Systems

Stemming the Tide: The Promise and Pitfalls of HIV Prevention Research

September 28, 2011
Stemming the Tide: The Promise and Pitfalls of HIV Prevention Research

By Benjamin Bearnot

Faculty Peer Reviewed 

Since the discovery of zidovudine (AZT) in the mid-1980s, advances in antiretroviral (ARV) therapy for patients with chronic human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection have, until recently, outpaced concomitant improvements in methods for HIV prevention. Over the past few years, HIV prevention research has been building an impressive head of steam. While a completely effective vaccine for HIV prevention has continued to prove elusive, results of a modestly successful (~30% protective) vaccine trial based in Thailand were announced in 2009, …

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What is Sister Mary Joseph’s Nodule And Why Is It Significant?

September 15, 2011
What is Sister Mary Joseph’s Nodule And Why Is It Significant?

By Keri Herzog, MD
Faculty Peer Reviewed

The patient is a 62-year-old male who presented to an outpatient medical clinic complaining of a growing, slightly painful, periumbilical mass, and mild lower gastrointestinal discomfort over the last 4 months. On examination, the patient appeared cachectic with an erythematous soft nodule within the umbilicus. Laboratory evaluation revealed anemia (Hct: 28%) and colonoscopy detected a tumor in the sigmoid colon. Both biopsies of the sigmoid mass and the umbilical nodule revealed the presence of adenocarcinoma. Due to the …

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Avastin and the Meaning of Evidence

September 9, 2011
Avastin and the Meaning of Evidence

By Antonella Surbone MD PhD and Jerome Lowenstein MD

The recent hearings at the Food and Drug Administration regarding the revocation of approval for the use of Avastin in the treatment of breast cancer bring into sharp focus several very important issues in medicine today.

The pharmaceutical industry, armed with powerful new tools for deciphering the signaling mechanisms and mutations responsible for the development and progression of malignancies, has developed new therapies for treating cancer and other malignancies. The cost of development of each …

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Should My Patient with a Solid Tumor be Anticoagulated in the Absence of Venous Thromboembolism?

September 8, 2011
Should My Patient with a Solid Tumor be Anticoagulated in the Absence of Venous Thromboembolism?

By David Altszuler, Class of 2012

Faculty Peer Reviewed

An empiric association between occult malignancy and thrombophlebitis has been recognized since Trousseau first reported the syndrome in 1865.  The mechanism by which cancer predisposes to thrombophilia has not been fully elucidated; however, it is now clear that this is a symbiotic relationship.  The second leading cause of death in hospitalized cancer patients (and a leading cause of death in ambulatory cancer patients) is venous thromboembolism.  There are algorithms to identify cancer patients at high risk …

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Should you Treat a COPD Exacerbation with Antibiotics?

September 3, 2011
Should you Treat a COPD Exacerbation with Antibiotics?

By: Aviva Regev

Mr. S is a 68-year old man with longstanding COPD and a 40-pack-year smoking history.  He presents to clinic with three days of increasing shortness of breath, and complains that he has been coughing up “more junk” than usual.  As I watch him spit a wad of chartreuse sputum into his tissue, I reach for the prescription pad and tell him he’ll need a week of antibiotics.  He wants to know why he can’t just go up on his inhaled medications instead …

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You Don’t Look Diabetic:Diabetes in Non-Obese South Asians–Is There a Molecular or Genetic Basis for Increased Insulin Resistance?

August 24, 2011
You Don’t Look Diabetic:Diabetes in Non-Obese South Asians–Is There a Molecular or Genetic Basis for Increased Insulin Resistance?

By Adelaide Hearst, MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

Diabetes is a nationwide epidemic in the United States, affecting 23.6 million people, over 7% of the population. But all diabetics may not be created equal. In the US, Asians are 1.6 times more likely that non-Hispanic whites to have diabetes, even after adjusting for body-mass index (BMI), age, and sex. Asians have high rates of type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease, and increased risk for metabolic syndrome compared to non-Hispanic whites.  Spend a day at Bellevue, …

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Subclinical Hypothyroidism: To Screen or Not to Screen?

August 17, 2011
Subclinical Hypothyroidism: To Screen or Not to Screen?

By Addie Peretz, MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

Despite the ease of screening for hypothyroidism with hormone assays and the availability of thyroxine replacement therapy, no recommendations regarding routine screening for hypothyroidism in adults are universally accepted. The American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists recommend periodic assessment of thyroid function in older women.  The American Thyroid Association advocates for more frequent earlier screening, recommending measurement of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) beginning at age 35 and every 5 years …

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The Treatment For Clostridium Difficile? Transplant!

July 29, 2011
The Treatment For Clostridium Difficile? Transplant!

By Andrea Mignatti , MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

Among all the new medical therapies, this one will probably not be the most elegant or refined that you will read about. But it just may be one of the most unconventional ones you will come across.

From our experiences working on busy hospital wards, we know that Clostridium difficile colitis is an extremely serious infection that is becoming more prevalent due to the development of new hyper-virulent strains (toxinotype III BI/NAP1/027). It has been …

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