Primecuts – This Week In The Journals

January 28, 2013
Primecuts – This Week In The Journals

By Jillian Rosengard, MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

This week we bundled up to bear the brutal cold, watched President Obama’s second term inaugural address, and inched closer to our return to Bellevue. Meanwhile, an article from this week’s New England Journal of Medicine gained media attention. Jha et al’s retrospective cohort study of more than 200,000 Americans examined cigarette smoking’s effect on survival and the benefits of smoking cessation. After accounting for potential confounders (namely education level, alcohol use, and obesity), life expectancy for current…

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Anal cancer screening – A case for screening anal paps

January 24, 2013
Anal cancer screening – A case for screening anal paps

 By Nelson Sanchez, MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

Case:

A 56 year-old homosexual male presents to your clinic to ask whether or not he should have an anal Pap smear. The patient is HIV positive, has been on HAART for five years, and has no history of opportunistic infections. He denies any anal pain, bleeding or masses.

While efforts to improve knowledge about colorectal cancer in various communities continues to grow, awareness of and misconceptions about anal cancer remain. Over the past couple of years there…

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Primecuts – This Week In The Journals

January 22, 2013
Primecuts – This Week In The Journals

Primecuts will return next week with the latest news in the journals.

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Promising New Hepatitis C Medications Raise Hopes, Questions

January 17, 2013
Promising New Hepatitis C Medications Raise Hopes, Questions

By Carl M. Gay, MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

A healthy 61-year old man with a history of chronic genotype 1b hepatitis C virus infection of unknown duration arrives for his semiannual appointment in the Hepatology Clinic. The patient has previously been offered treatment with pegylated interferon and ribavirin, which he has declined on the basis of potential side effects and poor reported efficacy. He states that he has read that new treatment options for hepatitis C have recently become available…

Hepatitis C virus (HCV), first…

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Primecuts – This Week In The Journals

January 15, 2013
Primecuts – This Week In The Journals

By Elizabeth Hammer, MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

This week we saw some winners and some losers. The 2013 Academy Award Nominations were announced. Nobody was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. A flu outbreak in Boston led the city’s mayor to declare a public health emergency, while Pertussis is working on a comeback. And the NIH released an extensive report on health in the US that found that not only do Americans have poorer health and lower life expectancies, but they also are less…

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Reflections on Hurricane Sandy

January 11, 2013
Reflections on Hurricane Sandy

By Jessica Taff, MD

As the 3 major teaching hospitals that make up NYU Medical Center begin to come back online, we thought it was the right time to share some of our reflections on Hurricane Sandy.  It’s been a long strange journey for the faculty, housestaff, students and most of all our patients.  It’s time now though for us to come back home; to return with a renewed sense of purpose and a new appreciation for our institution.

As the East River lapped over…

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Mystery Quiz-The Answer

January 10, 2013
Mystery Quiz-The Answer

Elizabeth Mulaikal MD, Vivian Hayashi MD, Robert Smith MD

The answer to the mystery quiz is pulmonary Mycobacterium kansasii infection. The patient’s clinical presentation of fevers and night sweats suggested an infectious process or B symptoms due to lymphoma. The initial chest radiograph (image 1) demonstrated a left hilar mass which was noted to be larger on a subsequent chest radiograph (images 2 and 4)) 1 month later. This increase in size over a short duration again suggested an infectious etiology. Importantly and a key…

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Primecuts – This Week In The Journals

January 7, 2013
Primecuts – This Week In The Journals

By Cassia Wells, MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

This week as the world said goodbye to 2012 and welcomed the new year, the economic “fiscal cliff” dominated the US news cycles. A deal was eventually reached that, among other things, prevented a 27% decrease in Medicare reimbursements for doctors for another year. Overall 2012 was a big year for healthcare reform as it featured prominently in the presidential election in November and the US Supreme Court deemed the Affordable Care Act constitutional in June. Healthcare reform…

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