More articles from From the editor
- The Vioxx withdrawal: Latest in the COX-2 controversies
Discussion of the COX-2 inhibitors has been emotionally polarized every step of the way, and it’s not over. Two other COX-2 drugs are still available, and much money is at stake.
- Tight inpatient glucose control: Why didn’t we think of this before?
Standardized algorithms to manage chronic diseases such as diabetes in the hospital should get more patients out of the hospital alive.
- A DASH of prevention
The DASH diet is clearly a useful tool for lowering blood pressure in dedicated patients.
- The angiotensin story continues: ARBs in heart failure
Considering the gravity of the problem of heart failure, it makes sense to have as many alternative pathways to success as we can find.
- Hot flashes: Statistics and common sense
In evidence-based medicine, after weighing the data, we still have to apply common sense—and include the patient in the decision-making process.
- Polymyalgia rheumatica: Not well understood, but important to consider
Its cause and pathogenesis remain unknown, but it may be accompanied by giant cell arteritis, which must be recognized and treated as a medical emergency.
- Fantastic voyage: The peeping pill
In the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage, Raquel Welch and her colleagues were shrunk and injected in a miniature submarine into the circulatory system of a comatose scientist. Now we have a disposable miniaturized television camera that can be swallowed.
- Birds, viruses, and history: The current ‘genuine adventure’
When I went to medical school, we were taught that viruses couldn’t jump from animals to humans. It looks like you can forget that rule.
- Fish oil is no snake oil
That cod-liver oil I took as a child, though foul tasting, may have been good for my heart.
- In urologic surgery, the legendary becomes routine
To the internist, knowing how laparoscopic surgery is done is less important than knowing that it can be done, and when it is appropriate.