Do house officers learn from their mistakes?*

Mistakes are inevitable in medicine. To learn how medical mistakes relate to subsequent changes in practice, we surveyed 254 internal medicine house officers. One hundred and fourteen house officers (45%) completed an anonymous questionnaire describing their most significant mistake and their response to it. Mistakes included errors in diagnosis (33%), prescribing (29%), evaluation (21%), and communication (5%) and procedural complications (11%). Patients had serious adverse outcomes in 90% of the cases, including death in 31% of cases. Only 54% of house officers discussed the mistake with their attending physicians, and only 24% told the patients or families. House officers who accepted responsibility for the mistake and discussed it were more likely to report constructive changes in practice. Residents were less likely to make constructive changes if they attributed the mistake to job overload. They were more likely to report defensive changes if they felt the institution was judgmental. Decreasing the work load and closer supervision may help prevent mistakes. To promote learning, faculty should encourage house officers to accept responsibility and to discuss their mistakes.     

Liver transplantation for chronic hepatitis B with lamivudine-resistant YMDD mutant using add-on adefovir dipivoxil plus lamivudine.

Lamivudine treatment in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection may improve clinical state and suppress viral replication before liver transplantation. Emergence of lamivudine-resistant YMDD mutant is common. We report the results of liver transplantation in 16 patients with pretransplantation YMDD mutants after receiving lamivudine treatment for a median of 738 days (range, 400-1799 days). Adefovir dipivoxil (10 mg daily) was added on to lamivudine for a median of 20 days (range, 8-271 days) before (n = 11) or at (n = 5) liver transplantation, and the combination was continued indefinitely thereafter. Eight patients received additional intravenous hepatitis B immune globulin (HBIG) for a median of 24 months. Fifteen patients with known pre-adefovir HBV DNA levels had a median titer of 14,200 x 10(3) copies/mL (2 x 10(3) to 4,690,000 x 10(3) copies/mL), and 14 had HBV DNA >10(5) copies/mL. All but 1 patient remained positive for HBV DNA (by quantitative polymerase chain reaction [qPCR]) at the time of liver transplantation, and the titer was greater than10(5) copies/mL in 8 patients. The median follow-up after liver transplantation was 21.1 (range, 4.4-68.9) months. One patient (6%) died of an unrelated cause 12.2 months after transplantation, and 15 patients (94%) were alive with the original graft. All patients cleared HBV DNA and had no detectable HBV DNA by qPCR at the latest follow-up. Fourteen patients had cleared hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), but 2 patients who received only adefovir dipivoxil and lamivudine without HBIG remained HBsAg positive after 7.7 and 9.5 months. Serum HBV DNA, however, was negative, and there was no biochemical or histological evidence of recurrence. Adefovir dipivoxil was well tolerated with no significant renal toxicity. In conclusion, a combination of add-on adefovir dipivoxil plus lamivudine therapy provides effective prophylaxis in patients with pretransplantation YMDD mutant that may be actively replicating. The cost effectiveness of additional passive immunoprophylaxis remains to be defined.     

Effects of captopril on hemodynamics and blood gases in chronic obstructive lung disease with pulmonary hypertension

The effects of Captopril, an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, on pulmonary hemodynamics and blood gases were studied in 9 patients with chronic obstructive lung disease (COLD) and pulmonary hypertension (PA-P greater than 20 mm Hg). Hemodynamic data were recorded prior to Captopril administration (50 mg per os) and for the next 60 min. Following Captopril administration, significant reductions in mean pulmonary artery pressure (PA-P) (p less than 0.05), in mean pulmonary wedge pressure (PW-P) (p less than 0.05), and in total pulmonary resistance (TPR) were noted; significant reductions in mean brachial artery pressure (BA-P) and systemic vascular resistance (SVR) were also recorded, while cardiac output, heart rate and blood gas tensions showed no significant changes. Furthermore, the higher the hypoxemia, the greater was the reduction in BA-P (p less than 0.05). We therefore feel that Captopril, when administered to COLD patients with pulmonary hypertension, may protect the pulmonary circulation from hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction.     

Amoebae free-living. Report of the first Italian case of myelitis.

The AA. refer on the first Italian case of amoebae "Limax" primitive myelitis in a 25-year-old man. Microscopical observation showed amoebae free-living, but their cultivation and identification were not possible. The patient recovered because of the propriety of diagnosis and therapy with amphotericin B.     

Biological monitoring of toxic metals in urine by simultaneous inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry

A simple and rapid method for the simultaneous determination of 11 metals (As, Be, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in urine by inductively coupled argon plasma-atomic emission spectrometry is presented. Acidification of the urine was the only sample preparation required. Background correction was applied to ensure accuracy. Analytical calibration was based on matrix matching using a "simulated urine" solution. Detection limits in the low mg/L range and linearity over three orders of magnitude were obtained for all 11 metals. In the Occupational Health Laboratory, this procedure has been applied for routine screening of workers for occupational exposure to toxic metals.     

The Sesto Fiorentino study: point and one-year prevalences of psychiatric disorders in an Italian community sample using clinical interviewers

BACKGROUND: It has been argued that lay interviewers' use of fully-structured interviews could lead to a diagnostic pattern different to that by treating physicians. Clinical interviewers in community samples should probably identify cases that are closer to those seen in clinical settings. The greatest advantage of using clinical interviewers consists of the immediate assessment of a possible psychopathology, i.e. the evaluation of current disorders. METHODS: Two thousand three hundred and sixty-three citizens from the community of Sesto Fiorentino, Italy, were interviewed by their own general practitioners using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). Positive cases for any lifetime psychiatric disorder as well as a random sample of the negative cases were re-interviewed by psychiatrists or trained residents in psychiatry using the Florence Psychiatric Interview (FPI). RESULTS: The point prevalence for any current disorder was 8.7%; the two disorders with the highest prevalence were generalised anxiety disorder (2.9%) and major depressive episode (2.7%). The figures increase about 50% when the sub-threshold sequelae of previous disorders are considered. Current comorbidity was generally high. The one-year prevalence of any disorder was 10.6%. Ninety-two percent of the cases sought help, 82% were being treated at the moment of interview. Social impairment was considerable. CONCLUSIONS: The period prevalence rates for most of the disorders considered were generally comparable with the range defined by previous studies conducted in other Western countries, despite using different methodologies. Conversely, the use of health facilities, the treatment received and the social impairment were much higher than those reported by the other studies, suggesting a greater similarity with the clinical samples.