Joint counts in routine practice

Joint counts in inflammatory arthritis.

OBJECTIVES Counting the number of tender and swollen joints is an important aspect of assessing patients with an inflammatory arthritis. We provide a comprehensive overview of joint counts in inflammatory arthritis. This spans how they are undertaken, their use in clinical and research settings, their limitations and standardisation and who can perform them. METHODS We reviewed the literature...

Transforming guidelines in routine practice.

Transforming Guidelines in Routine Practice To the Editor: We have read with great interest the AHA/ASA guidelines on the early management of acute stroke patients,1,2 and we wish to report our experience as regards to the role of Emergency Medical Services (ES) personnel in the management of acute stroke patients. In order to evaluate the role of training on the accesses to our University Hosp...

Induced sputum cell counts in medical practice.

Are physician-derived joint counts obsolete?

Routine full blood counts as indicators of acute viral infections.

Over a period of three weeks about 9000 full blood counts were analysed on the Technicon H6000 automated haematology machine. From these, 62 patients were identified who had abnormally high numbers of large unstained white cells; these patients were followed up for evidence of viral infection. Seventeen were either lost to follow up or in chronic renal failure; of the remaining 45 patients, 40 ...