No abstract

SummaryTo assess the prognostic significance of clinical and laboratory findings in intermittent claudication a group of 62 untreated patients was followed up in detail for periods of from one to three years. There was a significant correlation between progressive deterioration of the peripheral circulatory disturbance and the initial blood viscosity, the plasma fibrinogen level, and the susceptibility of red cell lipids to autoxidation. IntroductionWe recently reviewed the clinical, haemodynamic, rheological, and biochemical findings in 126 patients with intermittent claudication . Sixty-two of these patients have now been followed up for periods of from one to three years. During this time all were assessed clinically and had their baseline investigations repeated at regular intervals of one or two months. We here consider the prognostic significance of our initial findings in the light of the patients' subsequent progress.

No abstract

No abstract

Bile bacteriology, wound sepsis and the effect of prophylactic antibiotics have been studied in a controlled prospective double blind randomized trial on 375 patients undergoing elective cholecystectomy at a district general hospital. We have examined the overall prevalence of bacteria in bile and have identified several factors associated with an increased incidence. The identity of organisms isolated from a total of 21 patients with infected wound swabs was compared with isolates from the bile at operation, and in only two instances was there a correlation. Cephazolin, given either pre-operatively, or into the wound, reduced wound infection rates compared with a control group (from 11.8 to 2.4 per cent, P less than 0.005). We conclude that the majority of wound infections in this series were caused by organisms from the patients' skin or exogenous sources, rather than by bacteria from the biliary system.