Internal Medicine Alert – February 15, 2009

February 15, 2009

• A Nail in the Coffin for Coughin'?

  Erythromycin, 250 mg bid, reduced the number of exacerbations in patients with moderate COPD over a 1-year period.

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• Is Low-Dose ASA of Value for Primary Prevention of Atherosclerotic Events in Type 2 Diabetes?

  In a multicenter, prospective, randomized study of Japanese Type 2 diabetic patients, low-dose aspirin as primary prevention did not reduce the risk of cardiovascular events.

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• Sleep Quality and the Common Cold: Where Are the Data?

  Lack of sleep impairs the immune system and lowers resistance to viral illness. The quality of sleep is important. Those volunteers who spent less than 92% of their time in bed asleep were five-and-a-half times more likely to become ill than those who were asleep for at least 98% of their time in bed.

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• Clinical Briefs By Louis Kuritzky, MD

  Most clinicians maintain a fairly glucose-centric view of diabetes. That is, we have made the assumption that the most visible derangement in diabetes, hyperglycemia, is the culprit producing vascular disease.

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• ECG Review: Should the Patient Be Shocked?

  The ECG shown above was obtained from a patient with acute shortness of breath. The QRS complex was recognized to be wide, and the clinical question raised was whether the patient should be immediately shocked. How would you respond?

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