More articles from Medical Grand Rounds
- Evaluating adrenal incidentalomas
Adrenal incidentalomas are detected on approximately 1% to 2% of all abdominal CT scans. The question is, how clinically significant are they?
- New treatment options for epilepsy
The four newest anticonvulsant drugs— gabapentin, lamotrigine, felbamate, and topiramate—offer some advantages over older agents.
- Disturbing asthma statistics reflect suboptimal management
Beta agonists are used too often and inhaled steroids too little. Leukotrine receptor antagonists will be an important new asthma therapy, but allergy shots remain controversial.
- Beyond statistics: What is really important in medicine?
Clinicians should apply clinical reasoning when interpreting trial results, and researchers should find better ways of measuring “soft” outcomes, such as quality of life.
- Reperfusion for acute myocardial infarction: 1997 and beyond
The optimal thrombolytic therapy will be a cocktail of several thrombolytic, antithrombotic, and antiplatelet agents, each of which attacks different pathways of clot formation.
- The constitutionality of physician-assisted suicide: the cases and issues before the US Supreme Court
How the Court rules on physician-assisted suicide will spur further legal debate for decades.
- Smoking and the complications of diabetes mellitus
Even though persons with diabetes have more to gain from quitting smoking than those without diabetes, the prevalence of smoking in the diabetic population is surprisingly high.
- Eradication of polio and guinea worm disease
Two ancient scourges of mankind will soon follow smallpox into extinction if World Health Organization campaigns are successful.
- Contemporary issues in cost-effective drug therapy
There is more to controlling pharmacy costs than choosing the least expensive drug. Preventing medication errors and reducing overall costs is key.
- The Different Faces of Thyrotoxicosis
Hyperthyroidism manifests itself in many ways, but clinical cues and the radioactive iodine uptake test can narrow the diagnosis.