São Paulo medical journal = Revista paulista de medicina
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Hypertension is one of the most important cardiovascular risk factors but its control is still a challenge for physicians all around the world. For blood pressure control to be improved, it is important to guarantee the quality of attendance provided for hypertensive patients, especially in teaching hospitals, where future physicians are being trained. ⋯ The patients with arterial hypertension under treatment at the university hospital had a profile of high cardiovascular risk and poor blood pressure control. Greater effort for improving hypertension control is needed, since this is the only way to reduce the morbidity and mortality rates of cardiovascular diseases.
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Electron microscopy has been used for the morphological diagnosis of glomerular diseases for more than three decades and its value has been widely emphasized. However, recent reports have analyzed the routine use of electron microscopy critically. Its use in other areas of diagnosis such as tumor diseases has declined considerably; in addition, in view of the unavoidable financial pressure for the reduction of costs due to investigations and diagnostic routines, the selection of cases for electron microscopy has been quite rigorous. ⋯ It was possible to diagnose with certainty a great percentage of glomerulopathies (82.5-90% of the cases) based on the light microscopy and immunofluorescence findings alone. Electron microscopy was essential for the diagnosis of hereditary nephropathies.
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Hepatotoxicity is a potential complication from the usage of various illicit drugs, possibly consequent to their liver metabolism, but information on this is scarce in the medical literature. ⋯ Chronic marijuana usage, on its own or in association with other drugs, was associated with hepatic morphologic and enzymatic alterations. This indicates that cannabinoids are possible hepatotoxic substances.
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Patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer are deemed incurable, but they may derive some benefit from systemic palliative chemotherapy. Recently, with the introduction of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antagonists such as gefitinib (Iressa), an effective and less toxic option is now available for the treatment of such patients. ⋯ We concluded that gefitinib is an important addition to the therapeutic armamentarium for patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.
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Cigarette smoke, whether inhaled voluntarily or not, causes damage to the mother-infant pair. The antenatal period may present the best opportunity for performing effective anti-smoking campaigns. ⋯ Cigarette smoke, whether inhaled voluntarily or not, has an unfavorable effect on the mother-infant pair.