Background: Tuberculosis (TB) in the elderly poses significant diagnostic and therapeutic challenges due to immunosenescence, comorbidities, and atypical clinical presentation. This study evaluates the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of TB in patients aged ≥65 years. Methods: A retrospective descriptive study was conducted including all TB cases reported between 2020 and 2024. Data from the National Tuberculosis Program were analyzed for demographic characteristics, clinical form, bacteriological confirmation, comorbidities, and treatment outcomes. Results: Of 1,335 TB cases, 352 (26.4%) occurred in individuals aged ≥65 years. Pulmonary TB accounted for 80.7% of cases. Men represented 63.4% of patients, and 56.8% lived in urban areas. Bacteriological confirmation was achieved in 82% of pulmonary cases, and treatment success exceeded 85%. Diabetes mellitus (26.5%) and arterial hypertension (31%) were the most common comorbidities. An increase in TB cases was observed in the post-COVID-19 period. A significant association was found between age and clinical form of TB (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Elderly individuals constitute a substantial proportion of TB cases and frequently present with chronic comorbidities. Despite diagnostic challenges, favorable treatment outcomes were achieved, highlighting the need for integrated and early management strategies in this population.

Stroke and its disability have deserved the notoriety of a severe and potentially lethal condition, whose treatment is still challenging. The widely craved result of saving as much as possible from the neural tissue and eventually reviving what is thought to be in the ischemic penumbra – if not already dead and gone – is the outcome every clinician is dreaming of. There are several reviews on the issue, which have discussed several options of achieving neuroprotection in acute ischemic stroke. Of course, reviews are not and do not pretend to be exhaustive; new drugs enter repeatedly in the scene. We would limit our comments on some of the pharmacological agents, that although seem to be worldwide available, are still looking for obtaining the citizenship in the therapeutic armamentarium of acute ischemic stroke.

The debate on culture clash necessitates a theoretical framework, and three perspectives that merit attention are homogenization, polarization, and hybridization theories. These intersecting paths lead to the hypothesis that all civilizations could assimilate into the Western model as it is currently conceived. Culture clash is approached from multiple angles due to the widely held belief that rejecting culturally novel concepts is unethical. However, imposing new rules and customs will inevitably encounter innate resistance, as evidenced by numerous examples. The exchange of behavioral models does exist, with one of globalization's main tenets being the universality of values – including the uprooting of what we refer to as primitive manners. Nevertheless, anthropology and cultural research have witnessed intergenerational and long-term survival of elements that contemporary civilization believed it had overcome or at least suppressed deep within the subconscious mind. This article will offer an essayistic approach to certain forms of culture clash.

Authors describe autoptic findings of two cases whose COVID-19 diagnosis was supported by laboratory data. Both patients were Caucasian individuals of middle age (one male, 47 years old; the other a female aging 36 years) that were considered as previously healthy. Clinically they died from cardiorespiratory insufficiency while being treated in intensive care units. None of them was intubated and blood oxygen levels (SpO2) decreased below 90% only during the agonal phase. Myopericardial changes were visible from a macroscopic point of view, with hemorrhagic and necrotic areas involving pericardium. Fresh hemorrhage and severe hyperemia were both signs of vascular damage and extravasation leading to acute myocardial injuries. Lymphocytic presence was disparate and not constant.

The deleterious health effects of ethanol abuse are widely known and a diversity of medical conditions appear with excessive consumption. Acute and chronic abuse have different clinical characteristics, although severe intoxications are rare among alcoholics of a long career, where the systemic complications will dominate the symptomatology. While the medical focus acutely will mostly stay on the nervous and circulatory effects, gastrointestinal complications that will come up chronically (liver, pancreas, bowel dysfunction) need proper consideration. Ethanol will affect gastrointestinal functionality through a triple action, directly on the epithelial cell and the secretory activity, by altering the motility and in the long-term scope, through promoting carcinogenesis. Medical teams dealing with acute and chronic ethanol intoxication or abuse must be aware of the multiple effects it shows, and perform a prompt diagnosis as well as appropriate intervention.

Although rarely, echinococcosis might present cardiac involvement, with cysts growing inside myocardial structures of arising adjacent to heart. A careful differential diagnosis with other mass formations and rare cardiac tumours is necessary, whenever there is a clinical and radiological suspicion. Imaging studies and serology will establish diagnosis. A multidisciplinary approach is warranted in all cases, with surgical intervention being unavoidable in most settings. Patients generally present with chest pain and dyspnoea. Cases need a close follow up of their postoperative course, while being treated appropriately with albendazole (or mebendazole) for prevention of recurrences.

Stroke while driving is an uncommon occurrence, but which might have serious medical and legal implications. While still reported casually and with very few systematized studies, sources underscore mainly the neurological picture and risk factors that will lead herein. Car crashes follow as a rule the event of the stroke. We describe the case of a middle-aged patient that had an incomplete loss of the car control, with a crash of minor severity and with no external signs of trauma. In spite that the patient underwent successfully a thrombectomy intervention, he presented continuously with refractory hypotension. The clinical picture raised suspicions of an internal blood loss and whole body angiography detected the rupture of the mesenteric artery. This sequence of events (stroke while driving – crash – seatbelt injury – mesenteric rupture) is probably not reported before, but mechanistically an unlucky combination to be kept in mind while dealing with such cases.