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In the present investigation a study was made on the incidence of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) on clinical and biological manifestations in a series or 32 patients (28 females and 4 males with a mean age of 25 years) diagnosed of SLE (ARA criteria) and APS (Harris criteria) compared with a group of 25 patients (19 females and 6 males with a mean age of 38 years) diagnosed of SLE without APS. This entails a selection from 124 patients diagnosed of SLE, and an incidence of 25.8% and 9.7% for ACA and LA, respectively. After a clinical protocol was filled, a complete immunological profile was obtained, with lymphocyte subsets, IL-2 receptor, coagulation study, isotype determination for anticardiolipin antibody (ACA), lupus anticoagulant (LA), serology for syphilis and imaging diagnostic techniques. Comparative results, with an statistic assessment, are shown in tables. It is concluded that SLE + APS population can be considered as definite for a peculiar SLE subtype.

Out of 200 patients diagnosed of acute of chronic brucellosis, cases were first selected who had neurologic involvement (14%) and then those who had brucellar meningitis (CDC criteria) which corresponds to 4% of the total of the series. The clinical course, evolution time, neurologic manifestations and serologic and bacteriologic characteristics in blood and specifically in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). This study was contrasted with the literature review and the conclusion is reached that brucellar meningitis is a peculiar form of clear fluid meningitis, not exceptional in our environment considering the prevalence of brucellosis.

A clinical and therapeutical study of 47 patients with the diagnosis of acute pancreatitis is reported. According to Ranson's criteria patients were initially classified as suffering from mild (28) and severe (18) acute pancreatitis. Twenty-eight, 11, 7 and 1 patients had biliary, alcoholic, idiopathic and neoplastic causes, respectively, of their conditions. The classification of episodes was made on the basis of clinical manifestations, biologic investigations, and imaging diagnosis, and is shown in the corresponding tables. The therapeutic profile was a randomized double-blind study: perfused somatostatin (SS) versus placebo (P) (physiologic saline 0.9%). The administration of somatostatin in perfusion (250 mcg/h/48 hours) did not improve significantly the parameters used to score the severity, although the mortality rate decreased significantly (p < 0.05) in the group of patients with the severe form of the disease.

Introduction: The use of bone marrow transplantation (BMT) in leukemia treatment is associated with high early morbid-mortality rates. Therefore, to identify morbid-mortality risk factors in this setting can be useful to improve therapeutic ratio., Methods: We studied 15 variables in 46 patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) treated with cyclophosphamide, total body irradiation (TBI) and allogeneic BMT. A multivariant analysis with an unconditional logistic regression model was used., Results: Variables found to be related with early mortality included general state of health and acute graft versus host disease. Patients with a Karnofsky index (KI) between 60% and 80% had a higher risk of early death than those with a KI between 90 and 100%. Patients who developed severe (grade II-IV) acute graft versus host disease (AGVHD), had a relative risk of 15.62 (IC 95%: 3.16-77.34) compared with those who do not. Time between diagnosis and BMT contributed to the creation of the mathematical model without reaching statistical significance., Conclusions: In this series and in the range of the parameters analysed, general state of health according to KI, and the appearance of severe AGVHD are the variables related with a higher risk of early mortality.