Please enjoy this post from the archives dated July 14, 2010

By Aileen McCrillis, MSLIS

Faculty Peer Reviewed

In order to ensure the best-quality healthcare for patients, it is important for clinicians to consult the highest level of evidence to guide them in the decision-making process. As the volume of biomedical literature increases over time, it becomes more and more difficult for the clinician to identify the best evidence.

Many different types of clinical decision-making resources are now available to clinicians through the Internet.…

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By Syril Keena Que, MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

This week’s Primecuts starts with Olympic highlights from the past week. In gymnastics, Gabby Douglas won the gold medal for women’s individual all-around while the women held their own and took team gold. Michael Phelps won his 4th gold medal of the London Games and the 18th gold medal of his career. Another athlete worthy of mention is Dana Vollmer, who set a world record by being the first woman to finish the 100-meter butterfly in less…

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By Robert Keller

Faculty Peer Reviewed

In a small examination room on the Ambulatory Care floor of a large hospital in Brooklyn, I greet Ms. S, a 53-year-old Jamaican woman, as she walks through the door and plops herself down in the chair across from me. Having spent 20 minutes perusing her chart, I know that she suffers from morbid obesity, uncontrolled hypertension (blood pressure 165/95), and terrible diabetes (A1c 13.8%). I have already concluded that her worsening condition over the past 5 years, despite…

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Please enjoy this post from the archives dated January 30, 2010.

Mark D. Schwartz and Julia Hyland Bruno

Jeanne Calment rode her bicycle until age 100, quit smoking at 117, and died in 1977 at 122 years of age in Arles, France. This news-worthy story raises some questions: Why do we age at all? Why don’t we live forever? And many of us are asked by our patients, is old age a disease we can cure?

First, some useful distinctions: Aging is getting chronologically older,…

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By Patrick Olivieri

Faculty Peer Reviewed

Alcohol is a well-established part of our culture,as a social lubricant or a way to wind down at the end of the day. Recently, however, binge drinking (4 or more drinks for a woman, 5 or more drinks for a man) has been rapidly increasing, with as many as 32% of Americans reporting at least occasional bingeing. Additionally, men have been shown to binge drink 30% of the time when they go out socially.It is well known that alcoholism…

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Jenny Gartshteyn, MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

It’s the week of July 4th 2012, people gather on the boardwalks and rooftops, fireworks light up the sky – silent tribute to how far art and science have advanced since the first discovery of fireworks in China in the 10th century. Paralleling the advancement in pyrotechnics from year to year is the growing body of medical research and knowledge. In this spirit of progress, let’s review some of the more exciting medical findings from this week.

In this week’s issue…

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Vivian Hayashi MD and Robert Smith MD, Mystery Quiz Section Editors

The answer to the mystery quiz is thymoma associated with myasthenia gravis. The clue to the case is the intermittent dysphagia and chewing difficulty. If one considers myasthenia in the differential, then an otherwise grossly normal appearing chest radiograph may be viewed more closely, with attention directed to the upper, anterior mediastinum. The chest radiograph shows the ascending aorta (image 3, arrow); on the lateral film, the retrosternal space, which normally contains air, appears…

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Please enjoy this post from the archives dated January 15, 2010

John J. Mercuri

Faculty peer reviewed

Introduction
The 111th Congress allocated $19 billion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 toward the creation of an electronic health record (EHR) for each person in the United States by 2014.(1) The recent debate over EHRs has focused largely on the economic, logistical, and political consequences of implementing such a system; however, the country should also contemplate the ethical ramifications of EHRs. Addressing these concerns…

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By Krithiga Sekar

Faculty Peer Reviewed

“The patient goes to bed and sleeps quietly until about two in the morning when he is awakened by a pain which usually seizes the great toe, but sometimes the heel, the calf of the leg or the ankle… so exquisitely painful as not to endure the weight of the clothes nor the shaking of the room from a person walking briskly therein.”

—Thomas Sydenham  (1683)

Gout, an excruciatingly painful but relatively benign form of arthritis in the…

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By Joshua Strauss, MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

Temperatures have been rising in New York this past week, with Memorial Day highs approaching 90 degrees. This was a great setup for trips to the shore, barbecuing, sitting outside… and drinking an enormous regular soda?

Maybe not. For several days this past week, health news in New York was dominated by the mayor’s announcement of his plan to ban sugary drinks (such as sodas, sweetened iced teas, and energy drinks) larger than 16 fluid ounces from restaurants,…

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Primecuts is taking a well deserved  (if we do say so ourselves) break.  We will resume our regular schedule next Monday.  Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend.

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By Robert Mocharla, MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

Both New York and the world had a busy last few days this week. We all shared a collective cringe when JP Morgan announced a monstrous financial loss in an already volatile (to put it lightly) market. However, with the news that the Rangers took game 7, we were invited to live in the moment for just a bit longer and turn the city back into a hockey town for a few more days. On the medical side,…

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