Azithromycin during Acute Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Exacerbations Requiring Hospitalization (BACE). A Multicenter, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-controlled Trial.

Azithromycin prevents acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPDs); however, its value in the treatment of an AECOPD requiring hospitalization remains to be defined. We investigated whether a 3-month intervention with low-dose azithromycin could decrease treatment failure (TF) when initiated at hospital admission and added to standard care. In an investigator-initiated, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, patients who had been hospitalized for an AECOPD and had a smoking history of ≥10 pack-years and one or more exacerbations in the previous year were randomized (1:1) within 48 hours of hospital admission to azithromycin or placebo.

Multiple organ failure and granulomatous hepatitis following intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guérin instillation.

Intravesical instillations of Bacillus-Calmette Guérin are widely used in the treatment of superficial bladder carcinoma. Although relatively safe, it has potentially lethal systemic side effects. In this case report a 68 year old patient presented with septic shock and multiple organ failure three days after instillation with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin.

Partial splenoportal and superior mesenteric venous thrombosis. Early sonographic diagnosis and successful conservative management.

A 61-yr-old woman presented with acute severe pain in the upper abdomen. Within a few hours after admission, diagnosis of partial splenoportal and superior mesenteric venous thrombosis was made by ultrasonography. This thrombosis appeared to be the first sign of a previously unsuspected essential thrombocythemia.