Definition of Specific Functions and Procedural Skills Required by Cuban Specialists in Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine.

INTRODUCTION Medical specialties' core curricula should take into account functions to be carried out, positions to be filled and populations to be served. The functions in the professional profile for specialty training of Cuban intensive care and emergency medicine specialists do not include all the activities that they actually perform in professional practice. OBJECTIVE Define the specific functions and procedural skills required of Cuban specialists in intensive care and emergency medicine.

Synopsis of the Dutch multidisciplinary guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of hereditary haemochromatosis.

Hereditary haemochromatosis (HH) is a disease related to mutations in the HFE gene and can lead to progressive iron accumulation, especially in the liver, eventually resulting in organ damage. We have developed guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of this disease according to CBO methodology (dutch institute for Healthcare Quality). The prevalence of clinical symptoms such as fatigue, arthropathies, impotence and diabetes mellitus among homozygotes was similar to that in a control population.

The von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor protein influences microtubule dynamics at the cell periphery.

The von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) protein protects microtubules (MTs) from destabilization by nocodazole treatment. Based on this fixed-cell assay with static end points, VHL has been reported to directly stabilize the MT cytoskeleton. To investigate the dynamic changes in MTs induced by VHL in living cells, we measured the influence of VHL on tubulin turnover using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP).

Circulating endothelial cells in cancer patients do not express tissue factor.

Numbers of circulating endothelial cells (CECs) are increased in cancer patients with progressive disease. Also, cancer patients have an increased risk for thrombotic events, being negatively associated with prognosis. Tissue factor (TF), the physiological initiator of coagulation, is present on the surface of many extravascular cells.

[Treatment of patients with chronic renal insufficiency; a guideline for internists].

Early optimalization of the treatment of patients with chronic renal insufficiency can reduce morbidity and deaths. For each patient with a raised serum creatinine concentration, the creatinine clearance should be measured or calculated. When this is abnormal, the cause thereof should be investigated.