiratory infections in hospitals and the added value of severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) surveillance. ⋯ This observational study demonstrates that routinely collected data can be used for describing trends of ARI in secondary care and may be suitable for near real-time SARI surveillance. In most seasons, the incidence peaks for ARI in secondary care preceded the peaks in primary care and crude mortality with a considerable time-lag. It would be of great value to add microbiological test results to the incidence data to better explain the difference in time-lag between these surveillance systems.
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Observational Study
Liver stiffness improvement in hepatitis C patients after successful treatment.
Successful treatment of chronic hepatitis C with direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) is expected to lead to improvement in liver fibrosis in most of the patients. However, limited data are available on the improvement of advanced liver fibrosis and cirrhosis, measured by transient elastography after treatment. This study assessed the change in liver stiffness measurements after successful treatment with DAAs in patients with pre-treatment advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis. ⋯ Liver stiffness improves significantly after successful direct-acting antiviral agent treatment in chronic hepatitis C patients with advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis prior to DAA treatment. Long-term outcomes regarding occurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in these patients are required to determine whether they can be safely discharged from HCC surveillance.
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Thionamides (such as thiamazole/methimazole) are a common first line treatment for Graves' disease. Common side effects include rash, urticaria, and arthralgia. ⋯ Although severe presentation warrants acute withdrawal of the causative agent, our case suggests that milder forms can be successfully treated with anti-inflammatory drugs alone. Recognition of the syndrome is key to warrant timely and effective treatment.
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The aetiology of hypotonic polyuria, after excluding solute diuresis, is one of primary polydipsia, central, or nephrogenic diabetes insipidus. Theoretically, these disorders should be relatively easily distinguished based on history and the results of an indirect water deprivation test. Practically, however, there is a significant overlap in diagnostic evaluation, potentially leading to an erroneous diagnosis and deleterious management plan. The ability to measure a stimulated copeptin level, either with hypertonic saline or arginine infusion, has led to greater diagnostic accuracy.
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Approximately 500 patients per year are admitted to the emergency department (ED) of the Erasmus University Medical Center presenting with intoxications with medication. For adequate treatment, it is sometimes important to know which drugs in which quantities were ingested. This can require laboratory analysis of blood or urine samples; however, these samples do not provide information about the possible effects that can still be expected. ⋯ In the other patient, admitted approximately six hours after a severe autointoxication with the betablocker metoprolol, we found significant amounts of metoprolol in the gastric content acquired by gastric lavage. We therefore believe that analysis of gastric content after an intoxication can have multiple applications; for example, it may provide information about symptoms of intoxication that can be expected, it may aid patient care and may provide insight in the toxicokinetics of different drugs. In conclusion, we demonstrate that toxicological screening and quantification of drug levels in gastric content is possible and has potential as an adjunct in patient care, but limitations need to be addressed before implementation in clinical practice.