Table of Contents
From the Editor
- IVUS: A better picture of coronary artery disease?
As an end point in a clinical trial, a change on intravascular ultrasonography is somewhere between a change in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and a change in the mortality rate as evidence of efficacy of treatment.
Review
Genetics and cardiomyopathy: Where are we now?Genetic discoveries have changed our understanding of the cardiomyopathies but are only beginning to change our clinical practice.
- Intravascular ultrasonography: Using imaging end points in coronary atherosclerosis trials
Intravascular ultrasonography can precisely measure plaque and is being used to test new drug therapies. Other imaging tests may also prove useful to identify people at risk for coronary artery disease and to monitor treatment.
Medical Grand Rounds
- Treating depression in a mother of five: What to do when the first step fails
If depression does not respond to an antidepressant given in adequate doses for an adequate time, logical next steps include increasing the dose, adding a different medication, or adding nonpharmacologic therapy. Or one can reconsider the diagnosis.
Review
- Respiratory disorders in neurologic diseases
Pulmonary complications often arise late in the course of neurologic diseases. Common principles apply in their management.
Cancer Diagnosis and Management
- Prostate-specific antigen: How to advise patients as the screening debate continues
There is still no consensus on whether prostate-specific antigen measurement should be used as a screening test for prostate cancer, but patients have the right to be informed about its risks and possible benefits.
Review
- Migraine aura without headache: Benign, but a diagnosis of exclusion
Migraine aura can occur alone, without being followed by a headache, but it should be diagnosed only when transient ischemic attack and seizure disorders have been excluded.
