Economic evaluation of human albumin use in patients with nephrotic syndrome in four Brazilian public hospitals: pharmacoeconomic study.

Context And Objective:: In 2004, the Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency (Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária, ANVISA) published a resolution establishing guidelines for albumin use. Although the published data do not indicate any definitive conclusions about the benefits of albumin use in patients with nephrotic syndrome (NS), the guidelines recommend this procedure only in cases of edema that is refractory to use of diuretics. The aim here was to analyze albumin use among patients with nephrotic syndrome.

[Prevalence of hospital admission due to adverse drug reaction in Salvador, Bahia].

Objective: To determine the prevalence of hospital admissions due to ADR in Salvador, Bahia and their outcomes.

Methods: All patients admitted in four Sentinel Hospital (ANVISA) in Salvador-Ba were evaluated and followed to determine the prevalence of admissions due to ADR and their outcomes from April to December 2007. Cases were validated by 03 algorithms.

Analysis of the use of imipenem at a university hospital following the restructuring of an antimicrobial audit system.

This study analyzed the use pattern of imipenem following the restructuring of the antimicrobial audit system at a University Hospital. It was an observational study before and after the restructuring of the antimicrobial audit system in a University Hospital from May to August and then from September to December 2006. The criteria of the rational use of imipenem were obtained from a non-systematic revision of the literature.

Predictors of adherence to treatment in patients with severe asthma treated at a referral center in Bahia, Brazil.

Objective: To determine the rate of adherence to treatment with inhaled corticosteroids in patients with severe asthma, to identify predictive factors for adherence and to evaluate the relationship between adherence to treatment and parameters of clinical and functional response.

Methods: Prospective cohort study of patients enrolled in the Program for the Control of Asthma and Allergic Rhinitis in the state of Bahia, Brazil. The study comprised 160 patients with severe asthma, monitored for 180 days in order to evaluate adherence (dependent variable) to the prescribed inhaled corticosteroid.

Analysis of the prescription of captopril to hospitalized patients.

One of the most common complications of Systemic Arterial Hypertension is the hypertensive crisis(1) characterized by a symptomatic elevation of blood pressure (BP) with or without involvement of target organs, which may lead to immediate or potential risk to life. The hypertensive crisis may manifest itself as hypertensive emergency or urgency. In the emergency there is fast deterioration of target organs and immediate risk to life, a situation that does not occur in hypertensive urgency.