[Croatian Medical Association in the period of transition 1989-1997].

By reviewing the minutes of the 56 sessions of the Presidency and thereafter of the Management council of the Croatian Medical Association, the minutes of annual conventions and other relevant publications, the events in the Croatian Medical Association in the first period of social and market transition, from the first democratic elections in the country up to the beginning of the year 1997 are presented. The construction of the Association before transition, its changes in the statutes during the first three years are demonstrated: the Association restores its old and previous denominations, the professional sections convert to professional societies, the secret elections for all leading places in the organization are introduced. One after another are presented the appeals, meetings and symposia that were sent or held in the headquarter at a time of aggression against Croatia with an aim to ask international help in the defense of the homeland.

Is referring patients with a positive history of allergic drug reactions or atopy for allergy testing to local anesthetics justified?

Although no more than 1% of adverse reactions to local anesthetics (LA) are thought to be immunologically mediated, many patients continue to be referred to allergy clinics for allergy workup. We evaluated the impact of a history of drug hypersensitivity or atopy on results of allergy testing to LA, with the aim of determining the appropriateness of allergy testing to LA in such patients. We retrospectively analyzed medical records of 112 consecutive patients referred for allergy testing to LA in a 9-year period (1996-2005).

[Doctors and tobacco smoking].

A survey undertaken at three hospitals in Zagreb in 1988 showed that 32.1% of doctors employed were smokers. Another survey found that 31.

Acquired coagulopathy due to anticoagulant rodenticide poisoning.

A 35-year-old woman was admitted to hospital because of epistaxis, hematomas, and metrorrhagia. Laboratory data indicated severe coagulopathy with prolonged prothrombin time and decreased serum concentrations of vitamin K-dependent clotting factors II, VII, IX, and X. The patient denied taking any oral anticoagulants.

Health-care resource use by asthmatics in Croatia.

We report a survey of the impact of asthma on daily life and on health-care resource use by adult asthma patients in four counties in Croatia. Over a 1-year period beginning November 1998, 185 general practitioners recruited 504 asthma patients, who completed a questionnaire about their drug therapy, health-care resource use, symptoms, limitations in daily activities, and work loss due to asthma. Over a 2-week period, inhaled corticosteroids were used by 51.