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Blood Transfusion in Cardiac Disease Patients

In patients admitted to the ICU with comorbid cardiac disease, the hemoglobin level below which transfusion was associated with lower hospital mortality was < 8-9 g/dL and < 9-10 g/dL if the admitting diagnosis was acute myocardial infarction.

Is Sodium Restriction Detrimental in Chronic Heart Failure?

Dietary sodium restriction may have a detrimental effect on outcome in patients with symptomatic chronic heart failure. They stress that a randomized clinical trial is warranted to resolve the issue.

Acupuncture for Acute Low Back Pain in the Emergency Department

Acupuncture may reduce acute low back pain among patients treated in the emergency department.

Yoga for Prenatal Depression

Yoga therapy reduces levels of prenatal depression compared to non-pharmacological treatment programs not involving yoga therapy. Yoga therapy integrating meditation and relaxation practice improve depression levels more than exercise-only yoga therapy.

Eat Less Sugar: The New National Dietary Guidelines

The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans introduces a new recommendation that added sugar should be limited to no more than 10% of total calories.

Antioxidant Therapies: A Contraindication for Melanoma?

A series of experiments utilizing human melanoma cells found that oxidative stress was higher in circulating melanoma cells and distant metastasis than the original subcutaneous tumors, suggesting a higher oxidative stress burden subsequent to leaving the original tumor environment. Treatment of animals or tumor cell lines with antioxidants led to increased metastasic burden.

Exercise for Depression During Pregnancy

Exercise is associated with better mental outcomes during pregnancy.

Non-seasonal Major Depressive Disorder: Bright Light Therapy and/or Fluoxetine

In this four-pronged study comparing the effect of bright light treatment, fluoxetine, a combination of these two interventions, and placebo in patients with major depressive disorder, the combination treatment appears the most consistently effective.

Early Chest CT Can Improve Treatment for Community-acquired Pneumonia

In patients with suspected community-acquired pneumonia, early chest CT significantly changed management decisions.

Does a Sedation Strategy With or Without Daily Interruption Affect Recall of ICU Stay?

Recall of the ICU stay and the type of sedation strategy did not influence the types of memories reported by critically ill patients.