Hospital Medicine Alert
RSSArticles
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Troponin Highly Prognostic in Decompensated Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction
SYNOPSIS: Among patients with acute decompensated heart failure and preserved ejection fraction, elevated troponin is associated with worse in-hospital outcomes and long-term survival, independent of other predictors.
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NOACs in Patients Requiring Anticoagulation Post-PCI
SYNOPSIS: The PIONEER study of atrial fibrillation patients post-percutaneous coronary intervention showed that regimens of clopidogrel plus reduced-dose regimens of rivaroxaban demonstrated lower bleeding and similar rates of stroke and adverse cardiac events compared with traditional warfarin triple therapy.
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A New Risk Score for Stroke in Atrial Fibrillation
SYNOPSIS: A new, simpler score for stroke risk prediction in atrial fibrillation patients uses biomarkers to supplant many clinical variables and outperforms the CHA2DS2-VASc score in two large cohorts.
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Antibiotic Treatment in Community-acquired Pneumonia
SYNOPSIS: In patients with newly diagnosed community-acquired pneumonia, basing the duration of antibiotic treatment on clinical stability criteria led to a significant reduction in duration of antibiotic treatment without an increased risk of adverse outcomes.
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Discharge Antibiotic Prescriptions Often Are Inappropriate with Regard to Choice, Dose, Duration
SYNOPSIS: Seventy percent of discharge antibiotic prescriptions are inappropriate.
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Sacubitril/Valsartan Associated with Reduced Risk of Hyperkalemia
\In a secondary analysis of the PARADIGM-HF trial, the risk of severe hyperkalemia in heart failure patients taking a mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist was lower among patients treated with sacubitril/valsartan compared to those receiving enalapril.
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Zika Virus Infection and Guillain-Barré Syndrome: The Evidence Grows
A recent Zika outbreak in Colombia was associated with a significant increase in Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) rates, with laboratory evidence of definite or probable Zika infection in more than half of the GBS cases.
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Early Initiation of Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy May Reduce Mortality in Patients Who Require Dialysis
Initiation of continuous renal replacement therapy for patients with Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes stage 2 renal failure reduced 90-day all-cause mortality.
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Bezlotoxumab Injection (Zinplava)
The FDA has approved a selective, fully human monoclonal antibody directed at Clostridium difficilie toxin B. Binding of toxin B neutralizes its toxic effect. Bezlotoxumab is marketed as Zinplava.
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Fecal Transplant vs. Oral Vancomycin Taper for Recurrent Clostridium difficile Infection
In a small randomized, controlled trial that compared fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) administered by enema to a six-week oral vancomycin taper, FMT was not more effective for patients with recurrent Clostridium difficile infection.