Capillary refill time during fluid resuscitation in patients with sepsis-related hyperlactatemia at the emergency department is related to mortality.

Introduction: Acute circulatory dysfunction in patients with sepsis can evolve rapidly into a progressive stage associated with high mortality. Early recognition and adequate resuscitation could improve outcome. However, since the spectrum of clinical presentation is quite variable, signs of hypoperfusion are frequently unrecognized in patients just admitted to the emergency department (ED).

[Social capital and health in Latin America and the Caribbean: a systematic review].

Objective: To identify validated information available on the relationship between social capital (SC) and health in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).

Methods: A systematic search for papers published from January 1990-June 2007 was conducted on the Medline, SciELO, LILACS, and the Cochrane Library databases. All of the research and review articles published by scientific journals that evaluated CS and its relationship to health in LAC were included in the analysis.

[High prevalence of thyroid dysfunction among psychiatric inpatients].

Background: Thyroid dysfunction is frecuent in psychiatric outpatients and in the general Chilean population but there is no information about the prevalence of thyroid diseases in Chilean psychiatric inpatients.

Aim: To retrospectively assess the frequency of thyroidal diseases in psychiatric inpatients.

Material And Methods: Clinical charts and thyroid assessment of 241 psychiatric inpatients (147 women, mean age 33+/-16 years) attended in a University Psychiatric Clinic, were reviewed.