Transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis.

Transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) may be an under recognized cause of heart failure (HF). TTR amyloidosis can be inherited, caused by variants in the TTR gene (ATTRv) or by deposition of wild-type TTR protein (ATTRwt), leading to high mortality if untreated. We report the case of a patient with hereditary TTR amyloidosis and mixed phenotype (both cardiac and neurological involvement). We highlight the importance of multimodal imaging in the evaluation of these patients, as early diagnosis and treatment might lead to better outcome.

[Assessment of consumer satisfaction with public health and medical services in the city of Iasi]. / Evaluarea satisfactiei consumatorilor de servicii de sanatate in sistemul public de asistenta medicala în municipiul Iasi.

AIM: The study was designed to assess patient satisfaction regarding the quality of medical care delivered in 2010, the financial accessibility of the used services, the time span accessibility to the services used, doctor-patient relationship, and quality of health services. MATERIALS AND METHOD: This study was carried out on a series of 150 randomly selected patients, age-range l8 to 70 years. These patients were asked to fill out a 44-item questionnaire including demographic data (age, education, environment--rural or urban area, difficult financial situation) and questions on the quality of the delivered medical care and the performance of the qualified medical staff. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The global assessment of the quality of health services shows that it is mainly satisfactory (42.00%) and good (31.33%). The primary health services (family medicine) are mostly regarded as very good (38.00%), good (28.67%) and satisfactory (24.67%). As to the specialized outpatient services, most investigated subjects found them satisfactory (32.67%), good (27.33%), and poor and very poor (8.00%). A percentage of 35.33 of the respondents think that the services provided in hospitals are satisfactory, 18.00% good and 9.33% very good. Drug administration was considered satisfactory by 37.33%, while 22.00% and 12.6% believe it to be good and very good, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The regular application of questionnaires to measure patient satisfaction and the setting up of a system for measuring the quality of medical care will improve quality of the health services.