Prediction of adverse cardiac outcomes in high-risk Mexican patients with chest pain in the emergency department / Desenlaces adversos cardiovasculares en pacientes mexicanos de alto riesgo con dolor torácico en el servicio de urgencias

Abstract Objective: The aim of the study was to compare the discriminative power and accuracy for prediction of MACE of five commonly used scoring tools in Mexican patients with chest pain who present to the ED. Methods: A single-center, prospective, observational, and comparative study of patients admitted to the ED with chest pain as the chief complaint. Five chest pain scoring systems were calculated. The primary endpoint was the composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, coronary intervention, coronary artery bypass grafting, or readmission for cardiovascular causes within 30 days. Results: A total of 168 patients were studied. The score which provided the highest area under the curve of 0.76 (95% CI: 0.70-0.85) was history, ECG, age, risk factors, and troponin (HEART) score. In addition, the integrated discrimination index for the HEART score was 6% higher when compared to the other four scores. Conclusions: The HEART score provided the best classification tool for identifying those patients at highest risk for MACE, either alone or by adding their results to other classification scores, even in a comorbid population.

Resumen Objetivo: Comparar el poder discriminativo y precisión diagnóstica de Eventos Cardiovasculares Mayores (ECVM) de cinco escalas de clasificación de dolor torácico de uso común en pacientes mexicanos con dolor torácico que acuden al servicio de urgencias. Métodos: Estudio prospectivo, observacional y comparativo que incluyó a pacientes ingresados en urgencias que presentaban dolor torácico como síntoma cardinal. Se calcularon cinco escalas de puntuación de dolor torácico. El desenlance principal fue el compuesto de muerte cardiovascular, infarto de miocardio, intervención coronaria, injerto de derivación de arteria coronaria o reingreso por causas cardiovasculares dentro de los 30 días. Resultados: Se estudió un total de 168 pacientes. La escala de puntuación que proporcionó el área bajo la curva más alta de 0.76 (IC de 95%: 0.70-0.85) fue la escala de historia clínica, ECG, edad, factores de riesgo y troponina (HEART, por sus siglas en inglés). Además, el indice de discriminación efectiva para la puntuación HEART fue un 6% más alto en comparación con las otras cuatro escalas de puntuación. Conclusiones: La escala de HEART proporcionó la mejor herramienta de clasificación para idenfiticar a los pacientes con mayor riesgo de ECVM, ya sea solo a agregando sus resultados a otros puntajes de clasificación, incluso en una población comórbida.

A retrospective cohort study comparing the cure rates of ampicillin, chloramphenicol, ampicillin and chloramphenicol combination, and third generation cephalosporins as initial antibiotic therapy for invasive Haemophilus influenzae infections

Background/Objective@#Haemophilus influenzae type b remains to be a significant etiology of invasive infections specially in children two months to five years old without Hib vaccination. This study was performed to compare the cure rates of ampicillin, chloramphenicol, ampicillin-chloramphenicol combination and third generation cephalosporins as initial antibiotic treatments for documented invasive Hib infections. This study may assist in formulating recommendations on empiric antimicrobial therapy. @*Methods@#Charts of patients with invasive Hib disease confirmed either by blood culture, CSF culture and/or latex agglutination test from January 1991 to August 2010 were reviewed. Cases were classified into four groups depending on the initial antibiotic given upon admission. The four groups were compared and analyzed in terms of cure rates. @*Results@#The disease occurred predominantly in children less than two years old. Males were more frequently affected than females. All subjects were not given Hib vaccination. Cure rates were significantly different between ampicillin (33%) and chloramphenicol (89%) groups (p=0.017), and between chloramphenicol (89%) and ampicillin-chloramphenicol (39%) groups (p=0.008). However, cure rates were not significantly different when third generation cephalosporin group (62%) was compared to the other treatment groups (p>0.05). Resistance of Hib was 31% to ampicillin, while <10% to chloramphenicol and third generation cephalosporins. Conclusion: Chloramphenicol is an excellent drug for empiric therapy in highly suspected or proven cases of invasive Hib disease.

Traditional health beliefs and practices related to child diarrheal and sexally-transmitted diseases; Manica Province; Mozambique : research report and communication strategy

Using qualitative research methods such as in-depth; key informant interviews and focus group discussion; data was gathered on traditional healers' beliefs and practices associated with diarrhea and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The immediate research objective was to establish an adequate knowledge base to develop a training strategy aimed at traditional healers; in order to improve intersectoral cooperation in the prevention and treatment of child diarrheas and STDs. A more general goal was to provide a model to guide the development of collaborative programs in other health areas such as immunization; material and child health; infectious diseases; or mental illness. A third goal was to demonstrate the value of quick; low-cost anthropological (ethnomedical) research for the development of culturally-sensitive health education strategies and related public health interventions - whether or not there is interest in collaborating with traditional healers