Isr Med Assoc J
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During an influenza pandemic, clinicians need easily available clinical and laboratory criteria to distinguish influenza from similar respiratory illnesses. We compared A/H1N1/2009-polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-positive and matched PCR-negative hospitalized patients with suspected H1N1 influenza to identify factors that could assist physicians at patient admission. ⋯ Under the conditions generated by the A/ H1 1/2009 pandemic, radiological findings did not distinguish reliably between influenza and other febrile respiratory illnesses. Asthma, military service, the pandemic case definition (particularly fever, cough and myalgia)
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Comparative Study
Why do geriatric patients attend otolaryngology emergency rooms?
With an aging population, health care of the elderly population is becoming increasingly important; however, the principles of geriatric medicine and issues of concern specific to geriatric otolaryngologic patients have not been widely applied. ⋯ More than 65% of visits of the elderly presenting to ENT-ED involve true emergencies. This growing population may benefit from the presence of geriatric specialists in emergency departments.
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Acute, as opposed to chronic, anterior uveitis is rarely associated with macular or optic nerve edema. Nevertheless, mild changes may not be visible on examination. ⋯ OCT demonstrated that eyes with acute anterior uveitis had thicker maculae and thicker peripapillary RNFL than controls. This finding suggests that even milder anterior uveitis may be associated with some degree of posterior segment manifestations.
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Local recurrences after breast-conserving surgery occur mostly at the site of the primary carcinoma. The main objective of postoperative radiotherapy is sterilization of residual cancer cells. Whole-breast radiotherapy is the standard of care, but its utility has recently been challenged in favor of radiotherapy limited to the area at highest risk of recurrence. Intraoperative electron radiotherapy (IOeRT) is an innovative technique for accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) that is applied to selected patients affected by early breast cancer. ⋯ Intraoperative electron radiotherapy may be an alternative to external beam radiation therapy in an appropriate selected group of early-stage breast cancer patients. However, long-term results of clinical trials are required to better evaluate the indications and utility of this technique in the management of breast cancer.