São Paulo medical journal = Revista paulista de medicina
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The high-complexity features of intensive care unit services and the clinical situation of patients themselves render correct prognosis fundamentally important not only for patients, their families and physicians, but also for hospital administrators, fund-providers and controllers. Prognostic indices have been developed for estimating hospital mortality rates for hospitalized patients, based on demographic, physiological and clinical data. ⋯ APACHE II was useful for stratifying these patients. The illness severity and death rate among clinical patients were higher than those recorded for surgical patients. Despite the stratification ability of the APACHE II system, it lacked accuracy in predicting death rates. The recorded death rate was higher than the predicted rate.
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Iron deficiency and heterozygous beta-thalassemia are important causes of hypochromic-microcytic anemia. Two laboratory parameters are suggested for the differentiation of such anemia. High-fluorescence reticulocyte counts and soluble transferrin receptor levels were determined in iron-deficiency anemia patients (n = 49) and heterozygous beta-thalassemia patients (n = 43). There was no significant difference in high-fluorescence reticulocyte and soluble transferrin receptor values between the two groups, but a correlation was observed between high-fluorescence reticulocytes and soluble transferrin receptors in iron-deficiency anemia, probably due to increased receptor synthesis as a response to decreased iron content in erythrocytes.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Therapeutic response to benzodiazepine in panic disorder subtypes.
This study makes a comparison between two subtypes of panic disorder regarding the clinical efficacy of clonazepam, a benzodiazepine. ⋯ Clonazepam was equally effective in the treatment of the respiratory and non-respiratory subtypes of panic disorder, suggesting there is no difference in the therapeutic response between the two subtypes.
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Persistent infection with high risk human papillomavirus (HPV) has been linked to cervical carcinoma. Integration of viral DNA into host cell DNA is essential for this cancer development, promoting disruption of the HPV E2 gene, thus leading to unregulated increases in E6 and E7 proteins and inactivating the products of p53 and Rb tumor suppressor genes. ⋯ The sample had a high rate of high-risk HPV detected in benign and malignant lesions; high cervical cancer burden; HPV 16 DNA integration in all except one case of cancer; p53 gene changes in CIN III and in invasive cancer cases associated with DNA integration.
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Epidemiological studies of the validity and reliability of self-reported information on important risk factors for non-communicable chronic diseases are scarce in Brazil. ⋯ The reproducibility of information on smoking, drinking, and dietary patterns ranged from substantial to excellent, as investigated in the Pró-Saúde Study, a longitudinal investigation recently launched in Rio de Janeiro.