The “New & Interesting” series is a biweekly compilation of select research findings, news articles, and random tidbits in bullet-point format. The entries are highly abbreviated, but provide links to the original articles or abstracts if you desire to read further.
General Articles
- The Sun Herald reports on how cardiologists in Mississippi have been using the iPhone to diagnose patients more quickly through more rapid access to EKGs and other medical information (Sun Herald)
- The presence of an infection at the time of gluten introduction in childhood is not a major risk factor for celiac disease (Pediatrics)
Technical Articles
- Updated 2009 guidelines on the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of catheter-associated urinary tract infections. This was published by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). (Clin Infect Dis)
- A meta-analysis of randomized statin trials revealed a 9% increased risk of diabetes with statin use. The study authors nevertheless add that “the risk is low both in absolute terms and when compared with the reduction in coronary events. Clinical practice in patients with moderate or high cardiovascular risk or existing cardiovascular disease should not change.” (Lancet)
- Successful development of human liver chimeric mouse model for the study of HBV and HCV infections (J Clin Invest)
- Eradication of H pylori may help treat gastric low-grade, B-cell, mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma (Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol)
The “New & Interesting” series is a biweekly compilation of select research findings, news articles, and random tidbits in bullet-point format. The entries are highly abbreviated, but provide links to the original articles or abstracts if you desire to read further.
General Articles
- Reducing just 3 grams of salt from the diet of the average American could prevent up to 66,000 strokes, 99,000 heart attacks, and 92,000 deaths in the United States. This would also save $24 billion in health care costs per year. (Reuters)
- Raising ambulatory care copayments among elderly patients similarly increased rates of hospitalizations, length of stays, and total cost of care. (NEJM)
Technical Articles
- Reducing the rates of readmission in the geriatric population. A hospitalist and his colleagues at the Baylor University Medical Center performed a pilot project involving a care coordinator and clinical pharmacist performing telephone follow-up calls and home visits to geriatric patients recently discharged from the hospital. The team found that this approach reduced the rates of readmissions or emergency visits within 30 days after discharge. The population studied included geriatric patients pre-identified to be have high risk for readmission. (ACP Hospitalist)
- High doses (50 mg / day or more) of opioids for chronic non-cancer pain in the elderly were associated with a two-fold increased risk for developing a fracture. (J Gen Intern Med)
Posted January 29th, 2010 in
Cardiology,
Endocrinology,
Nutrition
Low-carbohydrate diets were initially popularized by the late Dr. Robert Atkins, who published the fundamentals of this diet in his book Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution. He also founded Atkins Nutritional to commercialize and further evangelize the low-carbohydrate diet. Following Dr. Atkins’s death, however, the popularity of the diet subsided and his company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2005.
Despite its controversial nature, the low-carbohydrate diet may still have health benefits. A group at the Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Durham, North Carolina), recently published their findings in the Archives of Internal Medicine, where they compared the low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet (LCKD) with a low-fat diet (combined with the weight-loss medication orlistat) regarding their effects on several health parameters: weight loss, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and glycemic parameters.
Read more … »
The “New & Interesting” series is a biweekly compilation of select research findings, news articles, and random tidbits in bullet-point format. The entries are highly abbreviated, but provide links to the original articles or abstracts if you desire to read further.
General Articles
- Cell phones may protect brains from Alzheimer’s disease (Reuters)
- Chronic sleep loss hampers performance. One good night of sleep may not be adequate to recuperate from chronic sleep deprivation. (Reuters)
Technical Articles
- HIV infection is a risk factor for the development of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis, as studied in a cohort of young HIV-infected men (AIDS)
- Morphine use following trauma may reduce the risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (NEJM)
- Microarray technology provides more rapid, sensitive, and specific detection of bacterial species than gold-standard cultures (Lancet)
- The COMPARE trial revealed that the second-generation everolimus-eluting stent was superior in safety and efficacy to the paclitaxel-eluting stent in all-comers who undergo percutaneous coronary intervention. (Lancet)
The “New & Interesting” series is a biweekly compilation of select research findings, news articles, and random tidbits in bullet-point format. The entries are highly abbreviated, but provide links to the original articles or abstracts if you desire to read further.
General Articles
- Antibiotics can be purchased online without the need for a prescription. The danger of making this freely available is the indiscriminant use of antibiotics to treat infections inappropriately. Moreover, this leads to the progressive selection of organisms resistant to current drug therapies. (Ann Fam Med)
- AIDS vaccine reduces rate of new infections by 31%. Although modest, this is the first time a vaccine has shown any efficacy against the spread of HIV since the discovery of the virus 26 years ago. (LA Times)
- Do mobile phones cause brain tumors? A meta-analysis performed by a team led by Dr. Seung-Kwon Myung of South Korea’s National Cancer Center found a mild increase in risk of benign brain tumors in people who have used cell phone for over a decade. Larger studies are still needed to answer this question. (Reuters)
Technical Articles
- Risk of hyperkalemia is small with use of ACE inhibitors in nondiabetic patients with hypertensive CKD (chronic kidney disease) (Arch Intern Med)
- Glucocorticoid use associated with increased risk of atrial fibrillation or flutter (Arch Intern Med)
