This week, olives from several different companies were found to contain Clostridium Botulinum. No cases of botulism have been reported to date, but this is an opportunity to review the pertinent clinical findings.
Botulism is caused by exposure to the botulinum neurotoxin in …
Overall, it seemed like a relatively quiet week in the news world. Winter weather perseveres, Larry Birkhead is the father, and Sanjaya is still singing (or trying to). A perusal of the week’s medicine journals, however, is somewhat uplifting as it …
Commentary By: Margaret Horlick, MD, PGY-3
New guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE) were recently jointly issued by the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American College of Physicians. The guidelines are based on a systematic review …
Commentary By: Anna Dvorak, MDPGY-3
Lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer mortality in both men and women. Screening patients at risk for lung cancer might reduce mortality if it helps find cancers at an early stage while they are still …
The April 3rd issue of the Annals provides guidelines for screening mammography in women age 40-49. In the article and an accompanying editorial, the authors suggest that in women younger than age 50, the possible modest benefit of routine mammography screening …
Commentary By: Steven Sedlis, MD Associate Professor of Medicine, Chief, Division of Cardiology Manhattan Veterans Administration Medical Center
The 56th annual scientific session of the American College of Cardiology was held in New Orleans on March 24-27. The site of the meeting had …
JAMA reported on two important “negative” trials: The results of the EVEREST trial, comparing tolvaptan (a novel vasopressin V2 receptor blocker) to placebo for the treatment of acute CHF exacerbation, indicate that this agent had no effect …
Commentary By: Josh Olstein, PGY-3
Earlier this month the FDA approved Tekturna (aliskiren) the first drug in a novel class of antihypertensives that work by directly inhibiting renin. While Novartis has yet to release pricing information, don’t expect to see this new …