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Severe Hypersensitivity Reaction to Antituberculosis MedicationsA66-year-old white man with tuberculosis of the shoulderjoint had a severe hypersensitivity reaction to antituberculosismedications. Symptoms included development of pulmonaryinfiltrates, hepatic dysfunction, renal insufficiency, andneutropenia. The patient improved after the medicationswere withdrawn. [Infect Med. 2008;25:287-291]
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Cryptogenic StrokeA 59-year-old woman had aphasia and right-sided weakness after a routine total knee replacement. CT and MRI scans revealed a large left middle cerebral artery infarct. A CT angiogram showed no significant disease of the cerebrovascular arteries. Test results for the lupus anticoagulant were positive. A venous study of the legs showed no deep venous thrombosis. She was treated with warfarin and aspirin and discharged. After speech and physical therapy, she had mild residual aphasia.
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Preventing and Treating Influenzaabstract: The keystone of influenza prevention is still vaccination. The 2 available types of influenza vaccine--the inactivated vaccine, which is administered intramuscularly, and the attenuated vaccine, which is delivered via nasal spray--have efficacy rates of 70% to 80%. Unfortunately, only about 65% of persons who should receive the influenza vaccine are, in fact, vaccinated. The neuraminidase inhibitors oseltamivir and zanamivir are 70% to 90% effective in preventing influenza. These antivirals also are effective in reducing the severity of influenza symptoms and the duration of illness when administered within 48 hours of the onset of clinical disease. Some patients have difficulty in self-administering zanamivir because the inhalation process is fairly complicated. Because of the resistance pattern observed in 2005, amantadine and rimantadine are not currently recommended for prophylaxis or therapy. (J Respir Dis. 2007;28(1):21-29)
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Medication Compliance Initiatives in the WorkplaceAlmost 90% of employers consider employee medication compliance to be a prime health management objective, according to a study by the National Pharmaceutical Council (NPC).1 The majority of study respondents reported that they are analyzing or have plans to analyze prescription data to determine medication compliance for select health conditions.
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COPD: New TreatmentsChronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD) is the fourth leadingcause of chronic morbidity and mortalityin the United States.1 Its prevalenceand impact are increasing,and the World Bank/World HealthOrganization has projected that it willrank fifth in 2020 as a global burdenof disease.2,3 The economic and publichealth impact of COPD is staggering,because this chronic conditionrequires long-term care, frequentoffice visits, and use ofemergency department and hospitalservices. Thus, there is a pressingneed to discover new therapies thatcontrol symptoms and prevent diseaseprogression.
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PSA Recurrence of Prostate Cancer:ABSTRACT: Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) recurrence is the most common form of advanced prostate cancer. Salvage therapies may be effective even among some high-risk men, although long-term cancer control data are limited. The natural history of PSA recurrence is long but variable. The postrecurrence PSA doubling time can identify men at high risk for progression and death. Early hormonal therapy, possibly via combined androgen blockade, may reduce the risk of progression and improve cancer-specific survival among men with high-risk recurrence. Men with low-risk recurrences likely receive minimal benefit from aggressive early hormonal therapy and may actually be harmed.
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The Assessment and Treatment of Drug-Resistant TuberculosisThe development of drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis has increased morbidity and mortality associated with tuberculosis (TB) and has greatly increased the costs of care for patients with this disease.
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Inflamed VerrucaThe mother of a 7-year-old girl noticed the rapid progression of a lesion on her child’s right hand over 3 weeks. Within several days of its initial appearance, the very small, nontender, and nonpruritic lesion had grown in circumference and “looked like a wart,” according to the mother. Application of over-the-counter preparations failed to resolve the lesion. A week before the office visit, the lesion “started growing straight up.”
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Case In Point: Does this woman with cough and dyspnea really have CHF?A 47-year-old African American woman presented to the hospital after a 5-day history of cough and shortness of breath. The patient also described worsening cough with yellow sputum production over that same time but denied any fevers, chills, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and urinary symptoms. Her condition began to rapidly deteriorate on arrival to the emergency department (ED).
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Managing asthma: Options for assessing severity and controlAbstract: Pulmonary function tests, such as the measurement of forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and peak expiratory flow (PEF), provide an objective, standardized, and quantifiable method of patient assessment and can be essential in the evaluation of asthma. However, FEV1 and PEF are relatively insensitive for detecting changes in persons with good baseline pulmonary function, and they do not directly measure worsening airway inflammation. One way to deal with the shortcomings of these tests is to include multiple outcomes assessment. Evaluating patient-oriented variables, such as symptoms, need for rescue medication, nocturnal awakenings, and unscheduled medical care visits, can detect clinically relevant changes that pulmonary function tests do not identify. Composite outcomes provide a more comprehensive approach to patient follow-up. For example, a patient who is considered to be a "nonresponder" to a given therapy on the basis of pulmonary function criteria might, in fact, be responding favorably according to assessment of composite outcomes. Two patient-centric tools for measuring outcome are the asthma control questionnaire and the asthma control test.
