February 2016
28 ArticlesEditorial
Sharing data of clinical trials
The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) includes a number of editors of general medical journals who first met in 1978 in Vancouver (Canada) with the goal to establish common... more
Internal Medicine Flashcard
Terra firma-forme dermatosis
A 75-year-old woman who was positive for metastatic breast cancer and left radical mastectomy complained of two month-history of dirty-appearing skin, composed of subtle but clear-cut brown to... more
Iron deficiency anemia with mucocutaneous lesions
A 56-year-old man presented with fatigue and exertional dyspnea for 2weeks, and few episodes of black tarry stools over the last 1month. The patient endorsed recurrent episodes of epistaxis since his... more
Macroglossia and periorbital ecchymosis
A 70-year-old woman with past medical history of idiopathic adult hydrocephalus syndrome was admitted to our center due to malaise of one year of evolution without any other symptomatology.... more
Headache in a patient with renal cell carcinoma.
A 52-year-old woman with hypothyroidism and advanced renal cell carcinoma presented with new onset headache, worsening fatigue, and weakness for two weeks. Two years back she developed flank pain,... more
Hypoalbuminemic edema, retroauricular swelling and severe eosinophilia: What is the missing link?
A 32-year-old Pakistani man without significant comorbidity presented to the Emergency Department with generalized edema. Physical examination highlighted lower limbs and scrotum swelling with tense-... more
Transient ST-segment elevation during acute pancreatitis
A 27-year-old-woman with history of insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, hypertriglyceridemia and recent laparoscopic cholecystectomy presented to the hospital with severe upper abdominal pain.... more
Acute right iliac fossa pain: Beyond appendicitis
78years old woman with long-standing metabolic syndromewent to the ED because of abdominal pain located in the right iliac fossa. She did not report alterations in bowel habits, diarrhea, macroscopic... more
Flashcard: An unusual adverse reaction to iodine-based contrast agent
A 70-year-old woman was admitted to the Internal Medicine Division of an academic hospital because of persistent fever. She had a history of follicular lymphoma, diagnosed in 2001 and since then... more
Headache and hand numbness in a young female
A 21-year-old female presented with complaints of slowly progressive numbness and paresthesia of both hands for the past 4months. She reported no diurnal variations in hand symptoms, relationship of... more
Cavity with ball-in-hole lesion in the lung
A 35-year-old male suffered from a cough with sputum for one month. He was relatively healthy in the past and had a smoking history of 0.5 PPD for more than 10years. There was no fever, no dyspnea,... more
Letter to the Editor
Kounis syndrome: Aspects on pathophysiology and management
We thank Kounis and coll. for their Letter to the Editor [1] commenting and congratulating for our recently published article “Kounis syndrome: A concise review with focus on management” [2].
Kounis syndrome: Aspects on pathophysiology and management
We read with the great interest the excellent and concise review of Filippo Fassio et al. [1] focused on Kounis syndrome and its treatment. Since the description of this syndrome has paved the... more
Reply letter to the comments
We very appreciate these comments [1]. All of our manuscripts have been carefully and critically reviewed many times by these professional editors and experienced reviewers independently provided by... more
Primary upper extremity deep vein thrombosis: Clinical characteristics and outcome according to the presence of thoracic outlet syndrome
Venous thromboembolism (VTE) affects approximately 100 people per 100,000 population per year. Approximately one-third present as pulmonary embolism (PE) and two-thirds as deep vein thrombosis (DVT... more
First data from Latvian chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension registry
Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a complex, progressing and debilitating disease associated with poor prognosis. Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) — a distinct subtype of PH is the... more
Letters to the Editor
Letter to the editor: Mean platelet volume and cardiovascular risk factors
We read with a great interest the article of Sansanayudh et al. about mean platelet volume (MPV) and cardiovascular risk factors [1]. They found that the higher MPV associated with some... more
Early market access for unauthorized drugs in Italy: The value-based price for reimbursement decisions
A major challenge for regulatory agencies is balancing the need for rapid access to drugs for new indications against the limited information on their benefit–risk ratio. The processes described by... more
Original Article
Circadian variation of cardiogenic pulmonary oedema
Circadian variation of in-hospital acute cardiogenic pulmonary oedema (CPE) with the highest occurrence in the early morning has been reported repeatedly. However, no study evaluating circadian... more
Differential associations between glomerular filtration rate and duration of obesity depending on the presence or absence of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction
A robust and consistent association between increasing body mass index (BMI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been reported in several observational studies. Obesity remains the main preventable... more
Appropriateness of PPI prescription in patients admitted to hospital: Attitudes of general practitioners and hospital physicians in Italy
Proton pump inhibitor (PPI) prescriptions have raised concern for both huge increase of health expenditure and possible long-term adverse effects.
Association of statin use and the risk of end-stage renal disease: A nationwide Asian population-based case–control study
Although experimental models have shown that statins could alleviate glomerular damage and decrease urinary protein excretion, the renal effects of statins remain unclear. A case–control study was... more
Association between bullous pemphigoid and hypovitaminosis D in older inpatients: Results from a case–control study
To compare serum vitamin D status in older inpatients with bullous pemphigoid (BP) and matched inpatients without BP, and to examine whether hypovitaminosis D, a high comorbidity burden or their... more
Is there a relationship between hypomagnesemia and proton-pump inhibitors in patients on chronic hemodialysis?
We investigated the association among long-term proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) use with serum magnesium (Mg) levels in chronic hemodialysis (HD) patients, as well as possible association among PPI use... more
A Body Shape Index and Body Roundness Index: Two new body indices for detecting association between obesity and hyperuricemia in rural area of China
The first objective was to examine whether A Body Shape Index (ABSI) and Body Roundness Index (BRI) can identify hyperuricemia in rural China. The second aim was to compare the relative strength of... more
Heterogeneity of the prognostic significance of B-type natriuretic peptide levels on admission in patients hospitalized for acute heart failure syndromes
We hypothesized that variation in baseline characteristics of patients with acute heart failure syndromes (AHFS) affects the prognostic significance of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels because... more
The effect of metformin on prolactin levels in patients with drug-induced hyperprolactinemia
In bromocriptine-treated hyperprolactinemic patients with impaired glucose tolerance, metformin was found to reduce plasma levels of prolactin. No previous study has investigated its impact on plasma... more
Increased risk of concurrent gastroesophageal reflux disease among patients with Sjögren's syndrome: A nationwide population-based study
Little data is available on the risk of gastroesophageal reflux disease in patients diagnosed with Sjögren's syndrome.