Browse Clinical Articles by Topic

Antenatal Steroids for Very Early PTB

A large European multicenter study has shown that antenatal corticosteroid administration in patients at risk for imminent very early preterm birth (24 to 31 weeks) will decrease perinatal mortality and morbidity substantially, even after only three hours of exposure.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Constipation, and Quality of Life in Women

Irritable bowel syndrome has a negative effect on women’s quality of life and affects one-third of women who present for care with fecal incontinence.

Do Antibiotics Reduce Hormonal Contraceptive Effectiveness?

This is a systematic review of studies evaluating the effect of concomitant non-rifamycin antibiotic use on hormonal contraceptive effectiveness. Although data are limited, there is no evidence to support the existence of drug interactions.

Functional Outcomes After Receiving Life-sustaining Therapy in the ICU

Among patients who have spent at least three days in an ICU and required even brief mechanical ventilation and/or vasopressor support, almost half are dead and only one-third return to their baseline at six months. Several factors present on the first day of admission are associated with not returning to baseline status.

Frailty as a Patient Assessment Tool Prior to Aortic Valve Replacement

Assessment of frailty adds important prognostic information about risk of death and disability following both surgical aortic valve replacement and transcatheter aortic valve replacement. Among the available instruments for assessing frailty, a scale known as the Essential Frailty Toolkit demonstrated the best correlation with outcomes.

Percutaneous Coronary Interventions in Nonagenarians

Nonagenarians can undergo percutaneous coronary interventions with low in-lab complication rates, but 30-day and one-year mortality is considerably higher than in younger patients.

Palliative Care-based Intervention Improves Quality of Life in Chronic Heart Failure

Among patients with advanced heart failure, implementation of an interdisciplinary palliative care intervention was associated with improved quality of life.

Advance Care Planning Must Advance Forward

In a systematic review of 795,909 people in 150 studies, researchers found many Americans have not completed an advance directive.

Clinical Briefs

In this section: diagnosing pulmonary embolism; tackling early prostate cancer; and treating urinary tract symptoms.

Glecaprevir and Pibrentasvir Tablets (Mavyret)

The FDA has approved a dual fixed-dose combination of glecaprevir, a NS3/4A protease inhibitor, and pibrentasvir, a NS5A inhibitor, for the treatment of all major genotypes (1-6) of chronic hepatitis C infections.