BACKGROUND Acute diseases and hospitalization are associated with functional deterioration in older persons. Although most of the functional decline occurs before hospitalization in response to the acute diseases, the role played by comorbidity in the functional trajectories around hospitalization is unclear. METHODS Observational prospective study of 696 elderly individuals hospitalized in t...

BACKGROUND Risk stratification methods developed on the basis of predicting illness severity are often used to prioritise patients on the basis of urgency. Illness severity and urgency may not be interchangeable. Severe illness places patients at risk of adverse outcome, but treatment is only urgent if adverse outcome can be prevented by time-sensitive treatment. We aimed to develop a score to ...

BACKGROUND Limited information is available regarding the impact of prior use of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) in patients subsequently developing community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). We assessed the effects of prior ICS use on severity of illness and microbiology in CAP hospitalized patients. METHODS A retrospective cohort study of subjects with CAP (by the International Classification of Dis...

Building-related illness ranges from mild rhinitis to potentially life-threatening hypersensitivity pneumonitis and legionellosis. Sick-building syndrome, consisting of headache, mucous membrane irritation, and fatigue, may be present in 30% of all office workers. Hypersensitivity pneumonitis, asthma, and legionellosis are less common, and it is difficult from existing studies to estimate the i...

Background. Uric acid can acutely activate various inflammatory transcription factors. Since high levels of oxyradicals and lower antioxidant levels in septic patients are believed to result in multiorgan failure, uric acid levels could be used as a marker of oxidative stress and poor prognosis in patients with sepsis. Design. We conducted a prospective cohort study on Medical Intensive Care Un...