Background: Though previous studies have demonstrated that hypoglycemia is a risk factor for inpatient mortality among hospitalized patients, many clinicians may not be aware of the seriousness of this finding. The purpose of this study was to describe the most common comorbidities and outcomes of patients admitted with hypoglycemia (

Background: End Stage Renal Disease carries a poor prognosis. Only half of dialysis patients are still alive three years after the initiation of renal replacement therapy. Furthermore, dialysis patients are hospitalized more often compared to the general population, averaging two admissions per year. We hypothesized that outcomes in dialysis patients are worse when they require [...]

Background: Contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is associated with adverse outcomes; however, there is scarce data comparing clinical outcomes of post-PCI CIN in STEMI patients with and without chronic kidney disease (CKD). A recent study proposed a fluid hydration protocol guided by the measurement of left ventricular end diastolic pressures for CIN [...]

Background: Guidelines recommend pharmacologic venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis for high risk hospitalized medical patients that do not have an elevated bleeding risk.  A systematic review of randomized trials estimates the overall bleeding risk with pharmacologic prophylaxis to be low, at 1/1000 (0.1%).  However, it is unclear if the bleeding events were related to pharmacologic prophylaxis [...]

Background: Guidelines and quality performance measures recommend venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis in patients hospitalized with stroke if they have paralysis or are confined to bed and also recommend that all hospitalized medical patients have VTE risk assessment performed. The Padua Prediction Score is a validated VTE risk prediction model for medical patients based on clinical [...]

Background: Acute Medical Assessment Units (AMAU) in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand improve inpatient flow and quality. It is critical to spread such best practices. Qatar, a GCC state (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and UAE) has tremendous recent population growth stressing the healthcare system. Hamad General Hospital (HGH), the main national hospital, [...]

Background: Diuretic therapy is the mainstay of treatment for heart failure exacerbations but its optimal dosing strategy remains unclear. In 2011, the DOSE trial exhibited a trend toward improvement in patients’ global symptom assessments when utilizing a high-dose diuretic strategy, which used nearly 80mg intravenous furosemide three times daily in the first 72 hours on [...]

Background: Over the last two decades concerns have been raised about the potential risk of blood transfusion over the benefits. General restrictive red blood cell (RBC) transfusion approach for anemic hospitalized patients (thresh hold of 7 gm %) has been adopted by American hematology society (AHS) in 2012. It is important to recognize that guidelines [...]

Background: Shock index (SI), a ratio of heart rate/systolic blood pressure, has been reported to predict increased mortality in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. However, the prognostic value of SI has not been fully elucidated in patients with non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI). Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of 481 consecutive NSTEMI patients [...]

Background: Venous thromboembolisms (VTEs) are a significant cause of mortality in hospitalized patients and a burden to hospital resources (Khera, SA, 2014; Lyman, GA, 2014). Besides the known risk factors for VTE as mentioned by multiple past studies (Goldhaber, SZ, 2010; Martinelli, I, 2001; Heit, JA, 2002; and Ocak, G, 2013), there has been no [...]