Jan 1st, 2022 - Guidelines for developing CDC evidence-based guidelines

WASHINGTON, DC, BEVERLY, MA, and CHICAGO, IL — A newly published consensus paper from four professional medical associations provides guidance for US institutions that are setting up or already have programs for performing transcatheter mitral-valve procedures[1]. The recommendations for minimum operator and institution requirements come just days before an expected decision on May 18 from the ...

NICE, France — Treating patients with thrombolysis should not be based purely on time, and a stronger predictor of who will benefit most is the amount of dead tissue in the brain as visible on contrast computed tomography (CT), a new registry study suggests. The study was presented at the XXIII European Stroke Conference (ESC) by Andrew Bivard, PhD, imaging scientist at Newcastle University, Jo...

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has issued first-time guidelines regarding the evaluation of uncomplicated stress urinary incontinence (SUI) before surgical treatment in women. "[SUI] is a condition of involuntary loss of urine on effort, physical exertion, sneezing, or coughing that is often bothersome to the patient and frequently affects quality of life," the committe...

DENVER — Attention to oral health in critically ill patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) is important for a variety of reasons, but it's not always top of mind. Oral health can be a "neglected issue in critically ill adults," said nurse scientist Cindy Munro, RN, PhD, associate dean for research and innovation and professor at the College of Nursing at the University of South Florida in Ta...

CHICAGO — For patients with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, upfront chemotherapy with docetaxel, given at the same time as hormone therapy instead of later, prolongs survival. This finding, from the ECOG E3805 CHAARTED trial, is being described as "practice-changing" and "transformative". Dr. Christopher Sweeney "This is one of the biggest improvements in survival we have seen in ...

DALLAS, TX — Patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery treated with a beta-blocker had no significant improvement in 30-day postoperative outcomes compared with those who didn't receive the drugs, according to a new retrospective analysis[1]. Although the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) guidelines state that the preoperative use of beta-...

Chronic hepatic disease has been recognized as a risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but does that mean that all patients should be screened? It remains uncertain whether systematic screening leads to a survival advantage over clinical diagnosis, conclude the authors of a new meta-analysis, published online June 17 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. "Many guidelines recommend scree...

Doctor–patient discussions about cancer screening tests often fall short of an informational ideal, especially when the patient is a woman, according to a study of patient-reported experiences. Overall, the talks rarely address the harms of testing, and only about a third of discussions meet established criteria for shared decision making (SDM). Such a talk consists of informing patients about ...

Radiation Therapy in "Radioresistant" RCC Editor's Note: Advances in radiation therapy and new insights in cell biology have broadened the scope for radiation therapy in primary unresectable and metastatic renal tumors. Yet, renal cell carcinoma (RCC) still appears to be widely regarded as radiation-resistant, with the role of radiation therapy limited mainly to palliative care in professional ...

Case Presentation: An Infant Boy With Fever A 6-month-old boy is brought to the emergency department with a fever at home of 38.5 °C (101.3 °F). He is otherwise healthy, born at 39 weeks gestation, and circumcised shortly after birth. A prenatal ultrasound was reportedly normal. The child's immunizations are up to date. The infant exhibits no grunting, flaring, vomiting, diarrhea, or rash. His ...

Abstract and Introduction Abstract Background Recent longitudinal studies have emphasised the prognostic value of noninvasive tests of liver fibrosis and cross-sectional studies have shown their combination significantly improves diagnostic accuracy. Aim To compare the prognostic accuracy of six blood fibrosis tests and liver biopsy, and evaluate if test combination improves the liver-prognosis...

The amount of money Medicare spends on screening mammography has skyrocketed because of the increased uptake of newer screening methods, but this hasn't translated into earlier cancer detection, a new study shows. In fact, the cost per person associated with breast cancer screening increased 47% from 2001 to 2009. The study was published online July 1 in the Journal of the National Cancer Insti...

NEW YORK, NY — Do patients need to fast before having their cholesterol levels measured? A new analysis suggests maybe not, with researchers reporting that nonfasting LDL-cholesterol levels provide equivalent prognostic value to fasting LDL-cholesterol levels. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Survey III (NHANES III), lead investigator Dr Bethany Doran (New York University Schoo...

Access to bariatric surgery in the United Kingdom may soon become easier if draft guidance issued today is ultimately put in place. This suggests lowering the body mass index (BMI) threshold at which obese patients with recent onset type 2 diabetes can be considered for such weight-loss procedures, from 35 to 30 kg/m2. In addition, patients of certain ethnicities, such as Asians, may qualify at...

Five key populations at greatest risk for HIV infection are least likely to have access to HIV prevention, testing, and treatment services, which threatens global progress on HIV, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned today. They are men who have sex with men (MSM), people in prison, injection drug users, sex workers, and transgender people. In many countries, these populations are left ou...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Babies born to women with the highest levels of physical activity in late pregnancy have less body fat than infants whose mothers were the least active in their third trimester, new findings show. "Exercise during pregnancy according to our data seems to be a good thing because it reduces neonatal adiposity without affecting newborn fat-free mass," Dr. Dana Dabelea o...

Abstract Background. There is concern about the safety of homebirths, especially in women transferred to hospital during or after labour. The scope of transfer in planned home births has not been assessed in a systematic review. This review aimed to describe the proportions and indications for transfer from home to hospital during or after labour in planned home births. Methods. The databases P...

Abstract Background. Comorbid mental health problems have been shown to have an adverse effect on the quality of life of people with common eye disorders. This study aims to assess whether symptoms of anxiety and/or depression are more prevalent in people with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) than in people without this condition. Methods. A systematic search of electronic databases (Medl...

MORRISVILLE, NC — It took several years, four conferences, and 33 experts across multiple medical specialties in 16 countries, but the end product is the first international guidance on focused cardiac ultrasound (FoCUS)—a simplified form of echocardiography used primarily in emergency and critical-care medicine[1]. The use of one of cardiology's oldest imaging tools in emergency and critical-c...