[Effectiveness of the implementation of a clinical program (CP) for the management of acute pharyngitis in adults].

Objective: To reduce variability in the diagnosis and treatment of acute pharyngitis, reaching an established standard of quality.

Design: Noncontrolled intervention study, consisting of sequential quality improvement cycles.

Setting: Unscheduled attention at the outpatient clinic of an internal medicine service.

[Acute confusion syndrome in the hospitalized elderly].

Our purpose was to determine the in-hospital incidence of delirium among elderly patients, its relation to previous cognitive impairment and the time between admission and its development. We performed an observational study of follow-up in the internal medicine area of a university hospital. We included consecutively and prospectively every patient 70 years or older upon admission.

The first component of the human complement system recognizes the active fraction of heparin.

A low molecular weight heparin fraction with high anticoagulant activity was isolated from the precipitate of the interaction with the first component of the human complement system. Our results confirmed the predictions: under very strict conditions of pH (6.3), CaCl2 concentration (2 mM), ionic strength (25 mM) and protein/heparin ratio (1/1), the first component of the complement recognizes the high antithrombin III affinity fraction of heparin, and allows a concentration of the biological activity of the original low molecular weight-heparin.

The absence of DNA from the blood serum of Bufo arenarum.

The absence of DNA from the blood serum of the toad Bufo arenarum was confirmed by classical colorimetric techniques and by a new method which allows differentiation between DNA and the glycosaminoglycans (GAG). A component of serum which had some of the properties of DNA was identified as a GAG. This component gave positive reactions in colorimetric assays for DNA, but the absorption spectra were completely different from those of authentic DNA.