In the august 2005 issue of Clinics

EDITORIAL

In the august 2005 issue of Clinics

Mauricio Rocha-e-Silva, Editor

Hospital das Clínicas, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo - São Paulo/SP, Brazil. E-mail: [e-mail]

We are happy to announce that we closed the year of 2004, the last of Rev. Hosp. Clin. Fac. Med. S. Paulo, with the highest estimated impact factor ever, 0.394. The credit goes to Pedro Puech-Leão for his excellent job as Chief Editor during the period in question.

In this issue of Clinics we highlight an investigation by Mazza et al. into the problem of oxygen consumption in septic states, with important bearings on the treatment of these very serious conditions. A well controlled protocol shows that improving the oxygen carrying capacity of circulating blood of SIRS/septic patients does not improve important indirect indicators of oxygen consumption. The problem thus lies not in the oxygen delivery side of the issue, but within the cell itself.

Araújo et al. retrospectively analyzed the results of surgical treatment of paracolostomy hernias in 22 patients who underwent surgery during the past 15 years, with or without biological mesh, and conclude that the biological prosthesis may be preferable since muscle-aponeurotic weakness is frequently observed when the biological mesh was not used.

Bertevello et al. described an immunohistochemical assessment of the mucosal cytokine profile in acetic acid experimental colitis in rats, an extensively used model for intestinal inflammatory disease. INF-g and IL-6 were increased 4 hr and 24 hr after the insult, IL-1 only at 4 hr and IL-6 only at 24 hr, thereby illustrating the usefulness of the model.

Quilici et al. evaluated the stress provoked by taking the ATLS practical exam (on an "intelligent" mannequin) and compared it to that observed during actual clinical examination of comparably sick patients at an emergency trauma care unit. Subjects were 18 male surgery residents. A consistent set of cardiovascular parameters indicated that the ATLS exam was the more stressful stimulus.

Durazzo et al. described the epidemiological features of oral cancer at a medical school teaching hospital over the period of 1994 to 2002, and concluded that in spite of the predominance of locally advanced tumors, the majority of patients had no neck metastases. The data indicate increased risk of oral cavity cancer amongst women, when compared to previous periods at the same hospital.

Carvalho et al. described their experience with high dose-rate endobronchial brachytherapy in the treatment of primary tracheal tumors in 4 patients. Local control was achieved in all cases. One patient died 33 months after brachytherapy with local recurrence. One died with no evidence of disease, while 2 other patients were alive after 64 and 110 months of follow-up, with no evidence of disease. Endobronchial high dose-rate brachytherapy may thus be useful for tracheal tumors; local control in 3 out of 4 patients indicates that individual cases may benefit from the treatment.

Pomerantzeff et al. re-examined the results of 18 years of mitral valve annuloplasty with bovine pericardial strips and concluded that late results were satisfactory. The technique is feasible, reproducible, and cost effective.

Agarwal et al. proposed a novel semen quality score and an evaluation of reactive oxygen species levels to identify male factor infertility. They conclude that these parameters are strongly associated with each other, that they may be more sensitive than individual sperm parameters, and should be included in routine infertility screening.

We also publish two reviews: medication errors in hospital dispensing of drugs (Anacleto et al.); Cheyne-Stokes respiration in patients with congestive heart failure (Lorenzi-Filho et al.), as well as two case reports.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  29 Aug 2005
• Date of issue
  Aug 2005