Rationality of digitalis use in 20 elderly patients in long term-care institution was analysed using the method of correlation of the past medical history, clinical examination and basic laboratory findings. After consultation of clinical pharmacologist, general practitioner and medical biochemist it was possible to stop the digoxin therapy in 6 (30%) of the patients. Four (20%) patients were hypersaturated with digoxin. Lack of indication was the reason for stopping the digitalis in one of them. Therapy was modified in 3 patients. Use of digitalis was rational in 10 (50%) of the patients. The results suggest that digitalis was prescribed too often in this sample of the elderly patients.

Aged↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Analysis of the flow of medical information from Croatia into the world].

It is commonly thought that an article published in a renown international journal gives its authors better chances for visibility. The present paper aims at answering three questions: (a) does an article published in a top international journal guarantee that its authors will be visible, (b) is an article published in a domestic journal (not covered by ISI) completely inaccessible to the international public, and (c) which are the information flows and how far does the medical information from Croatia reach. Selected was a corpus of 60 authors, who simultaneously publish in foreign journals and in Lijecnicki vjesnik (LV). The corpus consists of 1053 articles published in the 1961-1986 period. Out of these, 369 articles were published in LV and 684 in foreign journals; 177 among them are covered by the Science Citation Index. A total of 4481 citations were collected for the entire corpus of 1053 articles. The citations pertain to 506 articles, i.e. 48% of articles were cited. There are 190 cited and 83 uncited journals. The citations were distributed among 890 journals. Although the studied authors published their papers in renown international journals, a number of examples proves that this does not guarantee their visibility. An article published in LV need not necessarily remain inaccessible to the world--this depends on the article itself. The present analysis provides a compendious insight into the transfer of information from Croatia into the world. The data from citation analysis enable the deduction of "average number of citations per paper". With an appropriate interpretation it can be used as an indicator of information transfer.

Bibliometrics↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Hypersensitivity vasculitis caused by ethyl biscoumacetate].

A case report of a 61-year-old patient with hypersensitive vasculitis caused by ethylbiscumacetate is presented. After the implantation of the artificial aortic valve the patient was treated with medigoxine, furosemide, dipiridamole, disopiramide, potassium chloride and ethylbiscumacetate. Among these drugs furosemide and ethylbiscumacetate are reported to cause hypersensitive vasculitis. On the basis of the past medical history, clinical and histological findings furosemide was ruled out as a causative agent. The diagnosis was confirmed by the skin biopsy and finding of a normal biologic activity of protein C. The discontinuance of all previous drugs and administration of methylprednisolone led to improvement in the skin lesions of the patient. The need for continuous anticoagulant therapy was the reason for fepromarone to be given, achieving good anticoagulant effect, without any side effects. According to the criteria of Karch and Lasagna the degree of connection between drug use and side effects in this case belongs to the category "probable".

Ethyl Biscoumacetate↗