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Forty-four acute care hospitals participated in a prospective study over four years to determine the effect of quality improvement (QI) interventions on appropriate prescribing of surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis. Hospitals were randomly assigned to either feedback on the results of the ongoing audit vs feedback plus an intensive collaborative intervention group. Both groups showed improvement in most quality indicators, but there appeared to be no benefit of the intensive QI collaborative intervention over performance feedback.
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Unfractionated heparin (UFH) is the standard bridging therapy for patients with mechanical heart valves who need to temporarily stop oral anticoagulants. Small case series have suggested that low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) may be useful for this purpose.
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Terminally ill cancer patients who had end-of-life discussions with their physician had better quality of life during their last week, and their caregivers had an easier bereavement.
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In order to achieve new aggressive blood pressure goals in hypertensive patients, drug combinations are often used. But which combinations are superior for preventing cardiovascular events?
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Invasive coronary angiography (ICA) is the gold standard for assessment of epicardial coronary artery disease. There is much interest in non-invasive alternatives to ICA to assess coronary arteries in order to eliminate the complications associated with arterial access and catheter manipulation during ICA.
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Khan et al report a multicenter trial comparing pulmonary vein isolation vs AV junctional ablation with biventricular pacing in patients with atrial fibrillation and heart failure.
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The Microvolt t-wave Alternans Testing for risk Stratification of Post-Myocardial Infarction Patients (MASTER) trial tested the hypothesis that microvolt T-wave alternans (MTWA) testing could successfully predict arrhythmia occurrence in patients receiving an ICD for primary prevention of sudden cardiac death.
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The JUPITER trial causes a stir; ACP practice guideline for antidepressant use; testosterone for low libido; continued shortage of Hib vaccine; FDA Actions.
