Arch Intern Med
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Before 1987, the hospital survival of patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, and acute respiratory failure receiving mechanical ventilation was less than 15%. Hospital survival has improved since then, but concerns have been raised that the post-hospital discharge survival of these patients remains extremely poor. This study evaluated the long-term survival of patients discharged alive after an acute episode of acute respiratory failure caused by P carinii pneumonia. ⋯ Post-hospital discharge survival of patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, P carinii pneumonia, and acute respiratory failure has improved dramatically in the past decade. Patients can undergo intubation and mechanical ventilation with the hope of reasonable long-term survival.
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Review Practice Guideline Guideline
Ethical considerations in the allocation of organs and other scarce medical resources among patients. Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, American Medical Association.
Physicians' efforts on behalf of patients often involve the use of resources that, because of naturally limited supply or economic constraints, are not readily available to all who need them. The dilemma in such cases is how physicians may fulfill their ethical duties to "do all that [they] can for the benefit of the individual patient" when the care that they can provide is constrained by the scarcity of needed resources.
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The purpose of the study was to ascertain the prevalence of and reasons for underreporting of occupational exposures to patients' blood and body fluids among students and house staff. ⋯ Although limited by recall bias, this study showed that a high proportion of students and house staff experience occupational exposures. The results suggest that populations at high risk for exposures are the more experienced surgical house staff and the junior medical house staff. Exposures from sources known to be positive or at high risk for human immunodeficiency virus were reported more frequently than those from unknown risk sources.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Adherence to aspirin in the prevention of myocardial infarction. The Physicians' Health Study.
The primary aim of this article was to explore, in subgroup analyses, whether participants with differing frequencies of aspirin consumption in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, primary prevention trial had different magnitudes of benefit in the prevention of myocardial infarction. Secondary aims were to identify factors associated with adherence and to examine the relationship of adherence with cardiovascular outcomes in the placebo group. ⋯ These subgroup data raise the possibility that a less than alternate day aspirin regimen may yield lower benefits in the prevention of myocardial infarction. Alternate explanations are that these analyses reflect either the play of chance or effects of uncontrolled confounding since comparisons were no longer randomized. Randomized trials are necessary to address the question of frequency of administration of aspirin to achieve optimal benefits in primary prevention of myocardial infarction.
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Multicenter Study
A detailed evaluation of patients with acute pulmonary embolism and low- or very-low-probability lung scan interpretations.
To determine the clinical characteristics of patients with pulmonary embolism (PE) and low- or very-low-probability ventilation-perfusion lung scan interpretations. ⋯ Patients with a history of immobilization, trauma to the lower extremities, recent surgery, or central venous instrumentation were more likely to have false-negative lung scan interpretations. Therefore, this population warrants special attention when deciding on the need for peripheral venous studies or angiography in patients with low- or very-low-probability lung scan interpretation.