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Two men presented to a hospital in northwestern Missouri in June 2009 with fever, fatigue, diarrhea, thrombocytopenia and leukopenia. Both had a history of frequent recent tick bites. A novel phlebovirus was isolated in cell culture from patient blood. Electron microscopy revealed virus particles consistent with Bunyaviridae. Sequencing identified the viruses as novel members of the phlebovirus genus.
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Patients who present with acute myocardial infarction (MI) complicated by cardiogenic shock represent a group at high risk for early mortality. Current guidelines recommend the use of intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) for these patients, but there are few randomized, controlled trial data to support this.
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Based on their review of prior published studies of telemedicine ICUs and the initiation of a telemedicine ICU in a Veterans Health Administration hospital system, the authors find that costs of implementation are substantial and the sum impact on hospital expenses and profits remains unclear.
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The risk of interrupting prophylactic warfarin for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients is unclear. Thus, these investigators from Denmark evaluated their national health registry and found 102,591 patients > age 30 with a first-time hospitalization for AF between 1997 and 2008.
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In this issue: Side effects of finasteride; new ruling on pharmaceutical companies paying generic manufacturers; and FDA actions.
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Several studies have implicated endometriosis as a risk factor for the subsequent development of invasive epithelial ovarian cancer.
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Results of primary studies on and meta-analyses of the effects of vitamin D therapy on fracture risk have failed to conclusively demonstrate benefit.
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Through the contraceptive choice project, the authors performed a prospective cohort study in which 9256 women living in the region surrounding St. Louis, Missouri, received a reversible contraceptive method of their choice for up to 3 years at no cost.
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Every so often, one runs across a paper that is somewhat offbeat, but could have some beneficial clinical implications. One such article appeared recently in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology that dealt with a way to possibly counter the fetal effects of maternal hyperthermia and even protect the brains of fetuses/infants against potential hypoxic insult during labor.