Reliability of three questions for the screening of advanced cognitive impairment in polypathological patients.

Aim: To determine whether answering three questions erroneously ("what is the date today?," "when were you born?" and "how old are you?") allows for the detection of advanced cognitive impairment in polypathological patients.

Methods: A cross-sectional study of patients admitted to the internal medicine and geriatrics departments was carried out. Advanced cognitive impairment was diagnosed when patients made 7-10 errors in the Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire.

Acute renal failure due to interstitial nephritis after intravesical instillation of BCG.

Intravesical chemotherapy with bacilli Calmette-Guerin (BCG) has been an established therapy for preventing recurrence of, and for treatment of, superficial transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder, but it is not without side effects. A variety of renal complications have been reported and attributed to mycobacterial infection. Although renal complications are uncommon, several cases of interstitial nephritis (with or without granulomas) and mesangial glomerulonephritis have been reported.