Bronchiolar disorders: a clinical-radiological diagnostic algorithm.

Bronchiolar disorders are generally difficult to diagnose because most patients present with nonspecific respiratory symptoms of variable duration and severity. A detailed clinical history may point toward a specific diagnosis. Pertinent clinical questions include history of smoking, collagen vascular disease, inhalational injury, medication usage, and organ transplant.

Transthyretin as a marker to predict outcome in critically ill patients.

Background: A determination of serum Transthyretin (TTR, Prealbumin) level is an objective method of assessing protein catabolic loss of severely ill patients and numerous studies have shown that TTR levels correlate with patient outcomes of non-critically ill patients. We evaluated whether TTR level correlates with the prevalence of PEM in the ICU and evaluated serum TTR level as an indicator of the effectiveness of nutrition support and the prognosis in critically ill patients.

Methods: We studied PEM prevalence in 118 patients admitted to a community hospital's medical intensive care unit and the association between TTR, low albumin (ALB) concentration and high-risk disease (HRD), i.