Isr Med Assoc J
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The increasing utilization of general internal medicine hospital wards in Israel during the last decade is a source of concern for health policy makers. ⋯ Assuming that 12-75% of admissions for "ambulatory care sensitive disorders" are preventable, an improved review before hospital discharge and a closer outpatient follow-up may reduce the load on GIM wards by 1-17%. This wide range justifies controlled trials to determine the effect of improved community care on hospital utilization. GIM wards offer valuable learning opportunities, but they cannot be a substitute for primary care clinics. The unexplained high proportion of GIM inpatients who were discharged with an unspecified main diagnosis could be detrimental for the accuracy of hospitalization statistics, and justifies investigation by chart audits into physicians' habits of documentation.
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Exposure of newborn animals to high concentrations of oxygen leads to diffuse alveolar damage similar to that seen in bronchopulmonary dysplasia in human infants. Therefore, neonatal rats are a suitable practical model of hyperoxic lung damage in human infants. ⋯ Hyperoxia induces sequential production of pulmonary TNF alpha and IL-6, which corresponds to the severity of the pathological findings and the known inflammatory and anti-inflammatory role of these cytokines.