Hypercalcemia in a 55-year-old male

A 55-year-old male presented to the AHEC Southwest Family Medicine Residency inpatient medicine service at Wadley Regional Medical Center in Texarkana, Texas, with a recent history of decreased level of consciousness. He was a resident of a local nursing home because of several chronic illnesses. During the initial evaluation in the emergency department, he was noted to have a serum calcium level of 13.8 mg/dL. A repeat level was 14.2 mg/dL. He was admitted to investigate the change in mental status and to initiate the work-up and treatment of hypercalcemia.     

Randomized, crossover comparison study of the short-term effect of oral testosterone undecanoate and intramuscular testosterone depot on linear growth and serum bone alkaline phosphatase

AIM: To compare the effects of oral testosterone undecanoate (TU) 40 mg daily and intramuscular depot sustanon 50 (SUS), 4 weekly, on short-term growth and bone turnover. METHOD: Prospective, randomised, cross-over study over 26 weeks with 4 weeks of run-in, 8 weeks of treatment I (TU/SUS), 4 weeks of wash-out, 8 weeks of treatment II (SUS/TU) and 4 weeks of final wash-out. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Weekly change in lower leg length (LLL) as measured by knemometry, i.e. LLL velocity (LLLV) and absolute bone alkaline phosphatase levels (bALP), as well as percentage change in bALP (%bALP). PATIENTS: Fourteen boys with delayed growth and puberty; two declined and one boy with sickle cell trait dropped out with priapism a week after SUS. The remainder had a median age of 14.3 years (range 12.5-17.4), testicular volume of 2 ml each (2-6), HtSDS of -2.1 (-3.3 to -1.0) and BA delay of 2.4 years (0.7-4.4). RESULTS: Median LLLV in the treatment blocks was 0.7 mm/wk (-0.27 to 2.2) and LLLV during the run-in and wash-out periods was 0.27 mm/wk (-0.3 to 0.6) (p <0.005). LLLV during treatment with TU and SUS was 0.51 mm/wk (-0.22 to 2.17) and 0.67 mm/wk (-0.27 to 2.2), respectively (NS). Median LLLV during the washout phases that followed the TU block and the SUS block was similar at 0.28 mm/wk (-0.1 to 0.6) and 0.3 mm/wk (-0.2 to 0.6), respectively. LLLV peaks and troughs that were related to the timing of the injection were more evident during SUS therapy. Median bALP during the run-in period was 94.2 U/l (16-282) and the median %bALP during this period was 1.2% (-57, 16). The main rise in bALP occurred during the treatment blocks with a %bALP of 19.3% (-28.8, 121.7) (p <0.005). Median bALP at the beginning and end of the SUS block was 99.7 U/l (51.7, 225) and 170 U/l (64.8, 273), respectively (p <0.05). Median bALP at the beginning and end of the TU block was 111 U/l (51, 287) and 127.6 U/l (66.4, 298) (NS). Median %bALP during SUS was higher than during TU at 28.1% (4.4, 121.7) and 11.8% (-28.8, 83.6) (p = 0.07). CONCLUSION: At the doses studied, testosterone undecanoate was as effective as sustanon at promoting short-term growth but changes in bone alkaline phosphatase were more marked during sustanon therapy.     

Preliminary report on the northern Australian melioidosis environmental surveillance project

An environmental surveillance programme was developed to determine whether water supplies could be a source of Burkholderia pseudomallei as noted during previous melioidosis outbreak investigations. Water supplies to communities in the three northern Australian jurisdictions (Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland) were sampled periodically during 2001 and 2002. Water and soil samples were collected from communities known to have had recent culture-positive melioidosis cases and nearby communities where no cases had been diagnosed. Clinical isolates of B. pseudomallei obtained from northern Australian patients during 2001 and 2002 were compared with the environmental B. pseudomallei isolates by ribotyping and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. B. pseudomallei was isolated from 11 distinct locations, all in the Northern Territory, seven of which were associated with culture-positive melioidosis cases (>1 case at three locations). Water was implicated as a possible environmental source of melioidosis in six locations. A variety of free-living amoebae including Acanthamoeba and Hartmannella spp. that are potential hosts to B. pseudomallei were recovered from environmental specimens. Culturable B. pseudomallei was not found to be widely dispersed in the environments sampled.     

Evolution of the degrees of influenza vaccine (flu shot) coverage in Spain throughout the 1993-2001 period. Analysis by Autonomous Communities

BACKGROUND: Influenza (flu) is a disease involving a high morbidity which takes a high toll on healthcare costs for which there is an effective vaccine available. This study is aimed at evaluating the evolution of the different degrees of influenza vaccine (flu shot) coverage in Spain by Autonomous Communities during the 1993-2001 period. METHODS: A total of 42,123 cases from the National Health Survey (NHS) for the years 1993 (n=21,051) and 2001 (n=21,072) were analysed, all of which corresponded to non-institutionalised Spanish adults over 15 years of age. Both surveys are representative at the Autonomous Community level. RESULTS: For the total sample, a vaccine coverage of 17.94% (CI 95% 17.42-18.46) in 1993 and of 19.30% (18.77-19.83) en 2001 was estimated. In the logic regression model, adjusted by age, sex and related chronic disease, significant improvements were found in the degrees of coverage of individuals over 64 years of age (OR = 1.28 CI 95% 1.10-1.50) for Spain as a whole and for five of the seventeen Autonomous Communities between 1993 and 2001. However, no significant changes were found in the degrees of coverage for the group under age 65 with related chronic disease entailing an indication for being administered the vaccine. CONCLUSIONS: A slight yet insufficient improvement in the degrees of coverage among the high-risk groups studied were found to exist both nation-wide in Spain as a whole as well as in the majority of the Autonomous Communities between 1993 and 2001. Degrees of coverage varied greatly among Autonomous Communities. The individual under age 65 with related chronic diseases heightening the risks of suffering from flu-related complications have not improved their degrees of coverage regarding this vaccine during the period studied. The difficulty involved in improving the degrees of coverage among this type of patients might lead us to consider the alternative and potential benefit of lowering the age limit of the current influenza vaccine (flu shot) indication-related recommendations in Spain.