[EARLY IN-HOSPITAL MORTALITY IN INTERNAL MEDICINE WARDS (WITHIN 24 HOURS): A POTENTIAL QUALITY INDICATOR OR A VARIABLE AFFECTED BY MULTIPLE FACTORS?].

Aims: To evaluate in-hospital mortality rate within 24 hours in internal medicine wards and to evaluate if it may be used as quality indicator.

Background: In-hospital mortality rate is an outcome measure which apparently reflects quality of care. There are debates on whether it may be considered a quality indicator since it is difficult to compare different case-mixes between hospitals.

PET-CT imaging of combined brachial and lumbosacral neurolymphomatosis.

Neurolymphomatosis is a rare manifestation of progressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. A 44-yr-old man with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma presented with unilateral progressive peripheral sensorimotor neuropathy after the 7th cycle of R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone) therapy. No pathology in the nervous system was evident by computerized tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the head, spinal axis and plexuses and by repeated analysis of cerebrospinal fluid.

Clinical and ethnic characteristics of stroke in an Israeli population: a study in a community hospital population.

Background: Stroke mainly affects the older population, although it has also been reported in younger patients. In this study, we focused on patients 65 years of age or younger with stroke. Methods: The files of three patient populations were studied: 93 patients aged 65 years or younger with stroke (group A), 93 patients older than 65 with stroke (group B), and 604 patients without stroke representing the general population of patients admitted to our service during January 2000 (group C).

Erythropoietin has an anti-myeloma effect - a hypothesis based on a clinical observation supported by animal studies.

Recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEpo) was introduced into clinical practice more than a decade ago, and has been found to be effective in the treatment of several types of anemia, including anemia of end-stage renal failure and cancer-related anemia. No study has suggested that Epo might have an effect on the biology of the disease, nor any survival advantage to cancer patients treated with Epo for anemia has been reported. Here we report six patients with advanced multiple myeloma (MM) with very poor prognostic features, whose expected survival was <6 months.