Internal Medicine
RSSArticles
-
Infectious Disease Alert Updates
Water Birth Death
Out, Damned Spore!
-
Preventing Active Tuberculosis in Children
A three-month course of weekly rifapentine and isoniazid is safe and at least as effective as nine months of daily isoniazid in preventing tuberculosis in children aged 2 to 17 years.
-
Steroids for Severe Community-Acquired Pneumonia: More Evidence or More Uncertainty?
A multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving patients with severe community-acquired pneumonia and evidence of high inflammation found less treatment failure in those who received steroids. However, in-hospital mortality did not differ between the groups.
-
Acute Leukemia Patients Still Plagued by Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci
Fifteen (7%) of 214 patients hospitalized with newly diagnosed acute leukemia developed bacteremia due to vancomycin-resistant enterococci; 12 (80%) of the 15 had stool colonization with the organism.
-
Fusobacterium as a Cause of Pharyngitis in Young Adults
Three hundred twelve students presenting to a university student health clinic with sore throat and 180 asymptomatic students had throat swabs taken and the samples were tested by PCR for Fusobacterium necrophorum, Mycoplasma pneumonia, group A streptococci, and group C/G streptococci. Fusobacterium necrophorum-positive pharyngitis occurs more frequently than group A streptococcal pharyngitis in this population and clinically resembles streptococcal pharyngitis.
-
Seizures, Encephalopathy, and Vaccines — Evidence Fails to Support a Link
A comprehensive, independent review of 10 years of all cases in the United States of seizures and encephalopathy reported as linked to vaccination showed that approximately one-quarter of cases had evidence of a pre-existing neurologic abnormality. Among those who developed chronic epilepsy, many had clinical features suggesting genetically determined epilepsy, especially Dravet syndrome.
-
Clinical Briefs
Modifying the Home Environment to Prevent Falls
-
Secukinumab Injection (Cosentyx™)
A recombinant, fully humanized monoclonal antibody to interleukin-17 has been approved for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. Secukinumab is marketed by Novartis as Cosentyx.
-
B-type Natriuretic Peptides (BNP) Values Improve CVD Risk Prediction
Elevated BNP values in a large cohort of women with numerous CV events modestly improved measures of CVD risk prediction.
-
Does a Link Exist Between OSA and CAD?
Obstructive sleep apnea is associated with coronary artery calcification in non-obese individuals, but the effect is largely attenuated by body mass index.