The diagnosis of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) based on composite scoring systems using routinely available coagulation tests has been greatly facilitated. Such scoring instruments not only adequately assess the presence of DIC but also have strong prognostic power for morbidity and mortality. In this issue of Critical Care, Gando and colleagues report on the prospective validati...

This analysis was performed to create a scoring system to estimate the survival of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Data from 1274 NSCLC patients were analyzed to create and validate a scoring system. Univariate (UV) and multivariate (MV) Cox models were used to evaluate the prognostic importance of each baseline factor. Prognostic factors that were significant on both UV and M...

Main objective of this study was to evaluate hematological, clinical and demographic features of our chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) patients according to different classification systems and prognostic variables. Thirty-seven consecutive patients with CMML diagnosed between February 1994 and December 2005 were evaluated retrospectively. Male and female ratio was 29/8. The median age at ...

Peter L. Greenberg, Heinz Tuechler, Julie Schanz, Guillermo Sanz, Guillermo GarciaManero, Francesc Solé, John M. Bennett, David Bowen, Pierre Fenaux, Francois Dreyfus, Hagop Kantarjian, Andrea Kuendgen, Alessandro Levis, Luca Malcovati, Mario Cazzola, Jaroslav Cermak, Christa Fonatsch, Michelle M. Le Beau, Marilyn L. Slovak, Otto Krieger, Michael Luebbert, Jaroslaw Maciejewski, Silvia M.M. Maga...

PURPOSE There are various lymph node-based staging systems. Nevertheless, there is debate over the use of parameters such as the number of involved lymph nodes and the lymph node ratio. As a possible option, the distribution of metastatic lymph nodes may have a prognostic significance in rectal cancer. This study is designed to evaluate the impact of distribution-weighted nodal staging on oncol...

Hip and neck femur fracture surgery was associated with high post-operative mortality and poor functional results. The decision-making process with regards to the elderly with hip or neck femur fractures was of great importance, requiring consideration of ethical, medico legal and economic factors in addition to the purely medical ones. An important component in the decision-making process was ...

OBJECTIVE Recently, the survival of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been prolonged with improvements in various diagnostic tools and medical treatment modalities. Consequently, spine metastases from HCC are being diagnosed more frequently. The accurate prediction of prognosis plays a critical role in determining a patient's treatment plan, including surgery for patients with sp...

INTRODUCTION The number of patients admitted to ICU who have liver cirrhosis is rising. Current prognostic scoring tools to predict ICU mortality have performed poorly in this group. In previous research from a single centre, a novel scoring tool which modifies the Child-Turcotte Pugh score by adding Lactate concentration, the CTP + L score, is strongly associated with mortality. This study aim...

BACKGROUND Anemia is an established negative prognostic factor in myelodysplastic syndromes but the relationship between its degree and clinical outcome is poorly defined. We, therefore, studied the relationship between severity of anemia and outcome in myelodysplastic syndrome patients. DESIGN AND METHODS We studied 840 consecutive patients diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndromes at the Fon...

Programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) and its ligands PD-L1/PD-L2 have been shown to mediate immune evasion in various cancers, but their prognostic implications in patients with primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) are poorly understood. Therefore, we analyzed 76 PCNSL patients at initial diagnosis who were treated homogenously with high-dose methotrexate-based chemotherapy, and evaluated ...