a bstract       background:  patients with multiple sclerosis experience hospitalization several times in their lives. certainly, providing ef fi cient and high-quality care by healthcare professionals is not possible unless the experiences of patients’ hospitalization are taken into consideration. this qualitative study was aimed to identify experiences of patients with multiple sclerosis in t...

abstract   background: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (copd) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, and is an important health economic problem. since 1960, there has been an increase in mortality associated with copd, especially in men. acute exacerbations form a major component of the socioeconomic burden of copd which mainly results in long-term hospitalization. despite the high...

BACKGROUND Endothelial-derived apoptotic microparticles (EMPs) play a pivotal role in endothelial dysfunction in hronic Heart Failure (CHF). OBJECTIVES The present study aimed to evaluate the association between EMPs and pro-inflammatory biomarkers, clinical status, and outcomes in the patients with ischemic CHF. PATIENTS AND METHODS This study was conducted on 154 patients with ischemic sy...

BACKGROUND Home-based renal replacement therapy (RRT) [peritoneal dialysis (PD) and home hemodialysis (HHD)] offers independent quality of life and clinical advantages compared to conventional in-center hemodialysis. However, follow-up may be less complete for home dialysis patients following a change in care settings such as post hospitalization. We aim to implement a Home Dialysis Virtual War...

BACKGROUND The aim of the study was to evaluate the adequacy of diagnosis and management of respiratory failure (RF) in COPD. METHODS Retrospective analysis of the hospital discharge forms of COPD patients hospitalized for RF from January 2007 to June 2008. Using the clinical audit tool, the primary end point was the accuracy of RF diagnosis. The secondary end points were mortality, re-hospit...

AIMS Cardiovascular hospitalization (CVH) in patients with heart failure (HF) is associated with a high post-discharge rate of early re-admission and CV death. Eplerenone might be effective in reducing the incidence of these adverse clinical outcomes during this period. METHODS AND RESULTS The EMPHASIS-HF trial compared eplerenone with placebo added to standard therapy in 2737 patients with N...

BACKGROUND In cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), quadripolar (QUAD) left ventricular (LV) leads are less prone to postoperative complications than non-QUAD leads. Some studies have suggested better clinical outcomes. METHODS AND RESULTS Clinical events were assessed in 847 patients after CRT-pacing or CRT-defibrillation using either QUAD (n=287) or non-QUAD (n=560), programmed to single...

OBJECTIVE Readmissions to hospital after discharge are considered adverse, serious and costly outcomes. In the last years, two new scores have been proposed to identify patients at high risk of hospital readmission, the HOSPITAL and the Elders Risk Assessment (ERA) indexes. The aim of this study was to evaluate these two scores and the risk of death among internal medicine readmitted patients. ...

The sodium-glucose co-transporter-2-inhibitors (SGLT2I) recently gained a unique role in managing the heart failure reduced ejection fraction. These inhibitors reduce cardiovascular (CV) risk factors, including plasma glucose, blood pressure, albuminuria, body weight, and renal events long term. clinical trials proved their reducing hospitalization for HF, CV all-cause mortality, atherosclerosi...

OBJECTIVE the aim of this study is to evaluate the change in length of hospital stay postoperatively for Total Knee Arthroplasty after using femoral and sciatic nerve block. MATERIALS AND METHODS the medical records of 287 patients were evaluated, taking into account the number of hours of admission, the percentage and the reason for re-hospitalization within 30 days, as well as associated co...