[MIPS: multicenter Italian pneumonia study. Results of an observational, prospective and multicenter study on the clinical approach to community-acquired pneumonia].

In a survey of 25 Divisions of Internal Medicine and Pneumology throughout Italy, our study aimed to ascertain the diagnostic and therapeutic pathway, the gravity in accordance with Fine's score (PSI), the median hospital length of stay and mortality rate among patients consecutively hospitalized for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), from January 1 to March 31, 2002. Overall 407 patients were evaluated, with a mean age of 69 years; the following Fine's scores: 28% less than 70, 21.4% between 71 and 90, 31.

POEMS and Crow-Fukase syndrome: two cases giving rise to more questions about plasma cell dyscrasias.

Two cases of POEMS and Crow-Fukase syndrome are reported. We focused our attention on the problems recently debated in the literature regarding POEMS and osteosclerotic myeloma, the pathogenetic mechanisms of the clinical symptoms in these syndromes and the problems of their classification among plasma cell dyscrasias with polyneuropathy.

Cytogenetic clonality in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia studied with fluorescence in situ hybridization.

Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) is a myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) subtype, characterized by monocytosis, dysgranulocytosis and a low number of blast cells in the peripheral blood (PB). The clonal nature of MDS has been demonstrated by various techniques: the stem cell involved initially is capable of myeloid and lymphoid differentiation. Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) is a technique which can be utilized without any pretreatment on whole interphase cells.

[Therapy of chronic non-A, non-B hepatitis with interferon alfa-2B. A controlled clinical study and long-term follow-up].

In order to assess the efficacy of alpha-2b interferon (r-IFN) in the treatment of non-A non-B chronic hepatitis, 30 patients were randomised to receive r-IFN (3 MU subcutaneously three times a week for 24 weeks) or no therapy. A total of 21 males and 9 females, aged between 24-66 years old and who had had increased transaminase levels for at least one year, were included in the study. Three patients were ex-drug addicts and 6 had received blood transfusions whereas the cause of the infection in the remaining 21 patients was unknown.