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Researchers from Harvard Medical School examined antibiotic use in a group of elderly, demented patients residing in 21 nursing homes in the Boston area, focusing on the weeks prior to death.
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While ultrasound is generally accepted as the preferred imaging modality for the diagnosis of appendicitis in pediatric patients, investigators from the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, Israel, suggest that it should also be the initial imaging examination for most adult patients with suspected acute appendicitis.
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Performing imaging procedures on the very young often requires sedation, but when the child wakes up before the procedure is complete, it is not only a frightening experience for the patient and the parents, but it also usually means the procedure must be rescheduled.
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There still is work to be done, but researchers have concluded an initial clinical trial involving a new stereoscopic digital mammography system that eventually could help radiologists identify more breast cancers with fewer false-positive results.
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CT has advanced rapidly in recent years, in some cases empowering clinicians to gather huge amounts of data painlessly rather than through invasive procedures. However, there is a tradeoff for the ever-increasing resolution power of the newer scanners: They are picking up a growing number of incidental findings that clinicians must then determine whether to pursue.
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Since it was first introduced in 1984, extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) has revolutionized the treatment of kidney stone disease and become the treatment of choice for the vast majority of patients.
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A novel way to treat deep vein thrombosis (DVT) that involves injecting the clot-busting agent alteplase (rTPA) directly into the clots shows promise mid-way through a second study of the approach that is using much lower doses of rTPA than the initial pilot.
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Cardiogenesis (Irvine, California), a developer of surgical products for cardiac revascularization, reported a scientific presentation that describes the use of the Phoenix delivery system combining transmyocardial revascularization (TMR) with autologous bone marrow derived stem cells.
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While death rate "report cards" indicated low mortality rates after heart bypass surgery, a review of in-hospital deaths in heart bypass patients at Ontario, Canada hospitals found that one-third might have been prevented, researchers report in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association (Dallas).