[Voting by cognitively impaired persons: legal and ethical issues].

In democratic countries, cognitively impaired persons are a substantial and growing group of citizens. Most of them are citizens with dementia. In dementia, cognitive impairment induces a loss of some capacities, resulting in vulnerability and increased need for assistance.

The vote of acute medical inpatients: a prospective study.

Objective: There may be ethical issues associated with allowing certain inpatients to vote as some may be cognitively impaired. During the 2007 elections in France, we conducted a prospective observational study on voting among hospitalized patients.

Method: Patients hospitalized in an Internal Medicine and Geriatric Department on election day were included.

Consideration of age at admission for selective screening to identify methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus carriers to control dissemination in a medical ward.

Background: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has become an increasingly important pathogen responsible for hospital-acquired infections. Our study was to evaluate the efficiency of our selective screening program for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) carriers at admission to nonintensive care units.

Methods: During 6 months, all patients were screened at admission to an internal medicine ward, at which time they were classified as patients at risk of carriage (PRC) and those with no known risk factor.

[Diagnosis, progression and prognosis, aetiology and treatment of adult-onset Still's disease].

DIAGNOSTIC DOUBTS: Despite an increased awareness of the clinical features of the disease, adult onset Still's disease (AOSD) remains a diagnosis of exclusion. Many diagnostic criteria have been published, and the most popular are those proposed by Yamaguchi, even though they do not consider the presence of hyperferritinemia or the decrease of it glycosylated fraction, and they include exclusion criteria that are difficult to satisfy. UNPREDICTABLE PROGRESSION: Three evolutive forms have been described: monocyclic, intermittent with articular and/or systemic flares, chronic, usually in the form of chronic polyarthritis.

[Clinical and biological manifestations of adult-onset Still's disease].

A TRIAD OF FEATURES: Adult onset Still's disease (ASD) is an uncommon disorder usually associating high spiking fever, evanescent skin rash constituted of small salmon pink macules, and arthritis. NUMEROUS SYSTEMIC MANIFESTATIONS: A sore throat is common and often misleading. More than 60% of the patients develop mobile and indolent lymph nodes, usually in the cervical area.