Browse Internal Medicine Articles by Topic

Prevalence and Progression of Epilepsy in Adults with Mitochondrial Disease

In a prospective study of 182 consecutive patients at a specialized mitochondrial clinic in the United Kingdom, followed for more than 7 years, recording the initial prevalence of epilepsy, and subsequently tracking occurrences of new seizure activity, status epilepticus, stroke-like episodes, and death during the follow-up period, epilepsy was found to be a common feature of these disorders.

Pregnancy Outcomes in Patients with Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorders

Based on a retrospective analysis of an international cohort of women with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders who had at least one pregnancy, the authors report a higher risk for miscarriage and preeclampsia in patients who were diagnosed before pregnancy.

Inflammatory Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy: Can We Avoid the Biopsy?

Refinement of the imaging criteria for cerebral amyloid angiopathy-related inflammation may increase sensitivity and specificity enough to forgo brain biopsy.

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.