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MELBOURNE, Australia -- Trying to achieve normal hemoglobin levels in patients with anemia caused by chronic kidney disease increases their risk of dying, according to researchers here.

MILWAUKEE -- When patients with chest pain arrive at the emergency department, they may get profiled, before decisions are made on care, by race, female gender, and insurance coverage, reported researchers here.

MIAMI -- With the Super Bowl upon us, the long-term effects on some former National Football League players of repeated concussions, including premature Alzheimer's disease-like symptoms, have been the subject of two front-page articles in The New York Times this week. Here from the MedPage Today archives is a major 2005 report on football concussions at all levels of competition.

Declining cardiovascular function, poor circulation, diabetes, obesity, cancer, immunodeficiency, renal disease, and thinned, xerotic skin provide the setting for a host of bacterial infections in elderly persons that can involve any level or structure of the skin.

NEW YORK -- Brachytherapy is highly effective at preventing relapse of early-stage prostate cancer, but only when it is properly performed with sufficiently high doses of radiation, investigators in a multicenter study reported.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Higher urinary nitric oxide levels correlated with better outcomes, including lower mortality, in a comparison of two ventilation approaches in acute lung injury.

BETHESDA, Md. -- In children with bipolar disorder or severe mood dysregulation, extreme irritability sparked by frustration triggers distinctly different brain activity patterns, suggesting different psychophysiological mechanisms.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The soccer boom among America's children has taken its toll in a steady stream of injuries, yet the rate may haae actually dipped, found a retrospective 13-year survey.

BALTIMORE -- Eighteen million American men ages 20 or older have erectile dysfunction, generally attributed to the effects of diabetes, hypertension, or physical inactivity, researchers here reported.

A 75-year-old woman had undergone a total thyroidectomy, with histologic evidence of poorly differentiated follicular thyroid cancer. She subsequently received an ablative dose of iodine-131. After a disease-free interval of about 2 years, she presented with evidence of recurrence in the thyroid bed. She had enlarged cervical lymph nodes and complained of dyspnea on exertion.

In the treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis, antibiotics are often given for 3 to 6 weeks, but the optimal regimen has not been established. Dubin and coworkers conducted a study to assess the effectiveness of a 3-week course. They found that for some patients, significant radiographic improvement occurs when antibiotics are given for more than 3 weeks.

A 26-year-old woman presented with a1-week history of pleuritic chest painand abdominal pain, which was associatedwith nausea but unrelated tofood intake or bowel movements. Shehad also had gross hematuria for thepast 10 days and swelling around hereyes and ankles as well as fatigue andarthralgias for 2 weeks.

In his recent editorial Putting Guidelines for Chronic Kidney Disease IntoPractice (CONSULTANT, October 2006, page 1295), Dr Gregory Ruteckidiscussed the results of a study that shows many clinicians fail to follow evidence-based guidelines for the management of chronic kidney disease(CKD), such as when to consult a nephrologist.1 A sampling of the feedbackwe received appears below, along with Dr Rutecki's responses.

Medical technology is a double-edged sword. CT scans help detect early disease, but with the addition of contrast, they may cause renal failure. Pacemakers save countless lives, but they can become infected and lead to serious complications.

ABSTRACT: Screening options for colorectal cancer (CRC) include colonoscopy every 10 years, annual fecal occult blood testing, flexible sigmoidoscopy every 5 years, or double contrast barium enema every 5 years. In white patients at average risk, screening should begin at age 50; in African American patients, at age 45. Colonoscopy is preferred to sigmoidoscopy because it can detect proximal neoplasms and has the longest protection interval. High-risk patients include those with a family history of CRC or adenomas. These persons should begin colonoscopic screening at age 40, or 10 years earlier than the age at which CRC or adenomas were diagnosed in a first-degree relative. Other high-risk patients are those with a personal history of CRC, a genetic syndrome, or inflammatory bowel disease. In patients with CRC, the first follow-up colonoscopy is performed 1 year after surgery. If results are normal, the interval can be extended to every 3 years.

A 59-year-old woman was evaluated for epigastric discomfort and iron deficiency anemia of 2 months' duration. Two years earlier, she had undergone left upper lung lobectomy and adjuvant radiation for T2 N0 M0 poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma of the lung.

WASHINGTON -- Gender testing of an embryo at the blastocyst stage simply for "family balancing" is ethically untenable, determined a panel of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

CHICAGO -- There is more evidence that nonsmokers exposed to wafting second-hand smoke at work have an increased risk of developing lung cancer.