[Clinical approach to the patient with obesity document by the Argentine Society of Medicine, the Uruguayan Society of Internal Medicine, and the International Forum of Internal Medicine].

Obesity is one of the non-communicable chronic diseases with the highest increase in recent decades in Latin America, affecting children, adolescents, and especially young adults. Forty percent of adults have a body mass index greater than 25 kg/m2. Numerous studies have demonstrated a relationship between obesity and cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, heart failure, cardiac arrhythmias, diabetes, sleep apnea, and oncological diseases, among others.

Position of the international forum of internal medicine on habits, lifestyle changes and a healthy environment for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD), mainly ischemic heart disease and stroke, is the main cause of death worldwide and each year more people die from CVD than from any other cause. These data call for a paradigm shift, where health promotion and cardiovascular prevention will acquire a central role in health policies. From this perspective, dedicating time during the consultation to promoting the acquisition of heart-healthy habits would be indicated in all individuals, regardless of cardiovascular risk classification, the role of the internist being fundamental.

[Position of the international forum of internal medicine on habits, lifestyle changes and a healthy environment for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases].

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD), mainly ischemic heart disease and stroke, is the main cause of death worldwide and each year more people die from CVD than from any other cause. These data call for a paradigm shift, where health promotion and cardiovascular prevention will acquire a central role in health policies. From this perspective, dedicating time during the consultation to promoting the acquisition of heart-healthy habits would be indicated in all individuals, regardless of cardiovascular risk classification, the role of the internist being fundamental.

A randomized clinical trial of home telemonitoring in patients with advanced heart and lung diseases.

Brief Summary: The addition of home monitoring to an integrated care model in patients with advanced chronic heart/lung diseases decreases mortality, hospital and emergency admissions, improves functional status, HRQoL, and is cost-effective.

Background: Telemonitoring is a promising implement for medicine, but its efficacy is unknown in patients with advanced heart and lung failure (AHLF).

Objective: To determine the efficacy of a telemonitoring system added to coordinated clinical care in patients with AHLF.

A multicenter randomized clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of telemonitoring in patients with advanced heart and lung chronic failure. Study protocol for the ATLAN_TIC project.

Background: Using technologies of information and communication (TICs) is emerging in medical assistance. TICs application for medical assistance is promising. Its applicability in advanced heart and/or respiratory failure is still controversial because studies have shown methodological weakness which could put in danger their conclusions.

Ferric carboxymaltose with or without erythropoietin in anemic patients with hip fracture: a randomized clinical trial.

Background: The increasing incidence of osteoporotic hip fracture (HF) has raised the requirements of red blood cell (RBC) transfusions, whereas this scarce resource may cause morbidity and mortality.

Study Design And Methods: This study was a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, clinical trial that aimed to assess efficacy of ferric carboxymaltose (FCM) with or without erythropoietin (EPO) in reducing RBC transfusion in the perioperative period of HF. Participants (patients > 65 years admitted with HF and hemoglobin [Hb] levels of 90-120 g/L) were randomly assigned to receive a preoperative single dose of 1 g of FCM (short intravenous [IV] infusion over 15 min), plus 40,000 IU of subcutaneous EPO (EPOFE arm); versus 1 g of IV FCM plus subcutaneous placebo (FE arm); and versus IV and subcutaneous placebo (placebo arm).

Idiopathic pleuroparenchymal fibroelastosis, a new idiopathic interstitial pneumonia: A case report.

Idiopathic pleuroparenchymal fibroelastosis (IPPFE) is a rare disease, idiopathic in most of the cases described in the literature. We report the case of a 55-year-old patient, non-smoker with tuberculosis treated in his youth, starting with progressive dyspnoea and cough, with radiographic abnormalities consisting of pleural thickening, bronchiectasis and structural distortion predominantly in the upper lobes. Due to functional impairment and persistent radiographic abnormalities, biopsy by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgical was decided.

[Drug prescription profile in patients with advanced chronic diseases].

Objectives: To analyze the prescription profile and the factors associated with multiple medications (polypharmacy) and non-adherence in patients with advanced chronic diseases.

Material And Methods: Longitudinal cross-sectional study including 41 Spanish hospitals (PALIAR project). Polypharmacy was defined as a prescribed treatment with five or more drugs, and excessive polypharmacy when the number was ten or more.

Development of a six-month prognostic index in patients with advanced chronic medical conditions: the PALIAR score.

Context: Efforts in developing useful tools to properly identify the end-of-life trajectory of patients with advanced medical diseases have been made, but the calibration and/or discriminative power of these tools has not been optimal.

Objectives: Our objective was to develop a new, reliable prognostic tool to identify the probability of death within six months in patients with chronic medical diseases.

Methods: This was a multicenter, prospective, observational study in 41 Spanish hospitals, which included 1778 patients with one or more of the following: advanced conditions such as heart failure, respiratory failure, chronic renal failure, chronic liver disease, and/or chronic neurological disease.

Ferric carboxymaltose with or without erythropoietin for the prevention of red-cell transfusions in the perioperative period of osteoporotic hip fractures: a randomized contolled trial. The PAHFRAC-01 project.

Background: Around one third to one half of patients with hip fractures require red-cell pack transfusion. The increasing incidence of hip fracture has also raised the need for this scarce resource. Additionally, red-cell pack transfusions are not without complications which may involve excessive morbidity and mortality.

[Reliability of different criteria in identifying end-of-life trajectory of patients with chronic medical diseases. PALIAR Project].

Introduction: It is a challenge to reliably identify the end-of-life trajectory in patients with advanced-stage chronic medical conditions. This makes advanced supportive care planning and transition from survival to comfort objectives more difficult in these emergent patient populations.

Objectives: To evaluate the sensitivity (Se), specificity (Sp), positive predictive values (PPV) and negative (NPV), and validity index (IV) of NHO criteria for terminal medical conditions, PPI and ECOG in patients with advanced heart, lung, liver, kidney and/or neurological diseases, and to build and validate an accurate index to determine this border-line.