A 77-year-old Asian man presented to the emergency department with bilateral pleural effusion and ascites accompanied with generalized weakness, dyspnea, tachycardia, and tachypnea. After an extensive workup that ruled out heart failure, pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, and malignancy-including extensive laboratory tests, electrocardiograms, chest x-ray, computed tomographic angiogram, computed t...

A patient who had shown some evidence of immunological sensitivity underwent several operations under general anaesthesia for otitis media without ill effect. On his second exposure to Althesin, however, he suffered a severe reaction. Facial angioneurotic oedema was accompanied by peripheral vasodilatation and sweating, and C3 conversion was observed in his plasma. Subsequent anaesthetics produ...

OBJECTIVE To review our experience with full-term neonates with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and to compare its characteristics to those published in the literature. DESIGN Retrospective review of all neonates born after 35 weeks of gestation managed in Reunion Island for NEC from 2000 to 2012. RESULTS Among the 217 diagnosed NEC, 27 patients (12.4%) were full term neonates, who were bor...

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE Assignment of underlying cause of death (UCOD) might be inconsistent among coders if physicians do not properly record cause of death on death certificates. This study aimed to assess the changes in the quality of tuberculosis-related UCOD assignment in Taiwan after interventions by the Center for Disease Control (CDC). METHODS The reference (gold standard) we used to asses...

OBJECTIVE To estimate diabetes-related deaths among Brazilian adults between 1999 and 2003 and to investigate demographic factors associated with reporting diabetes as an associated cause of death. METHODS All deaths with diabetes as the underlying or associated cause were identified using the Brazilian Mortality Data System. Analysis was performed by sex, age, year, state of residence, and p...

We analysed national mortality trends of injuries and poisoning in patients with epilepsy to establish the importance of changes in coding practice. Patients where epilepsy was a syndrome, either as an underlying or contributing cause-of-death at any time of life, throughout Sweden during 1975-1995 were included. All conditions mentioned on each death certificate were examined, and epilepsy and...

Rhabdomyolysis can occur because of multiple causes and account for 7% of all cases of acute kidney injury annually in the United States. Identification of specific cause can be difficult in many cases where multiple factors could potentially cause rhabdomyolysis. We present a case of 16-year-old male who had seizures and was given levetiracetam that resulted in rhabdomyolysis. This side effect...

Boerhaave's syndrome (BS), also known as "spontaneous rupture of the esophagus", constitutes an emergency that requires early diagnosis if death or serious morbidity are to be prevented. First described in 1724, BS is thought to be more common than once thought. Its true incidence remains unknown. Mortality ranges between 20-40% with timely treatment but this rises to virtually 100% if treatmen...

INTRODUCTION Recent estimates suggest that malnutrition (measured as poor anthropometric status) is associated with about 50% of all deaths among children. Although the association between malnutrition and all-cause mortality is well documented, the malnutrition-related risk of death associated with specific diseases is less well described. We reviewed published literature to examine the eviden...

The Global Maternal Newborn Health Conference held in Mexico City in October 2015 marks an important watershed in global efforts to reduce the burden of preventable maternal and newborn deaths, bringing together—as it did—what have been two fairly distinct technical communities (maternal and newborn) to tackle their shared challenges in a post-Millennium Development Goal era. With this broadeni...