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Forty-four acute care hospitals participated in a prospective study over four years to determine the effect of quality improvement (QI) interventions on appropriate prescribing of surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis. Hospitals were randomly assigned to either feedback on the results of the ongoing audit vs feedback plus an intensive collaborative intervention group. Both groups showed improvement in most quality indicators, but there appeared to be no benefit of the intensive QI collaborative intervention over performance feedback.
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Valproic acid and phenytoin were equally effective in the treatment of acute repetitive seizures and status epilepticus.
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A prospective study comparing angiographic clot burden score and ECG score in 105 patients with PE found no correlation between the two, and neither predictor correlated with 12-month mortality. In a second retrospective study of 33 consecutive patients with massive PE by conventional clinical criteria, there was also no correlation between findings on CT angiography and mortality.
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JUPITER, a trial first presented november 9, 2008, at the american Heart Association meeting in New Orleans, was clearly "the bell of the ball," with multiple television, newspaper, and medical journal reports.
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The JUPITER trial causes a stir; ACP practice guideline for antidepressant use; testosterone for low libido; continued shortage of Hib vaccine; FDA Actions.
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The Microvolt t-wave Alternans Testing for risk Stratification of Post-Myocardial Infarction Patients (MASTER) trial tested the hypothesis that microvolt T-wave alternans (MTWA) testing could successfully predict arrhythmia occurrence in patients receiving an ICD for primary prevention of sudden cardiac death.
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Khan et al report a multicenter trial comparing pulmonary vein isolation vs AV junctional ablation with biventricular pacing in patients with atrial fibrillation and heart failure.
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Invasive coronary angiography (ICA) is the gold standard for assessment of epicardial coronary artery disease. There is much interest in non-invasive alternatives to ICA to assess coronary arteries in order to eliminate the complications associated with arterial access and catheter manipulation during ICA.