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There appears to be an increase in ovarian cancer with long-term estrogen-only hormone replacement therapy.
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Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring is a useful adjunct for evaluating white coat hypertension, but little is known about its effect on BP. Thus, Hermida and associates from Spain studied 538 patients with mild-to-moderate office hypertension using ABPM for 48 hours.
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There is evidence that diet could play a role in Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk. This epidemiologic study examined the risk of AD between quartiles of calorie, carbohydrate, fat, and protein intake after adjusting for confounders.
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Sleep disorders are extremely common and the primary care physician (PCP) can play an important role in their identification and management. The PCP is the first line of defense for identifying patients with sleep disorders and initiating appropriate evaluation and managing long-term treatment.
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The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recently approved a plan that calls for smallpox immunization of 510,000 health care workers. The plan suggests that all hospitals should designate a smallpox care team that should be immunized prior to any release of the virus.
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Employee health professionals will not be administering the smallpox vaccine to health care workers, but they may be among the first to receive it under a recommendation approved by two federal advisory panels. About 500,000 health care workers around 100 per hospital may be vaccinated under the latest plan to prepare for bioterrorism. There have been no cases of smallpox worldwide since 1977, so even a single confirmed case of smallpox would be considered a bioterrorism event.
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After health care workers receive the smallpox vaccine, employee health professionals will assist with the most important vaccination role: monitoring reactions and protecting patients and others from vaccinia.
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Contraindications to Smallpox Vaccination
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More than 50 patients were infected with hepatitis C at an Oklahoma pain management clinic when a nurse reused a syringe and needle for injections into a heparin lock of the patients IV line. The case, which is still under investigation, represents the largest known nosocomial transmission of hepatitis C in the United States, says Michael Crutcher, MD, state epidemiologist with the Oklahoma State Department of Health in Oklahoma City.
