Clinical Correlations

Primecuts – This Week In The Journals

June 12, 2012

By Sagar S. Mungekar, MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

President Obama’s Affordable Care Act was in the news again this week, with proponents and opponents both voicing their opinions on how the Supreme Court should rule later this month. In March the Court considered the notion of severability; that is, whether certain provisions of the law could stand without the individual mandate or whether the entire law would have to go. The core provision of the act—the so-called individual mandate—would require nearly everyone to possess insurance,…

Gout: A Disease of the Blessed or a Blessing in Disguise?

June 8, 2012

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…

Primecuts – This Week In The Journals

June 5, 2012

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,…

BiDil: The Future of Medicine or a Return to a Dark Past?

May 31, 2012

By Christopher David Velez, MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

Given the traumatic and often criminal role that medicine and the larger scientific community played in some of the most shameful acts of the 20th century, it is natural that the consequences of these collaborations have continued to reverberate to the present day. The chills sent down our spines can be sparked from reading treatises purporting to demonstrate the undeniable genetic evidence of racial superiority, or from the revulsion towards the degrees of complicity needed for the…

American College of Cardiology 2012

May 29, 2012

By Steven Sedlis, MD

The 2012 Scientific Sessions of the American College of Cardiology were held from March 24-27, 2012 in Chicago. This is always a great city for a conference —terrific restaurants, museums and parks—it almost makes you feel as though you are in New York. The McCormick Place Convention Center is another attraction—it is well laid out and easy to navigate. It allows participants to freely move from session to session spending time on what interests them most. The ACC meetings are also…

Primecuts-Gone Fishin’

May 28, 2012

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.

Breaking News: The Downfall of the PSA

May 23, 2012

The United States Preventive Services Task Force stands their ground in this week’s Annals of Internal Medicine and recommends against the routine use of the PSA as a screening tool for prostate cancer. This Class D recommendation is grounded in data that suggests a “very small” mortality benefit at the risk of significant over-diagnosis and unnecessary treatment. The PSA should still be used to follow response to treatment in those already diagnosed with prostate cancer. This recommendation has already set off a media frenzy and…