Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation in the Elderly: Defining the Limits of Appropriateness.

The prevailing policy of treating people to their death and to resuscitate victims of cardiopulmonary arrest regardless of their health status is both inhumane and irrational. In this review we will explore how to change this wasteful high technology-driven, death-denying culture into one that accepts the eventuality of dying.

Cocaine abuse: repolarization abnormalities and ventricular arrhythmias.

Increased QT and QT dispersion has been linked to arrhythmic death in patients with congenital and acquired long QT syndromes. The repolarization abnormalities were studied in 45 patients with a history of chest pain, somnolence, or disorientation admitted to the hospital for cocaine abuse. Group I was composed of patients with anginal chest pain (n = 23), whereas in group II patients (n = 22), chest pain was absent.

Respiratory distress, weakness, and electrolyte abnormalities.

A 56-year old man was admitted to the hospital with malaise, weakness, and fatigue. He was short of breath and had bilateral foot edema. Even though he had been very active a month earlier, he could no longer climb stairs.