BACKGROUND The care of patients in their last weeks of life is a fundamental palliative care skill, but few evidence-based reviews have focused on this critical period. METHOD A systematic review of published literature and expert opinion related to care in the last weeks of life. RESULTS The evidence base informing terminal care is largely descriptive, retrospective, or extrapolated. While...

Primary polycythemia (PCV) may coexist in otherwise asymptomatic patients particularly in the presence of unsuspecting conditions such as Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). In presumed "idiopathic TTP," autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) should be investigated as a possible etiology for TTP. Standardization of targeted therapy with immunomodulatory agents may be rec...

Data representing fetal weight gain between 14 and 42 weeks' gestation are presented; firstly to provide suitable curves enabling the growth of the very immature infant to be monitored and secondly to examine the influence of the improved techniques of paediatric and obstetric assessment developed since the publication of previous studies. Data have been collected from the 57 866 livebirths in ...

Ninety-seven poor sleepers aged 40-68 years took capsules nightly for 32 weeks and made daily subjective ratings. The benzodiazepine hypnotics lormetazepam 2 mg and nitrazepam 5 mg appeared still to improve sleep after 24 weeks of intake when compared with continuous placebo intake. The sustained effectiveness was most evident in a significant shortening of the time taken to fall asleep in pati...