Between December 1997 and March 1999, the Cairns and Mossman/Port Douglas regions of Far North Queensland, Australia, experienced an epidemic caused by DEN-3 virus. There were 496 confirmed cases over this period, 98 (20%) of this group were hospitalized. Additionally, 19 patients with probable dengue were hospitalized. The unusually high rate of hospitalization prompted an analysis of the clin...

BACKGROUND Hospital mortality of patients admitted with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) has been well described. However, the long-term survival of those discharged alive is less clear. We sought to determine long-term survival of patients hospitalized with CAP and compare the outcome with controls hospitalized for reasons other than CAP. METHODS We performed a matched case-control analysi...

OBJECTIVES This study was conducted to report the course of an accidental release of chlorine gas that occurred in a factory in Gumi-si, South Korea, on March 5, 2013. We describe the analysis results of 2 patients hospitalized because of chlorine-induced acute health problems, as well as the clinical features of 209 non-hospitalized patients. METHODS We analyzed the medical records of the 2 ...

AIM To examine the changes in the number of children younger than 18 who were hospitalized due to alcohol intoxication at the Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital of Split, from November 1, 1997 to October 31, 2007. METHODS Data on children hospitalized due to intoxication were retrieved from hospital medical records. Children were classified into 4 age groups: 0-5, 6-9, 10-13, and 1...

BACKGROUND Delirium is common in older hospitalized patients, and is associated with negative consequences for the patients, next of kin, healthcare professionals and healthcare costs. It is important to understand its clinical features, as almost 40% of all cases in hospitals may be preventable. Yet, delirium in hospitalized patients is often unrecognized and untreated. Few studies describe th...

Hypophosphatemia is common in hospitalized patients and occurs under a variety of circumstances other than parathyroid hormone excess. Charts of 100 inpatients with hypophosphatemia were reviewed and the patients divided into five groups on the basis of serum phosphate level: 18, 2.1 to 2.4 mg/dL; 49, 1.6 to 2.0 mg/dL; 20, 1.1 to 1.5 mg/dL; 12, 0.6 to 1.0 mg/dL; 1, 0.1 to 0.5 mg/dL. The effect ...

BACKGROUND Little is known about the impact of hospitalization for an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) on subsequent adherence to statins. METHODS AND RESULTS Using administrative claims from a 5% random sample of Medicare beneficiaries, we identified a cohort of Medicare patients aged ≥65 years, hospitalized from 2007 to 2011, taking statins in the year before AMI hospitalization (n=6618). ...

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is the commonest cause of preventable death in hospitalized patients. Elderly patients have higher risk of VTE because of the high prevalence of predisposing co-morbidities and acute illnesses. Clinical diagnosis of VTE in the elderly patient is particularly difficult and, as such, adequate VTE prophylaxis is of pivotal importance in reducing the mortality and morbi...

AIMS The aim of this study is to determine proportions of major ischaemic heart disease (IHD) events that are fatal and where they occur, in an era of rapidly falling IHD mortality. METHODS AND RESULTS Individual person linkage of national data sets identified all IHD hospitalizations and deaths in New Zealand from December 2008 to November 2010. Outcome measures were proportions of people: (...