BACKGROUND The Xpert MTB/RIF test (GeneXpert) has recently been endorsed for use in resource-limited settings for the diagnosis of tuberculosis and drug resistant-tuberculosis. In resource-limited settings, GeneXpert has been used predominantly for research and there is little experience with its use in day-to-day management of patients. CASE SUMMARY We describe a case of a 46 year old HIV-in...

INTRODUCTION Law governs the admission and management of involuntary admissions of mentally ill persons who are admitted under the provisions of the mental health act. The court directs the doctor to take charge of such persons. In the further dealings of such person the medical officer of the psychiatric facility comes across legal terms, which require understanding so that patients could be d...

PURPOSE The prevalence of liver disease and frequency of consultations to a Hepatology Consultation service for patients with liver enzyme/function abnormalities admitted to a clinical teaching unit at an urban tertiary care hospital have not been previously described. To document these data, a retrospective chart review of adult patients admitted for non-hepatobiliary problems to a general Int...

OBJECTIVE To implement and evaluate strategies for improving access to emergency department (ED) care in a tertiary hospital. METHODS A retrospective pre-post intervention study using routinely collected data involving all patients presenting acutely to the ED of a major tertiary hospital over a 2-year period. Main outcome measures were changes in: the percentage of patients exiting the ED (a...

BACKGROUND Scrub typhus is a common cause of fever in parts of South East and Southern Asia. Little is known about the disease burden in Vietnam. METHODS A 2-year observational study of scrub typhus at a tertiary referral hospital in northern Vietnam was carried out. Diagnosis was based on a single serological test in patients with suggestive clinical symptoms. RESULTS Scrub typhus was diag...

INTRODUCTION Recent data have suggested that patient admission during intensive care unit (ICU) morning bedside rounds is associated with less favorable outcome. We undertook the present study to explore the association between morning round-time ICU admissions and hospital mortality in a large Canadian health region. METHODS A multi-center retrospective cohort study was performed at five hos...

BACKGROUND The utilisation of healthcare resources by prevalent haemodialysis patients has been robustly evaluated with regard to the provision of outpatient haemodialysis; however, the impact of hospitalisation among such patients is poorly defined. Minimal information is available in the UK to estimate the health and economic burden associated with the inpatient management of prevalent haemod...

BACKGROUND Limited information is available on epidemiology of spontaneous pneumothorax (SP) from India. The present study was aimed at studying aetiology and clinical profile of patients with SP. METHODS All patients admitted at a tertiary care hospital with the diagnosis of SP between January 2001 and March 2002 were prospectively studied. Detailed demographic and clinical data were recorde...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Globally it is estimated that 26-53 million induced abortions occur annually. An estimated 20 million of these are unsafe especially in countries with restrictive abortion laws. Approximately 48% of all abortions worldwide were unsafe and more than 97% of these are in developing countries. Our objective was to find out complications of illegal induced abortions in a ter...

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To determine predictors of fall events in hospitalized patients with cancer and develop a scoring system to predict fall events. DESIGN Retrospective medical record review. SETTING A 1,200-bed tertiary care hospital in northeastern Ohio. SAMPLE 145 patients with cancer who did not have a fall event were randomly selected from all oncology admissions from February 2006-J...