Guidelines for the management of patients with severe forms of dengue.

Dengue is the most common vector-borne viral infection worldwide. In Brazil, the incidence has increased with successive epidemics, and an increasing proportion of patients present with severe forms of the disease. The prognosis for these patients is directly influenced by the quality of medical care.

Outcomes and prognostic factors in patients with head and neck cancer and severe acute illnesses.

Objectives: To evaluate the outcomes of patients with head and neck cancer and severe acute illnesses, and to identify characteristics associated with hospital mortality.

Design: Cohort study.

Setting: Ten-bed medical-surgical oncologic intensive care unit (ICU).

Cutaneous periumbilical purpura in disseminated strongyloidiasis in cancer patients: a pathognomonic feature of potentially lethal disease?

Cutaneous manifestations in disseminated strongyloidiasis are infrequent but should raise the suspicion for its diagnosis. We retrospectively evaluated the charts of six patients with cancer and a proven diagnosis of disseminated strongyloidiasis. All patients had received prophylaxis with albendazole before starting antineoplastic therapy, which included high-dose steroids.

Performance of six severity-of-illness scores in cancer patients requiring admission to the intensive care unit: a prospective observational study.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of five general severity-of-illness scores (Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II and III-J, the Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, and the Mortality Probability Models at admission and at 24 hours of intensive care unit [ICU] stay), and to validate a specific score - the ICU Cancer Mortality Model (CMM) - in cancer patients requiring admission to the ICU.

Methods: A prospective observational cohort study was performed in an oncological medical/surgical ICU in a Brazilian cancer centre. Data were collected over the first 24 hours of ICU stay.