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Evidence-based updates in primary care medicine By Louis Kuritzky, MD
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Rheumatologic and autoimmune disease patients often present with very complex manifestations that can be confusing and challenging to accurately diagnose. Clinicians increasingly depend on both common and arcane laboratory testing to facilitate arriving at a confident final diagnosis, even though most diagnoses are made through thorough history taking and careful physical examination.
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This meta-analysis did not convincingly demonstrate a positive effect of gastric acid-suppressing treatment in patients with chronic cough.
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Use of an intravenous chelation regimen with disodium EDTA, compared with placebo, modestly reduced the risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes in stable patients with a history of myocardial infarction (MI). These results do not support the routine use of chelation therapy for treatment of patients who have had a prior MI.
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A new product has been approved for the urgent reversal of warfarin or other vitamin K antagonists anticoagulation in the setting of acute bleeding. This human plasma-derived product contains vitamin K-dependent coagulation Factors II, VII, IX, and X as well as antithrombotic Protein C and Protein S. It is heat-treated and viral filtered. Prothrombin complex concentrate (PCC) is manufactured by CSL Behring GmbH in Germany and marketed by CSL Behring LLC as Kcentra. The product has been licensed in Germany since 1996.
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Optimism is associated with a significantly healthier lipid profile than is present in less optimistic persons, possibly due to healthier behaviors and lower body mass indices, which are found with increased frequency in optimistic individuals.
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Among deployed U.S. service members who died of combat or unintentional injuries and received autopsies, the prevalence of atherosclerosis varied by age and cardiovascular risk factors.