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Intravascular volume expansion has long been advised as an effective temporizing technique for patients with cardiac tamponade prior to drainage of the fluid, but there is little data supporting this practice.
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This multi-center, randomized, double-blind clinical trial demonstrated that the addition of vasopressin to patients receiving norepinephrine for management of septic shock had no effect on mortality when compared to increasing the norepinephrine dose.
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The risk of venous thromboembolism was double in users of a transdermal contraceptive as compared to users of an oral contraceptive with a 35 mcg ethinyl estradiol component. Warning: no abstract skimming — it's worth your while to keep reading!
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This study of a very large prospective series of cardiac arrests in over 500 US hospitals found that survival rates were lower during nights and weekends, differences that persisted despite adjustments for patient, resuscitation event, and hospital characteristics.
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In this paper, jones and colleagues from the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston report a seven-year experience with transvenous extraction of pacemakers and ICD leads.
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Inappropriate shocks from implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) continue to be a major problem. In this study, the MADIT II investigators review the experience in that study with inappropriate shocks in a primary prevention, post-myocardial infarction cohort.
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The introduction of hybrid pet/ct scanners has raised the issue of the benefits of adding CT coronary calcification measurements to stress testing in intermediate risk patients.
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Sirolimus — and paclitaxel-eluting stents have been available for use in the United States since 2003 and have a well-known safety and efficacy profile. However, these drug and polymer combinations are applied to older generation stents, which are less deliverable than the newer generation stents.
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It has long been taught that lipid levels measured during hospitalization for an acute illness will be artificially low because of an acute-phase metabolic reaction. Consequently, many physicians wait weeks after hospitalization to measure lipids when they have returned to baseline levels and then start appropriate lipid lowering therapy.
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