Recenti progressi in medicina
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At present, in our country, health care for patients in a critical condition is deficient, especially for those in a traumatised state, as well as for those with conditions which worsen suddenly and rapidly (be they conditions which become acute or which are chronic but then become serious). In all the western industrialised countries, traumas represent the most frequent cause of death among the population under 40 years. ⋯ From the Governmental/Regional Conference which took place in 2003, a directive was issued whose scope covered "Guidelines regarding the formation and ongoing, up-to-date training for personnel working in the emergency departments". In order to bring this training of the medical personnel up to speed so that the present clinical and organisational requirements at the various levels within the emergency/urgent intervention system can be met, the principal scientific companies working in the emergency/urgent need sector urgently ask for the intervention of the governmental bodies responsible for the School for Specialisation in Emergency Medicine.
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Erectile dysfunction is often associated with diabetes mellitus and athero-thrombotic diseases, such as coronary heart disease, stroke, peripheral vascular disease. An association between erectile dysfunction and asymptomatic coronary artery disease angiographically verified has been recently shown in diabetic patients. ⋯ The strong association between erectile dysfunction and athero-thrombosis may have some important clinical implications. In particular, erectile dysfunction may be used as a predictor of silent or early athero-thrombotic diseases, especially in diabetic patients.
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Inhaled bronchodilators are considered one of the principal treatments for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In the GOLD guidelines inhaled long acting bronchodilators are raccommended in patients witch moderate and severe COPD (VEMS/FVC < 70% predicted and VEMS < 80% predicted).
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Blood Doping has recently obtained a large diffusion between professional and nonprofessional athletes, in particular for endurance sports it has almost become a necessary way to warrant best performance. Seven years after the publication of our article "Blood Doping", this second installment was born to emphasize the way the biomedical research supplies (often unintentionally) new drugs and new technology to improve athletic performance and, on the other hand, to underline the antidoping strategies.
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The authors had experienced the telediagnosis on digital snapshots of standard radiology imaging (chest, abdomen, and bones), sent by e-mailing, to support the medical doctors working in remote areas of developing countries. In order to validate the overall procedure, the authors have set up a simulating model and estimated some parameters of accuracy of the diagnosis on digital snapshots against the golden standard of the diagnosis by direct look. The study concerned the standard X-ray tests of one hundred randomly-selected patients out of a hospital archive. ⋯ The chest test shows a specificity and predictive value of positives of 100.0%. Although the number of cases is low, the abdomen test apparently shows a sensibility and predictive value of negatives as high as 100%, but a lower specificity and predictive value of negatives (85.7 and 87.5%). Though this data is supportive to the validation of the procedure, even better results are supposedly achieved by increasing the quality of the snapshots and by improving the skills of using the software.