What Medical Students Need To Know For The Internal Medicine Rotation
What Medical Students Need To Know For The Internal Medicine Rotation
Adhering to clinical guidelines decreases blood clots in the elderly
Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, 2006
The Guide to Clinical Preventive Services includes U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations on screening, counseling, and preventive medication topics and includes clinical considerations for each topic. This new pocket guide provides general practitioners, internists, family practitioners, pediatricians, nurses, and nurse practitioners with an authoritative source for making decisions about preventive services.
Aricept (donepezil) Wins Indication for Severe Alzheimer's - CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today
ROCKVILLE, Md., Oct. 13 -- Aricept (donepezil), a cholinesterase inhibitor on the market for mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease, today became the first of its class to win FDA approval for severe disease.
The FDA action made Aricept the only drug approved to treat all stages of Alzheimer's.
The FDA decision was based on efficacy demonstrated in two randomized, placebo-controlled 24-week trials in Sweden and Japan. The trials enrolled more than 500 patients with severe Alzheimer's dementia.
Both trials evaluated Aricept's efficacy with standard measures that assessed cognitive function including memory, language, orientations, and attention as well as overall functioning. The patients randomized to Aricept had better scores than patients in the placebo arms of both studies.
ANA: 24-Hour Patch for Parkinson's Exhibits Staying Power - CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today
CHICAGO -- Parkinson's patients were able to control symptoms of early-stage disease for at least 85 weeks using a once-daily transdermal patch delivering investigational rotigotine, investigators reported here.
Action Points
* Explain to interested patients that the rotigotine transdermal patch is still investigational therapy.
* This study was presented orally at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary as they have not yet been reviewed and published in a peer-reviewed publication.
The patients were part of an open-label extension trial of the patch, which contains 2 mg to 6 mg of the rotigotine, a dopamine agonist.
Before the extension trial, the patch was compared with placebo in a six-month test of efficacy, reported Ray Watts, M.D., chairman of neurology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, at the American Neurological Association meeting.
The 137 patients on the active medication showed an immediate reduction in scores on the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale of about seven points, he said, and after six months that score remained four points below baseline.
Obesity May Mask Prostate Cancer Risk by Lowering PSA Levels - CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today
Obesity May Mask Prostate Cancer Risk by Lowering PSA Levels
SILVER SPRING, Md., Oct. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Discovery Health announced today the premiere of its Continuing Medical Education (CME) program on the 2005 Dietary Guidelines, EAT RIGHT, LIVE RIGHT: THE POWER OF SIMPLE STEPS (Premieres: Sunday, October 8, at 10:00 AM ET/PT). Created for use by health care professionals, the program addresses the epidemic of adult and childhood obesity in the United States, resulting in a burden of chronic disease, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and other diseases. This new Discovery Health CME program brings together a group of experts to discuss the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which provide scientific-based information to promote health and reduce the risk of chronic disease. The guidelines provide simple yet sensible steps that can lead to improved health among all populations. Learning about dietary guidelines assists in a better understanding of how sound nutrition, coupled with regular physical activity, can prevent disease and help individuals live longer, more active lives.
News - Management of Hypertension in Ischemic Stroke: AAFP 2006
WASHINGTON, DC -- October 4, 2006 -- Available data support the use of diuretics alone and in combination with an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI), according to a presentation made here at the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Annual Scientific Assembly.
News - Updated Guidelines on Diagnosis, Treatment of Lyme Disease
ALEXANDRIA, VA -- October 2, 2006 -- In response to growing concern and confusion about Lyme disease, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) has updated its Clinical Practice Guidelines on the disease, in order to provide guidance to physicians and patients based on the latest scientific evidence. The guidelines were originally published in 2000.
The most significant changes in the updated version include:
-- The addition of information on human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA) and babesiosis, two diseases transmitted by the same tick that transmits Lyme disease;
-- Recommendations of a single dose of an antibiotic for certain high-risk patients who have been bitten by a tick but do not have symptoms of Lyme disease;
-- Expanded discussion and definition of so-called "chronic" or post-Lyme syndromes.