By Vicky Jones, MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed 

Hello and welcome to another edition of primecuts! This week we’ll explore studies from the that look at breast cancer screening guidelines, treatment strategies for secondary prevention of myocardial infarction, treatment strategies for alzeimers disease, and the affects of war on health.

 In a new practice bulletin published this week, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) took another look at the same studies used by the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) for breast cancer…

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By Joanna Becker

Faculty Peer Reviewed

 Patients who are placed on long-term warfarin (Coumadin) therapy are sent home with a lengthy list of restrictions to minimize variations in warfarin efficacy. The agents that can alter warfarin levels can be divided into 2 categories: (1) those that interact with cytochrome P450, which metabolizes warfarin and (2) those that alter phytonadione (vitamin K) levels.  The majority of inter- and intra-individual warfarin dose variability is attributable to the agents in category 1 above, which include everything from antibiotics,…

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Please enjoy this post from the Clinical Correlations archives first posted June 17, 2009

Ishmeal  Bradley MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

Ms. W is a 35 yo woman with a history of systemic lupus erythematosus diagnosed 10 years ago. Her only medications are hydroxychloroquine and prednisone for occasional disease flares. She is otherwise healthy. She has no known personal or family history of cardiac disease or stroke, but does smoke ½ pack of cigarettes per day. Currently, she denies any chest pain, shortness of breath, urinary…

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By Rachel Bond, MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

January 11, 2010: The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) announces proposed targets for the voluntary reduction of salt found in packaged and restaurant foods. The ultimate goal of this new policy is the reduction in cardiovascular events. 

Studies have shown that Americans consume roughly twice the recommended limit of salt each day which can lead to hypertension, a major risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD) and cerebrovascular accidents (CVA). Much of…

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By Ivan Saraiva, MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

Sugared soft drinks are among the most heavily consumed drinks in the US. Carbonated soft drinks were first invented as a way to make “healthier” water that looked like natural carbonated waters that were found in European spas in the mountains. The name soda came from the use of bicarbonate of soda, which was used to produce carbonation (for an excellent review of the history of beverages, refer to Wolf et al..  Unfortunately, we no longer…

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By Ben Wu, MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

As the long winter gives way to a tumultuous spring, we find our attention torn between budding revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East and the worsening environmental catastrophe in Japan. In the midst of these political and public health crises, news of an emerging disease is coming out of China, Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (SFTS).  Doctors there have identified a novel bunyavirus as the cause of SFTS. The…

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Nathaniel Rosso Smilowitz, MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

Hepatitis B virus is a DNA hepadnavirus affecting 1.25 million people in the United States and nearly 400 million worldwide.  The virus is transmitted perinatally, sexually, and percutaneously, and is endemic in many countries in South East Asia, Central Asia, and Africa.  When exposure occurs early in life, the likelihood of chronic infection is high; up to 90% of cases of vertical transmission result in the persistence of the viral envelope protein,…

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Christopher Tully MD

Faculty peer reviewed

Although the frequent rounds of snow hitting New York City and First Avenue (hopefully) seem to be coming to an end and the outside world is drawing New Yorkers out of their winter bubbles, Primecuts is still here inside for your indoor reading.  

In an open-label, randomized controlled trial based in South Africa and published in the NEJM,  patients diagnosed with both HIV infection and tuberculosis were assigned to start anti-retroviral…

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As we here at Clinical Correlations celebrate the New Year and mark our 3rd anniversary we realize that we have so much to be thankful for.  2009 has been a very productive year for our website.  Our readership has grown over 65% since last year reaching over 200,000 hits this year.  Readers visited us from over 200 countries including a reader from Greenland, the last major holdout.  We were awarded the 2009 Gold eHealthcare Leadership Award our second major award.  Last week Judith…

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Ishmeal Bradley, MD

The year 2009 could aptly be named “The Year of the Swine Flu.” Indeed, the emergence of a new influenza pandemic was the biggest health story of the year. In a rather tongue-in-cheek approach, the journal Science named the new H1N1 strain “Virus of the Year.” (1) While the public health community had been focused on Asia as the source of the next great influenza pandemic, especially given the outbreak of H5N1 avian flu in 2003, H1N1 surfaced…

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Erin Ducharme MD

This entry is the final in a three part series where I share highlights from my conversation with my home-town physician from rural southern Iowa. Here I discuss the medical conditions which affect this 4500 population town. I also briefly touch on maintaining privacy in a place where “Everybody knows your name (and your business)” and the incorporation of an electronic medical record system.  Please also see Part I and Part II.

Running…

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