Revista médica de Chile
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Revista médica de Chile · Feb 2023
An elevated HScore is associated with poor clinical outcomes in COVID-19.
Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) frequently experience a hyperinflammatory syndrome leading to unfavorable outcomes. This condition resembles Secondary Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (sHLH) described in neoplastic, rheumatic and other infectious diseases. A scoring system (HScore) that evaluates underlying immunosuppression, temperature, organomegaly, cytopenias, ferritin, triglycerides, fibrinogen and AST was validated for sHLH, and recently proposed to evaluate hyperinflammation in COVID-19. ⋯ sHLH is not frequent among COVID-19 patients. HScore can be useful to predict the risk for poor outcomes.
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Revista médica de Chile · Feb 2023
Mortality in patients with severe COVID-19 who underwent tracheostomy due to prolonged mechanical ventilation.
The usefulness of tracheostomy has been questioned in patients with COVID-19 and prolonged invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV). ⋯ In patients with COVID-19 undergoing prolonged IMV, performing a tracheostomy is not associated with excess mortality, and it is a safe procedure for healthcare personnel.
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Revista médica de Chile · Feb 2023
[Culture and metagenomics as bacterial identification methods in patients with diabetic foot ulcers: a systematic review].
Diabetic foot osteomyelitis (DFO) is a serious complication of infected ulcers in a diabetic patient. The identification of the infecting microorganisms is generally by culture, which causes a bias. Recently, metagenomics has been used for microbial identification. ⋯ Comparing results, there is a certain complementarity between microbiological culture and sequencing to identify bacteria present in DFO.
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Clinical pharmacy is a health discipline in which pharmacists provide patient care that optimizes rational medication use and promotes health, wellness and disease prevention. The beginnings of clinical pharmacy in Chile were inspired by the origin in the School of Pharmacy of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), in the mid-1960s. However, the historical development in our country, both in teaching and in the professional field, was accompanied by difficulties and success, which became a long and winding road. ⋯ Some names of people or institutions were not mentioned. Therefore the authors apologize in advance to pharmacists and organizations whose contribution cannot be recognized in this way. However, we know that this specialty has not been forged only by the names that appear, but by all those who love and respect the work of the clinical pharmacy.
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Smoking is one of the most relevant public health problems worldwide and one of the main causes of preventable premature death. In-hospital treatment and subsequent follow-up are effective in terms of cessation. ⋯ The percentage of smokers in this group of patients is lower than that reported in the national health survey. The high proportion of respondent that are attempted to quit and failed, justifies the availability of structured quitting programs at the hospital and follow-up strategies after discharge.