The recent finding of decreasing breast cancer rates made headlines throughout the media; including a NY Times article entitled, Reversing Trend, Big Drop is seen in Breast Cancer on December 15, 2006.
Striking epidemiological facts tells us that breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the U.S., and only second to lung cancer as the most common cause of cancer deaths. It is estimated that approximately 212,920 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in…
Commentary By Josh Remick, PGY-2
In the December 27th 2006 issue of JAMA, Yang et al. reported the results of a nested case-control study of United Kingdom patients entitled “Long-term Proton Pump Inhibitor Therapy and Risk of Hip Fracture.” Using the General Practice Research Database (GPRD), a computerized medical record system used by several of the general medical practices in the UK, new hip fracture cases were found in patients at least 50 years old (n=13,556) and matched them with…
The best online dermatology atlas I have come across is dermIS.net. The site originates from Germany and includes an excellent, easily searchable database with terrific pictures and clinical information. The most useful feature of the site however is the differential diagnosis list which appears next to the pictures that are displayed. So if you have an educated guess what the rash you're looking at is, then you can easily review similar rashes and quickly compare and contrast them to your original diagnosis. Then you can make the fancy diagnosis, sound smart…
A 53 year old male with chronic hepatitis C and type 2 diabetes is found to have a moderately elevated cholesterol.
1. Is it safe to start a statin?
2. Do statins have any effect on viral replication?
Comentary By Ed Bini, M.D. Associate Professor/Director Gastroenterology and Hepatology Research
The many benefits of statins far outweigh the risks associated with this class of medications. However, statins are known to have the potential to cause hepatotoxicity. The most common form of…
A 58 year old man with type 2 diabetes and chronic venous insufficiency/recurrent lower extremity cellulitis presents with fever and a left lower extrmity ulcer with purulent drainage. He's been successfully treated in the past with both Unasyn/Augmentin or Levaquin. In the face of community acquired methicillin resistant staph aureus (CA-MRSA), have guidelines for skin and soft tissue infections changed?
Commentary By Howard Leaf, M.D. Assistant Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology
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Commentary By Michael Poles, M.D. Gastroenterologist, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Mircrobiology and Pathology.
Every once in a while I will be feeding this new blorganism (or is it bloganism?) with content from the world of gastroenterology. Today I would like to review an article of importance to both gastroenterologists and internists. There is likely no topic in gastroenterology more important than that of colorectal cancer screening. Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in the U.S., and it takes up…
Clinical Correlations will be closed for the holiday weekend. We will resume posting on Tuesday January 2nd, 2007. I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who's been involved and contributed to making the inauguration of Clinical Correlations so successful. Stay tuned as we continue to improve and expand on our terrific first few months. Happy New Year Everyone!!
A 57 year old female with a past medical history of hypertension, obesity, remote intravenous drug use and several years of chronic low back pain, with both intermittent radiation to her lower extremities and decreased sensation in her lower extremities presented with an acute worsening of the pain in her lower back. The patient reported that she was awakened from sleep and "had to crawl to the bathroom," because of the pain. She was febrile on admission with moderate lower spine tenderness. She was…
