Dialysis, time and death: comparisons of two consecutive decades among patients treated at the same Brazilian dialysis center

The survival of hemodialysis patients is likely to be influenced not only by well-known risk factors like age and comorbidity, but also by changes in dialysis technology and practices accumulated along time. We compared the survival curves, dialysis routines and some risk factors of two groups of patients admitted to a Brazilian maintenance hemodialysis program during two consecutive decades: March 1977 to December 1986 (group 1, N = 162) and January 1987 to June 1997 (group 2, N = 237). The median treatment time was 22 months (range 1-198). Survival curves were constructed using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared using the log-rank method. The Cox proportional hazard regression model was used to investigate the more important variables associated with outcome. The most important changes in dialysis routine and in patient care during the total period of observation were the progressive increase in the dose of dialysis delivered, the prohibition of potassium-free dialysate, the use of bicarbonate as a buffer and the upgrading of the dialysis equipment. There were no significant differences between the survival curves of the two groups. Survival rates at 1, 5 and 10 years were 84, 53 and 29 percent, respectively, for group 1 and 77, 42 and 21 percent for group 2. Patients in group 1 were younger (45.5 = 15.2 vs 55.2 = 15.9 years, P<0.001) and had a lower prevalence of diabetes (11.1 vs 27.4 percent, P<0.001) and of cardiovascular disease (9.3 vs 20.7 percent, P<0.001). According to the Cox multivariate model, only age (hazard ratio (HR) 1.04, confidence interval (CI) 1.03-1.05, P<0.001) and diabetes (HR 2.55, CI 1.82-3.58, P<0.001) were independent predictors of mortality for the whole group. Patients of group 2 had a lower prevalence of sudden death (19.1 vs 9.7 percent, P<0.001). After adjusting for age, diabetes and other mortality risk factors, the risk of death was 17 percent lower in group 2, although this difference was not statistically significant. We conclude that the negative effects of advanced age and of higher frequency of comorbidity on the survival of group 2 patients were probably offset by improvements in patient care and in the quality and dose of dialysis delivered, so that the survival curves did not undergo significant changes along time

Utilizaçäo da tomografia computadorizada (CT) em trauma maxilofacial / The use of computed tomography (CT) in maxillofacial trauma

O trabalho tem por objetivo mostrar pacientes com trauma maxilofacial com uso da tomografia computadorizada (CT) de alta resoluçäo com o sistema Sytec 2000i da General Eletric (G.E.). Foram avaliados diversos pacientes com história de trauma maxilofacial no Centro de Tomografia Computadorizada de Piracicaba em plantöes de urgências que ocorriam diariamente no período noturno. Vimos que o auxílio no diagnóstico de fraturas ósseas e lesöes intracranianas através da CT extremamente valioso e fidedigno

Prazosin na hipertensão arterial essencial moderada e severa, não controlada com clortalidona. Estudo multicentrico / Prazosin in moderate or severe essential arterial hypertension, non-controlled with chlorthalidone. A multicentric study

Estudo multicentrico abrangendo 19 centros de cardiologia e incluindo 398 casos de hipertensao essenciais (hipertensao moderada ou grave), foi desenvolvido em tres etapas (fases I, II e III). Na 1a. utilizou-se a clortalidona; na 2a., clortalidona 50 mg + prazosin em doses crescentes ate 15 mg/24h e, na 3a., clortalidona 50 mg +prazosin 15mg + propranolol em doses progressivas ate 240mg/24h, enquanto nao se obtivesse a normalizacao tensional. 306 pacientes foram tratados na fase II e,destes 76,5% normalizaram a PA. Quarenta hipertensos cumpriram a fase III, obtendo-se normalizacao tensional em 60% dos mesmos.A frequencia cardiaca nao apresentou variacoes significativas nas fases I e II, nao ocorrendo o mesmo na fase III. Ocorreram reacoes adversas na fase I, responsaveis por 5 casos de exclusao; na fase II foram excluidas 24 pacientes, 14 por "tontura" que constituiu a manifestacao adversa mais importante. Nesta fase, predominaram reacoes de leve intensidade e sua ocorrencia verificou-se na primeira e segunda semanas de prazosin. Controles laboratoriais revelaram variacoes discretas da potassemia, uremia, creatinemia e uricemia nas fases I e II proprias do emprego da clortalidona. Nao houve modificacao significativa da colesterolemia e trigliceridemia em nenhumas das fases