Venous thromboembolism: the prevailing approach to diagnosis, prevention and treatment among Internal Medicine practitioners.

Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is the third most common cause of death and the leading cause of sudden death in hospitalized medical patients. Despite the existence of guidelines for prevention and treatment of this disorder, their implementation in everyday life is not always accomplished.

Methods: We performed a survey among directors of Internal Medicine departments in our country in order to evaluate their attitude and approach to this issue.

Hip fractures in the elderly in Israel-possible impact of preventable conditions.

In the present study we evaluated the possible contribution of different factors to the occurrence of hip fractures in Israel. We assessed medical history, physical activity, body mass index, smoking status, bone turnover markers and calcium regulating hormones levels of 142 consecutive elderly hip fracture patients (HFP), and compared them to 96 community dwelling elderly people without a history of hip fracture. Age and female gender were the strongest predictors of hip fracture, p<0.