Table of Contents
Highlights from Medical Grand Rounds
- Highlights from medical grand rounds
Recent evidence from long-term studies contradicts the perception that rheumatoid arthritis is slowly progressive, relatively benign, and readily controlled with monotherapy.
- Cushing’s syndrome: easy to see, tricky to diagnose
The difficulty lies in determining whether the syndrome has a pituitary or nonpituitary cause.
- Skin lesions: when to suspect systemic causes
Systemic diseases that can produce skin lesions cover a spectrum that includes autoimmune, neoplastic, and infectious disease.
Review
- Cardiopulmonary exercise testing in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Defining the etiology of dyspnea, evaluating impairment, and assessing the response to therapy are among the current indications.
Contributions
- Monoamine oxidase inhibitors and elective surgery
This retrospective study of 32 patients challenges the notion that use of these agents is a contraindication for elective surgery.
- Selective bowel decontamination with quinolones and nystatin reduces gram-negative and fungal infections in orthotopic liver transplant recipients
This regimen was found highly effective in reducing early serious infection in 17 consecutive patients.
Current Drug Therapy
- Efficacy of beta blockade, thrombolytic therapy, and coronary angioplasty in diabetic patients with coronary artery disease
Determining the effectiveness of these interventions in diabetic patients has received little attention, despite the association of diabetes with increased mortality from coronary artery disease.
Medical ethics
- Futile medicai treatment and patient consent
What are a physician’s ethical responsibilities when a patient or surrogate demands futile life-saving treatment?
Case Report
Bench to Bedside
- Potential molecular therapy for acute renal failure
As more is learned about renal epithelial cell regeneration and differentiation, exogenously administered growth promoters seem a likely intervention.