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Introduction: Conflicting results has been achieved in a small number of clinical studies evaluating the efficiency of magnesium sulphate (MS) in COPD exacerbations. We aimed to investigate the efficiency of nebulised MS in COPD exacerbations., Patients and Methods: Twenty patients who met the study criteria were randomized into two groups. All patients were treated with O2, antibiotics and oral corticosteroids. Additionally one group received ipratropium bromide (IB) 500 µg together with MS 151 mg/dose, while the other group received IB together with placebo. The patients were followed-up with forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and visual analogue scale dyspnea scores for 48 hours. Peak expiratory flow rates (PEFRs) were measured before and 10, 30, 60 and 120 minutes after each nebule treatment., Result: The baseline characteristics of the patients in both groups were similar. The FEV1 values measured at 24 and 48 hours did not show significant changes compared to baseline in both groups. Dyspnea scores in both groups decreased significantly in the first day, and in only MS group in the second day. The % change in the dyspnea score at the end of first day was significantly more in the MS group [-23.8% (13.6)] compared with the placebo group [-9.4% (12.9)] (p= 0.002). The % changes in PEFRs at 10 minutes [4.7 (7.5) and -3.5 (6.0), p= 0.005] and 30 minutes [8.2 (6.7) and 1.3 (5.5), p= 0.03] were significantly greater in the MS group compared with the placebo group on the first day. No side effects developed due to MS., Conclusion: Nebulised MS is a cheap, feasible and safe drug that can be added to the standart bronchodilator treatment since it provides additional relief of dyspnea in patients with COPD exacerbations. This needs to be evaluated in future clinical studies including greater number of patients.

The clinical diagnosis is not reliable in pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) because the symptoms are mostly nonspecific. Different clinical prediction rules for PTE have been described recently. These rules are used to aid clinicians in assigning a pre-test probability to patients with clinical signs and symptoms of disease. The aim of this study was to assess the clinical probability of PTE using three different models (Wells, Wicki and modified Hyers scores) and to find their power to determine PTE probability. Clinical probabilities of patients with PTE were determined with Wells, Wicki and modified Hyers scores. Cramer's, contingency coefficient (CC), Spearman's rho, Kendal's tau-b and kappa tests were used for statistical analysis. The study included 248 patients (119 male, 129 female; mean age= 57 +/- 16.7 years). Although 61.3% of the patients were assigned high clinical probability with modified Hyers score, 56% and 50% of them were assigned moderate clinical probability with Wicki and Wells scores, respectively. The correlations of the clinical probabilities was low according to kappa correlation test and moderate according to the Cramer's, CC, Spearman's rho and Kendal's tau-b tests among these three scores. In conclusion, modified Hyers score showed higher percentage of high probability compared to Wells and Wicki scoring systems and the best correlation was found between the modified Hyers and Wells scores.

Heparin induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) is a life-threatening complication that can be seen in the course of heparin treatment. The syndrome is much likely to be seen during treatment with standard heparin but it can also be seen due to low molecular weight heparins. In this article, we presented a case of HIT who was given low molecular weight heparin for prophylaxis that developed massive pulmonary thromboembolism. The patient was successfully treated with lepirudin infusion and no complications due to treatment was seen.