Feasibility of a Home-Based Palliative Care Intervention for Elderly Multimorbid Survivors of Critical Illness.

Background: Elderly patients frequently experience deteriorating health after critical illness, which may threaten their independence and predispose them to unplanned hospital readmissions and premature death.

Objectives: To evaluate the operational feasibility of a 90-day home-based palliative care intervention in multimorbid elderly Veteran survivors of critical illness.

Methods: A multidisciplinary home-based palliative care intervention was provided for multimorbid elderly veterans who were discharged home after admission to the intensive care unit for sepsis, pneumonia, heart failure, or exacerbation of chronic obstructive lung disease.

Palliative Care Consultation Affects How and Where Heart Failure Patients Die.

Objective: Determine the role of palliative care on terminal code status and setting of death for those with heart failure.

Background: Although palliative care consultation (PCC) has increased for many conditions, PCC has not increased in those with cardiovascular disease. While it has been shown that the majority of those with heart failure die in medical facilities, the impact of PCC on terminal code status and setting of death requires further analysis.

Postoperative elevation of human peripheral blood monocyte tissue factor coagulant activity.

The generation of tissue factor coagulant activity was measured in short-term cultures of mixed mononuclear cells prepared from peripheral blood. Levels of tissue factor activity were significantly increased (P less than 0.05) at 3 and 7 days after surgery in patients who had had uncomplicated surgical procedures when comparison was made with preoperative levels and with levels observed at the same time intervals in patients who had had a general anesthetic without surgery.

A clinical trial of nafazatrom (Bay g 6575) in advanced cancer.

Nafazatrom (Bay g 6575) has been shown to be a potent inhibitor of tumor metastasis in preclinical models. It is believed to work by stimulating endogenous prostacyclin production. The drug has also been shown to inhibit the growth of certain experimental tumors, to be cytostatic for certain cell lines in tissue culture, and to induce differentiation in HL-60, neuroblastoma, and Friend erythroleukemia cell lines.

Pregnancy complicated by thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura with fetal sparing.

Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) occurred in a young woman during the ninth month of an uneventful pregnancy. At birth, the infant was asymptomatic, with a platelet count of 160,000/cu mm. Repeated examinations of the infant's peripheral blood film have shown normal platelet estimates and no fragmented erythrocytes.

Nitroblue tetrazolium test in experimental syphilis.

The reduction of nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) by phagocytic leucocytes in peripheral blood has been examined in rabbits injected intratesticularly with Treponema pallidum, T. pallidum-free supernatant of orchitic testes, or normal rabbit testes supernatant. A significant (P less than 0.