In 2007, the ACCF/AHA published a consensus statement in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology endorsing a role for coronary artery calcium scoring (CAC) in cardiovascular risk stratification.
Clinicians are becoming more attuned to the many complications of influenza, particularly with the high morbidity and mortality seen with H5N1 strains spreading around the world.
Another monoclonal antibody to TNF-a has been approved for the treatment of Crohn's Disease.
In this Issue: Pioglitazone and heart disease; ARBs manufacturers spend millions to show the non-inferiority of their products compared to less expensive, generic ACE inhibitors; some athletes turn to growth hormone because it is difficult to detect; FDA Actions
For 2 years beginning in February, 2005, every patient admitted to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) had blood levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) measured at the time of admission and (if still in the hospital) 4 days later. A standardized set of clinical and laboratory data was also acquired for each patient, per hospital routine.
Starting 4 months after publication of the ARDS Network's landmark study showing improved outcomes in patients with acute lung injury (ALI) or the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) when low-tidal-volume, lung-protective ventilation (LPV) was used, investigators at the University of Pennsylvania prospectively identified 88 patients who met the accepted American-European Consensus Conference definition of ALI-ARDS.
While only a minority of patients with asthma exacerbations require ICU admission, these patients are challenging to manage because they typically have already failed treatment in the outpatient and emergency department (ED) settings.
