More articles from Review
- Influenza update 2007–2008: Vaccine advances, pandemic preparation
Vaccination is still our main defense against influenza, and researchers continue to try to improve the vaccine. Work is also under way on a vaccine against the potential pandemic strain of avian influenza, H5N1.
- Obstructive sleep apnea and cardiovascular disease: Implications for clinical practice
Obstructive sleep apnea is strongly associated with cardiovascular disease, but it is difficult to prove whether the association is causal.
How should we screen for breast cancer? Mammography, ultrasonography, MRIMammography remains the mainstay of breast cancer screening, but recent guidelines have included magnetic resonance imaging for some women at high risk. Ultrasonography has not been established as useful for screening.
- Masquerade: Medical causes of back pain
Some serious and life-threatening medical conditions can present as acute back pain.
- Testis cancer: Rare, but curable with prompt referral
Even patients with distant metastases can usually be cured, but a delay in diagnosis and inadequate or inappropriate treatment increase the risk of death.
- Getting the iron out: Preventing and treating heart failure in transfusion-dependent thalassemia
Chronic accumulation of iron due to regular blood transfusions leads to heart failure and death at a very young age, but chelation can avert this fatal outcome.
- Electronic health records: A primer for practicing physicians
Electronic health records have the potential to improve the quality of patient care, reduce the cost of health care, and expedite the transfer of information. Yet fewer than 20% of hospitals and physician practices now use them.
Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring: An argument for wider clinical useThough ambulatory blood pressure monitoring currently has only a limited clinical role, it can be considered in many common situations, such as resistant hypertension, transplantation, pregnancy, chronic kidney disease, and dialysis.
- Diagnostic strategies for suspected pulmonary arterial hypertension: A primer for the internist
If not recognized early, pulmonary arterial hypertension can have devastating consequences. Recent advances have led to improved diagnostic strategies.
The two faces of the ‘good’ cholesterolOrdinarily anti-inflammatory and protective, HDL sometimes becomes pro inflammatory. Thus, the functional properties—not simply the level—may need to be considered and optimized.