[Leptospirosis: report of a fulminant fatal case and review]. / Leptospirosis: presentación de una infección fulminante y revisión de la literatura.

In relation to the explosive increase of new and reemerging infectious diseases that threaten the humanity, and as a result of this clinical case, a literature review is done on Leptospirosis stressing out the necessity of having in mind the leptospirosis in the differential diagnostic for fever and jaundice syndrome.

[Clinical features of patients with the pathological diagnosis of amyloidosis]. / Amiloidosis, Comunicación de 11 casos y revisión de la literatura.

BACKGROUND: Amyloidosis is characterized by the extracellular deposit of an insoluble fibrillar protein that leads to tissue atrophy and necrosis. AIM: To report the clinical features of cases of amyloidosis diagnosed in a public hospital in Santiago, Chile, from 2000 to 2004. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Retrospective review of all pathology reports of biopsies obtained from 2000 to 2004. In all cases reported as "amyloidosis", the clinical features of such patients were obtained from their medical records. RESULTS: The medical records of 11 patients with amyloidosis were obtained (aged 35 to 71 year old, seven females). Seven had a systemic and four a localized disease. Six patients had primary amyloidosis and in one, it was secondary to a disseminated tuberculosis. Five patients with the generalized disease consulted for anarsarca, three for weight loss and 2 for chronic diarrhea. Patients with localized disease consulted for tonsil enlargement, dysphonia and skin lesions. Five patients with generalized disease had renal involvement and five had cardiac involvement. Three patients had malabsorption. CONCLUSIONS: The most common presentation of systemic amyloidosis is anasarca and renal involvement is common.

[Relapse of Hodgkin disease after 17 years of complete remission. A case report]. / Recaída de enfermedad de Hodgkin en adulto tras 17 años de remisión completa continua. Caso clínico.

A 45 years old male in whom a Hodgkin disease, nodular sclerosis variety, IIIBS, with splenectomy was diagnosed at the age of 27 years of age, is reported. He was treated initially with chemotherapy C-MOPP and radiotherapy, obtaining a complete remission of the disease two years later. In December 2000, after 17 years of remission, the disease relapsed with generalized lymph node enlargement and lung involvement. He was treated with ABVD chemotherapy, but died after 5 cycles due to a febrile neutropenia, bronchopneumonia and respiratory distress.

[Medical audit: a modern undervalued management tool]. / Auditoria médica: herramienta de gestión moderna subvalorada.

Medical audit is defined as the critical and periodical assessment of the quality of medical care, through the revision on medical records and hospital statistics. This review defines the work of the medical auditor and shows the fields of action of medical audit, emphasizing its importance and usefulness as a management tool. The authors propose that every hospital should create an audit system, should provide the necessary tools to carry out medical audits and should form an audit committee.

Leucemias agudas: clasificación y diagnóstico morfológico / Acute leukemias: clasification and morphological diagnosis

La actual clasificación de las leucemias agudas propuesta por el Grupo Cooperatico Franco-Americano-Británico, se basa en el aspecto morfológico y al comportamiento citoquímico de las células blasticas. De acuerdo a esta clasificación se reconocen dos grupos de leucemias agudas: linfoblásticas y mieloide, cada uno de los cuales incluyen varios subgrupos. En la leucemia aguda linfoblástica se describen tres tipos: L1, L2 y L3. En la leucemia aguda no linfoblástica hay seis categorías: M1 a M6. En esta revisión se detallan las características peculiares de cada tipo, indicando las reacciones citoquímicas de mayor utilidad en su diferenciación. Se discuten los problemas diagnósticos más frecuentes, señalando el sistema de score para distinguir L1 de L2 y el índice de maduración que permite separar las variantes de M5. Se describen además las nuevas categorías M0 (leucemia aguda indeferenciada); M3m(leucemia aguda promielocítica microgranular) y M7 (leucemia aguda megacarioblástica). Se comenta la reproducibilidad y la utilidad de esta clasificación