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Background: Only one third of patients who have suffered a myocardial infarction can benefit from thrombolytic treatment in the daily clinic practice. The aim of this study is to know the percentage of patients who were treated in a General Hospital and the main exclusion causes to receive thrombolytic treatment., Methods: A descriptive study in patients with infarction who were admitted to the Critical Care Unit of a 550 beds Hospital between September-95 and August-96., Results: 188 patients were admitted with suspicion of myocardial infarction. The 50.53% of them received thrombolytic treatment. The main exclusion causes to receive this treatment were: delay of the patient (18.10%), normal ECG or descended ST (16.50%), contraindications (8%), patient's refusal to receive treatment (0.53%) an uncertain indication of therapy (6.40%)., Conclusions: A high percentage of patients received thrombolytic therapy, maybe because these drugs can be used until 12 hours the infarction and they haven't limit of age.

Cases of severe acute carbon tetrachloride poisoning are sporadically described in Spain. We report the cases of three patients that inhaled toxic vapour of carbon tetrachloride that they used as a solvent during their working activity. They developed hepatic disfunction and one of them acute renal failure. The interval between the labour exposure and the medical care was higher than 24 hours. All the patients received N-acetylcysteine treatment (300 mg/kg) and oxygen. The patient ith renal failure recurred hemodialysis. The basic aspects of diagnosis and treatment are commented.

Each of three patients with thyroid medullary carcinoma (TMC) presents the tumor as a family feature. Most of them have other associated endocrinous neoplasias. Through the study of baseline plasmatic calcitonin and after stimulus with calcium and pentagastrin, patients with silent TMC can be detected. We present the results of the study of a family including 70 members and with hereditary TMC, between 1988 and 1992. Six new cases of TMC were diagnosed starting from the case index. Their average age was 31.7 years. Five of them underwent surgery. None of them had other associated endocrinous neoplasias, which is extremely rare. In addition, we present data on the postoperative follow-up of the patients, two of which had high calcitonin and CEA levels.