Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift
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Dtsch. Med. Wochenschr. · May 2008
Review[The Göttingen palliative emergency card: improvement of emergency medical care for ambulatory palliative care patients. The "yellow card for rescue services"].
Currently more and more patients with cancer will be treated at home, especially at the final stage of their disease. Relatives and nursing services will therefore be confronted with acute emergency situations concerning these patients. The handling of these acute situations may be beyond the relatives' coping capacity. ⋯ Because of the complexity of an advance directive it is essential to indicated the patient's wishes in a short and quickly read form in case an emergency arises. This is one of the reasons for producing a short version like the "Göttingen palliative emergency card". In acute situations it is then possible quickly to make known the patient's wishes The patient may be given the possibility of remaining at home after an emergency situation has been dealt with successfully.
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Dtsch. Med. Wochenschr. · May 2008
Review[The status of imaging methods for the treatment of patients with Parkinson's syndrome].
The accuracy of the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease early in the course of the disease remains a clinical challenge. Imaging of dopamine transporters with DatSCAN and SPEC tomography contributes to identifying patients without nigral degeneration and thus helps preventing unnecessary and potentially harmful treatments. The cost of these imaging procedures needs to be set against the cost of unnecessary medication.
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Dtsch. Med. Wochenschr. · Apr 2008
Review[Heart failure in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)].
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has significant extrapulmonary effects, among others, on cardiovascular disease. Heart failure can frequently be found in patients with COPD. Etiology of heart failure in COPD is only poorly understood but may be related to the high frequency of ischemic heart disease in this population. Furthermore, recent data suggest that diastolic left ventricular dysfunction may have a role for heart failure in COPD.
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Dtsch. Med. Wochenschr. · Apr 2008
Case Reports[Bilateral fractures of the humerus after hypoglycemic seizure].
An 87 year-old woman with insulin dependent diabetes was referred to our hospital because she had sustained a generalized tonic-clonic seizure. Initial blood sugar concentration before hospital admission was 1.1 mmol/l. ⋯ The presentation of simultaneous bilateral fractures of the humerus is a rare but severe and almost pathognomonic complications of generalized tonic-clonic seizures, for example in the context of marked hypoglycemia. Appropriate monitoring and treatment of blood sugar levels in diabetics must be emphasized.