Background-Peculiar aspects of Chagas cardiomyopathy raise concerns about efficacy and safety of sympathetic blockade. We studied the influence of ␤-blockers in patients with Chagas cardiomyopathy. Methods and Results-We examined REMADHE trial and grouped patients according to etiology (Chagas versus non-Chagas) and ␤-blocker therapy. Primary end point was all-cause mortality or heart transplantation. Altogether 456 patients were studied; 27 (5.9%) were submitted to heart transplantation and 202 (44.3%) died. compared with those who received ␤-blockers. Survival was lower in patients with Chagas heart disease as compared with other etiologies. When only patients under ␤-blockers were considered, the survival of patients with Chagas disease was similar to that of other etiologies. The survival of patients with ␤-blockers was higher than that of patients without ␤-blockers. In Cox regression model, left ventricle end-diastolic diameter (hazard ratio, 1.78; CI, 1.15 to 2.76; Pϭ0.009) and ␤-blockers (hazard ratio, 0.37; CI, 0.14 to 0.97; Pϭ0.044) were associated with better survival. Conclusions-Our study suggests that ␤-blockers may have beneficial effects on survival of patients with heart failure and Chagas heart disease and warrants further investigation in a prospective, randomized trial. Clinical Trial Registration-clinicaltrials.gov. Identifier: NCT00505050.(Circ Heart Fail. 2010;3:82-88.)

This study aimed to analyze the prevalence of skin tears (ST) among hospitalized oncology patients and associated demographic and clinical variables. This is an epidemiological cross-sectional study type, performed at Octavio Frias de Oliveira State of São Paulo Cancer Institute. All adult patients hospitalized from April 10th to 18th 2010 were evaluated by interview and physical examination. Chi-square test was used to compare demographic and clinical variables between patients with and without ST. Five patients among 157 had nine skin tears, resulting in a prevalence of 3.3%. Among demographic variables, only number of children showed statistically significant difference (p=0.027) between groups. Clinically, patients with ST had lower Karnofsky scores (p=0.031), lower scores at Braden Scale (p=0.026) and less collaborative behaviors (p=0.042) when compared to patients with no lesions. This study contributes to a better knowledge of ST in oncology patients.