[Spurious hypoxemia due to hyperleukocytosis. Report of one case].

Arterial gasometry is considered the gold standard for establishing a diagnosis of respiratory failure of any etiology. However, there are some circumstances in which it loses specificity, making necessary to consider other tests such as pulse oximetry to adequately determine hypoxemia. We report a 67 years old patient with sudden hypoacusia, right hemiparesis and polypnea.

[How can an internist keep updated in the XXIst century?].

The amount of information in health care has steadily grown in the past years and this trend will probably continue in the near future. Traditional ways to keep updated are no longer sufficient, particularly in broad areas of knowledge as Internal Medicine or Family Medicine. Therefore, it is necessary to use new approaches.

[Critical assessment of randomized controlled trials published in biomedical Chilean journals].

Background: Well designed clinical trials yield the strongest evidence for the effect of health care interventions.

Aim: To assess the methodological quality of the design and report of randomized clinical trials in a sample, published in biomedical Chilean journals between 1980 and 2002.

Material And Methods: All trials identified by hand search by the Unit of Evaluation of Technologies in Health, were assessed for quality of randomization, blinding, analysis of results and other characteristics of trial design, along with the application of Jadad's Score, that assesses the methodological quality of clinical trials in a scale that ranges from 0 to 5.