[Sepsis: clinical course study of 126 patients in an internal medicine department]. / Sepsis: estudio clínico-evolutivo de 126 pacientes en un Servicio de Medicina Interna.

126 cases of sepsis were retrospectively studied in an Internal Medicine Department, giving special attention to the clinical evolution. 67 males and 59 females with a median age of 65 years old were discovered. 92% had one or more diseases, mainly COLD (30%) and diabetes mellitus (28%). The septic sources were urinary (37%) and respiratory (31%). 84% of the germs were gram (-), mainly E. Coli and Proteus sp. A mortality rate of 36% was found, the primary rates being: eighth decade (52%), patients with neoplastic disease (46%), biliary tract diseases (64%), endocarditis (66%), infection by Serratia (60%), Pseudomonas (50%), shock (55%) and DIC (50%). These last two complications were analysed and found to be the more frequent (35% and 6.3% respectively), also being those with higher mortality rate. Finally, the prognostic factors are established based on the results obtained.

Hyporeninemic hypoaldosteronism in diabetic patients with chronic renal failure.

Plasma renin activity, plasma aldosterone levels and renal tubular capacity to excrete hydrogen ions were studied in 13 patients suffering from diabetes mellitus with a creatinine clearance of less than 40 ml/min. The results were compared with those obtained in a control group, in a group of nondiabetic subjects with chronic renal failure (CRF) and in a group of diabetic patients without CRF. Twelve of the thirteen diabetic patients with CRF had data characteristic of hyporeninemic hypoaldosteronism associated with type IV renal tubular acidosis. On comparing the results with those of the other two groups of patients, it was observed that the manifestations of the latter two groups considered separately were different from those of the problem group, although in the diabetic patients with normal glomerular filtration rate (GFR) hyporeninism but not hypoaldosteronism was present accompanied by a lower net acid excretion (p less than 0.001) due to a lower excretion of NH4 (p less than 0.05) and titratable acid (p less than 0.001) when the patients were challenged with an NH4Cl overload. We believe that a conjunction of diabetes and renal failure is necessary for the diabetic patients with a decrease in GFR to show hyporeninemic hypoaldosteronism and type IV tubular acidosis.