Use of Emergency Departments by Frail Elderly Patients: Temporal Patterns and Case Complexity.

Emergency department (ED) care for frail elderly patients is associated with an increased use of resources due to their complex medical needs and frequently difficult psycho-social situation. To better target their needs with specially trained staff, it is vital to determine the times during which these particular patients present to the ED. Recent research was inconclusive regarding this question and the applied methods were limited to coarse time windows.

Improving the Prediction of Emergency Department Crowding: A Time Series Analysis Including Road Traffic Flow.

Background: Crowding in emergency departments (ED) has a negative impact on quality of care and can be averted by allocating additional resources based on predictive crowding models. However, there is a lack in effective external overall predictors, particularly those representing public activity.

Objectives: This study, therefore, examines public activity measured by regional road traffic flow as an external predictor of ED crowding in an urban hospital.

Cystic fibrosis. Part I. Frequency of the delta F508 mutation in South African families with cystic fibrosis.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a common autosomal recessive disorder among people of European origin. With the localisation of the gene locus to chromosome 7q31 and the identification of closely linked polymorphic markers in 1985, it became possible to offer prenatal testing to couples at risk of having CF children, provided a live affected individual from that family was available for investigation. The CF gene, named CFTR, was cloned and sequenced in 1989 and the most common CF-causing mutation, delta F508, identified.

Cystic fibrosis. Part II. New developments in cystic fibrosis--implications for carrier detection and genetic counselling.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an autosomal recessive disorder found predominantly in people of European origin. Prenatal diagnosis for this disorder is now possible using the polymerase chain reaction technique to detect the most common CF-causing mutation, delta F508. Case studies of prenatal diagnosis and carrier detection are presented and some of the genetic counselling issues related to these investigations are discussed.

Preventing cystic fibrosis in the RSA.

Prenatal diagnostic testing for cystic fibrosis (CF) in South Africa has been available by microvillar enzyme (MVE) assay since 1984 and by DNA investigation since 1987. The advantages and practical uses of these two procedures are reviewed. Over the period 1984-1989, 59 MVE assays and 13 DNA investigations (1 woman had both done; total number of pregnancies tested 71) were performed for the prenatal diagnosis of CF in high-risk families.