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Bacterial ArthritidesGonococcal infection is the leading cause of bacterial arthritis in adults.
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Upper Extremity Swelling in a SmokerA 57-year-old woman presents with swelling of the hands that began several weeks earlier and is now worsening. She denies joint pain, and she has no history of trauma or significant vascular disease. She has had pneumonia several times; each episode was successfully treated with antibiotics. She has smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day for the past 20 years
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Middle-aged Woman With Malaise and GI ComplaintsA 56-year-old African American woman complains of malaise, nausea, and vomitingof several weeks’ duration. In addition, urinary output is reduced, and shehas mild dyspnea. She denies abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation, and bonepain; however, she has had a mild but persistent backache for several months.
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Crack ThumbA 41-year-old man complaining of left-sided chest pain for 2 hours was examined in the emergency department (ED). On arrival, his blood pressure was 160/100 mm Hg; heart rate, 90 beats per minute; respiratory rate, 18 breaths per minute; oxygen saturation, 99%; and temperature, 37.2°C (99°F).
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Superior Mesenteric Artery Syndrome in a Young WomanThis gastrovascular disorder is rare yet life-threatening when it occurs. It is caused primarily by any process that leads to increased acuity of the aortomesenteric angle.
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The Collapse of Primary Care?According to the American College of Physicians, we are facing "a looming collapse of the nation’s primary care."
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Depression & Anxiety in Adults with Chronic Pain: A Meta-Analysis ReviewApproximately 40% of adults with chronic pain have comorbid anxiety and/or depression, underscoring the importance of routine screening in this population.
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Pulmonary Pearls: A 61-year-old woman with insidious onset of dyspneaA 61-year-old woman presented with progressive dyspnea of 5 months' duration. She first noticed dyspnea while engaged in her usual daily activities, and it gradually progressed in severity. A primary care physician prescribed bronchodilators without relief. She was subsequently referred for a pulmonary evaluation.
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Concurrent Management of Achalasia and Morbid ObesityThe development of a standardized treatment that simultaneously addresses achalasia and obesity is becoming more imperative as obesity becomes epidemic in the US. Here’s a case in point.
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Pacemakers and AICDs: Interrogation Reports and Interpretation of EKGsA general practitioner can gain a better understanding of a patient’s underlying cardiac ailments by learning the fundamentals.
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The Old Man and AZTHelios is 80 years old and was given a diagnosis of HIV infection in 1994. He's still taking the same combination of work-horse antiretrovirals he started with. I wanted to talk about changes. Helios didn't.
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IDAlertAN UNUSUALLY VIRULENT strainof adenovirus may be the cause ofillness in more than 140 persons,according to the CDC. Indeed, 10deaths have been reported over thepast year. Adenovirus serotype 14(Ad14) causes severe and sometimesfatal respiratory disease in patientsof all ages, even in healthy adults.
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SARS: Would You Be Ready?In November 2002, cases of an atypical pneumonia were reported in the Guangdong province of southern China. By the following June, outbreaks of the illness-known as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-had occurred in Germany, Ireland, the United States, Canada,Hong Kong,Singapore, and Vietnam.
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Breast Cancer Survivor With Fatigue and Musculoskeletal PainFor 2 weeks, a 58-year-old woman has experienced increasingfatigue with activity. She has needed to nap duringthe day, has not been able to perform her usual activities,and has missed 3 days of work. She also complains of“muscle aches”-mainly in her back. She denies headache,dyspnea, fever, hot or cold intolerance, and alteredmentation.
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Vulvar MelanosisDuring a routine examination, macular dermatitis with irregular borders was noted on the genitalia of an otherwise healthy 41-year-old woman. The right labia minora featured a 7-cm dark pigmented macular area; a similar area measuring 10 cm was observed on the left upper labia minora.
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Sleep Disorders and Chronic PainPain specialist Steven King, MD, highlights a new review that looks at the complex, bidirectional relationship between sleep disturbance and chronic pain.
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Erythema Chronicum Migrans in Lyme DiseaseA 34-year-old man experienced fever and arthralgia several days after appearance of the rash.
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Anorexia Nervosa-Associated Raynaud PhenomenonEvaluation of intermittently discolored, cold fingers was sought by a 39-year-old woman with long-standing anorexia nervosa. The patient had never smoked and was not taking any vasoconstrictive drugs.
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Bell's Palsy in a 75-Year-Old WomanFor 36 hours, a 75-year-old woman had experienced weakness of the right side of the face. She was unable to close the right eye and drooled from the right side of the mouth. There was no weakness, numbness, or tingling of the extremities. The patient's medications included insulin for type 2 diabetes, furosemide and spironolactone for hypertension, aspirin, alendronate, calcium, vitamin D, and tramadol for occasional pain from osteoarthritis.
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Cancer of the PenisA 38-year-old man presented with a fleshy lesion beneath the tip of his penis. He had discovered it about 18 months before the initial evaluation. A second similar lesion resembling a “cauliflower” had appeared several weeks after the first. Both lesions had grown and had begun to bleed during intercourse.
