Bishoy Faltas, MD

People with HIV infection are at high risk for invasive meningococcal disease. Current guidelines do not recommend vaccination against meningococcal disease for patients with HIV infection, but these patients can choose to be vaccinated.

There are currently 3 sets of guidelines that outline the management of thyroid nodules. A case in point here.

Would you biopsy a 1-cm mobile nodule in the thyroid area of this 55-year-old woman who had mantle field radiation for a childhood cancer?

Nondisclosure of HIV status is behavior with powerful implications for clinical trial enrollment. Could it happen in clinical care? Do we need to be wary? The question remains open.

A new retrospective analysis looks at the incidence of infection with common scourge Clostridium difficile in the specific context of HIV infection.

Cancer survivors have no consensus guidelines that outline optimal ongoing monitoring, prevention, or wellness strategies. In that absence, ASCO advocates a shared-care model for primary care physicians and oncologists.

Patients coinfected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and HIV can develop rapidly progressive liver fibrosis.

Time to virologic failure among black patients on antiretroviral therapy was significantly shorter than for whites.

The association of missed visits and increased mortality in HIV-infected patients is related to factors other than access to care.

Thirty-day hospital readmission rates in adults infected with HIV are driven largely by CD4+ count and length of stay.

HIV occupational exposure leads to an estimated 1000 HIV infections among healthcare workers every year worldwide.

Current antiretrovial therapy is, on average, equally effective in both sexes and thus can be used in a similar way to treat HIV-infected men and women.

For HIV/AIDS patients, adherence to scheduled clinic visits is linked with perception of quality of care.

A healthy 50-year-old woman walks into your office; she is concerned about her risk of breast cancer because right-sided breast cancer was diagnosed in her mother at age 55. She is of Caucasian ancestry and has no other family members with breast, ovarian, or prostate cancer. She has read the news about an actress who had a “cancer gene” and ended up having prophylactic mastectomies. She is very concerned about her risk of developing breast cancer and wants to be “tested.”

Antiretroviral therapy may not halt neurocognitive decline even in patients who have normal CD4 counts and undetectable viral loads.

HIV-infected patients are undertreated for hypertension and at higher risk for cardiovascular complications than age-matched controls.

In HIV-infected patients receiving HAART, fatigue and orthostasis are highly prevalent.

Key points for primary care physicians from a new study: HIV-positive women are vulnerable to invasive cervical cancer. This finding underscores the need for screening per guidelines and to follow-up on abnormal Pap smears.