Death within 48 hours of admission to the emergency department: the value of autopsy.

Objective: To identify factors that contribute to patient death within 48 hours of admission to the emergency department.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective study of the patients who died within 48 hours of admission to the emergency department, from the years 2000 to 2003. The antemortem diagnosis and postmortem diagnosis were compared.

Cat scratch disease mimicking Richter's Syndrome in a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Richter's Syndrome is a highly refractory and usually fatal condition. It occurs as a result of transformation of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or low grade lymphoma into highly aggressive lymphoma. Patients usually present with rapidly enlarging lymph nodes and systemic symptoms like night sweats, fever and weight loss.

Use of paraffin-embedded tissue for identification of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in a baker's lung nodule by fungal PCR and nucleotide sequencing.

A 40-year-old healthy male employed in a bakery presented with a single lung nodule and underwent investigations to rule out pulmonary carcinoma. Biopsy was positive for yeast cells, which did not match common fungal pathogens. PCR assay of paraffin-embedded tissue and nucleotide sequencing with ribosomal ITS1-ITS2 universal primers revealed the presence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.