Prospective study of early discharge after acute myocardial infarction (SHORT).

Aims: To identify, without additional investigation, a large group of myocardial infarction patients at low risk who would qualify for early discharge.

Methods: The decision rule was developed in 647 unselected patients with consecutively admitted myocardial infarction, and validated in 825 others. Daily event-rates were calculated for major (death, ventricular fibrillation, recurrent infarction, heart failure, advanced AV-block) and minor (unstable angina and rhythm-abnormalities) cardiac complications.

Peripheral natural killer cytotoxicity and CD56(pos)CD16(pos) cells increase during early pregnancy in women with a history of recurrent spontaneous abortion.

For diagnostic purposes we assessed peripheral natural killer (NK) cell cytotoxicity and NK and T cell numbers to assess their putative predictive value in recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA). A total of 43 women with subsequent pregnancy, 37 healthy controls and 39 women successfully partaking in an in-vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure, were included in the study. We show that before pregnancy, levels of NK cytotoxicity and numbers of both single CD56(pos) and double CD56(pos)CD16(pos) cells were similar between RSA women and controls.

[Pleural amyloidosis as a cause of excessive pleural effusions].

A 83-year-old woman known with a stable disease multiple myeloma was hospitalized frequently with dyspnoea caused by copious bilateral pleural effusions. Thoracentesis was performed repeatedly but pleural effusions returned. Extensive laboratory and radiological examinations failed to reveal the cause of the pleural effusions.

Variation in the use of coronary angiography in patients with unstable angina is related to differences in patient population and availability of angiography facilities, without affecting prognosis.

Objectives: Examination of the difference in management strategies with respect to coronary angiography in patients with unstable angina pectoris, and the consequences of this difference on prognosis.

Design: Prospective registration of consecutive patients admitted to two different hospitals.

Setting: University and a large community hospital in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.