All of the currently available non-invasive techniques for carotid artery imaging give accurate results when there is a high-grade stenosis (70-99%), but contrast-enhanced MRA is slightly more sensitive.
Acute Q fever may progress to endocarditis in patients with clinically silent valvulopathy. Those at risk require either extended antibiotic prophylaxis or close serological follow-up. All patients with acute Q fever should undergo transthoracic echocardiography, or in some instances transesophageal echocardiography, to exclude occult valvular abnormalities.
Antibody testing successfully identified 7 patients whose encephalitis was due to the free-living amoeba, Balamuthia mandrillaris, a pathogen that should be suspected in individuals with soil contact, high CSF protein, and mass-like or ring-enhancing brain lesions.
Overall, clopidogrel plus aspirin was not significantly more effective than aspirin alone in reducing the rate of myocardial infarction, stroke, or death from cardiovascular disease.
A return to full normal activities, including work at 2 weeks, after AMI appears to be safe in patients who are stratified to a low-risk group. This should have significant medical and socioeconomic implications.
Cleansing patients with chlorhexidine-saturated cloths reduced VRE contamination of patients' skin, the environment, and health care workers' hands, and also decreased VRE acquisition.
That deep venous thrombosis (DVT) can occur after air flight is not a new observation, having been first reported in the 1950s.
The Nikolsky Sign (also commonly spelled Nikolskiy) is performed by placing pressure upon skin adjacent to tissue involved with bullae.
Six patients developed lactic acidosis during prolonged linezolid therapy, possibly as the result of mitochondrial protein synthesis.
