Colloids are believed to be more effective expanders of plasma volume than crystalloids, making them a tempting therapy to use for patients in septic shock and other causes of hemodynamic instability. Problem is, some colloid solutions seem to kill people. The VISEP Trial using hydroxyethyl starch 200 kDa/0.5 demonstrated that this high molecular weight HES [… read more]
There’s no use in sugar-coating the truth: Nicotine is an appetite suppressant, and smoking prevents weight gain. Not wanting to gain weight is a common reason why body-obsessed teenage girls say they smoke–and as far as we know, they’re “right:” teens who smoke gain slightly less weight than teens who don’t. It’s also long been believed [… read more]
The American Association of Blood Blanks (AABB) announced upcoming new guidelines in the March online Annals of Internal Medicine, recommending against transfusion for adults and children with stable illness and hemoglobin levels above 7-8 g/dL. They made it a 1A recommendation (strong recommendation with high quality evidence). Jeffrey Carson et al reviewed literature from 1950 to 2011 and [… read more]
(image: Smokersworld.info) You never see pregnant women smoking in public, but surveys say 12-25% of pregnant women in developed countries smoke during pregnancy. Of course they know they shouldn’t — with smoking’s increased risks for miscarriage, low birth weight, premature birth, birth defects, and even sudden infant death after delivery. Most pregnant women want badly [… read more]
Where should we set the dial for caloric delivery to our patients with acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)? Weak observational trials suggest low caloric intake might be associated with poor outcomes [ref1, 2]. On the other hand, other observational data suggests just the opposite: restricting calories early on may reduce ventilator [… read more]
Proton Pump Inhibitors No Help for Kids’ Asthma Gastroesophageal reflux (GER) is a mysterious co-conspirator with asthma. Many people with uncontrolled asthma have reflux (either symptomatic by history, or asymptomatic and detected on esophageal pH studies). Randomized trials in adults suggest that treating symptomatic GERD (gastroesophageal reflux DISEASE) improves asthma, but treating asymptomatic GER does not [… read more]
Smoking marijuana moderately over years is strongly associated with small improvements in lung function, even compared to people who have never smoked cigarettes or marijuana, according to a study in JAMA. But the popular news media and the study authors downplayed that finding of the study, apparently to avoid sending a pro-marijuana message. Mark Pletcher, [… read more]
New Trachea Grown, Transplanted In Two Men Paolo Macchiarini, Philipp Jungebluth et al report in Lancet their successful bioprosthetic trachea creation and transplantation in a 36-year old man in Sweden after a distal tracheal resection for recurrent primary tracheal cancer. The same group transplanted a bioengineered trachea into a 30-year old Baltimore man, who is [… read more]
CPAP Improves Metabolic Syndrome in Obstructive Sleep Apnea This paper has been RETRACTED! Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy reversed elements of the high cardiovascular risk profile known as metabolic syndrome in a substantial minority of Indians with treatment-naive obstructive sleep apnea, according to this article in the New England Journal of Medicine. More than [… read more]
Kalydeco: New Drug Helps Some with Cystic Fibrosis On January 31, the FDA approved ivacaftor (Kalydeco), the first-ever drug that treats an underlying cause of cystic fibrosis. In about 4% of cystic fibrosis patients, defective chloride ion channel transporters (CFTRs) are trafficked to the cell membrane, but don’t work properly. Kalydeco “unlocks” and improves function [… read more]
Does Enoxaparin Prophylaxis Really Help Most Hospitalized Patients? A huge randomized trial (LIFENOX) stunned experts by showing no benefit of enoxaparin prophylaxis in preventing pulmonary embolism or all-cause mortality in acutely ill medical patients, compared to knee-length graduated compression stockings alone. Ajay Kakkar, Claudio Cimminiello, Jean-Francois Bergmann et al report their surprising results in the [… read more]
Adding Spiriva to LABA and Inhaled Steroid Might Improve COPD No strong outcomes-based evidence exists as to the benefits in treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with tiotropium, long-acting beta-agonist and inhaled corticosteroid together — so called “triple therapy.” LABA and tiotropium together do provide additive bronchodilation over either agent alone, evidence suggests. However, only [… read more]
Just How “Dangerous” Are Long-Acting Beta-Agonists, Really? Gustavo Rodriguez and Jose Castro-Rodriguez reviewed 20 systematic reviews and databases reporting on the incidence of adverse events with long-acting beta-agonist (LABA) therapy for asthma, for the April 2012 Thorax. They conclude the following: LABAs as monotherapy significantly increase the risk for adverse effects and bad outcomes from [… read more]
DECAF Score Predicts COPD Exacerbation Mortality, But Needs Validation By Brett Ley, MD Despite improvements in care, death during hospitalization for acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD) is not uncommon. In the UK in 2008, almost 1 in 12 people admitted with a COPD exacerbation died in-hospital. In the U.S. in 1996, about 1 in 40 [… read more]
Linezolid (Zyvox) for XDR-TB: New Hope, New Caution Approved by the FDA in 2000 for drug-resistant gram positive bacterial infections, linezolid (Zyvox, Pfizer) has in clinical practice been mainly used for skin infections and the occasional pneumonia due to methicillin-resistant Staph aureus (MRSA). Now linezolid looks to be effective as an adjunct therapy for multi-drug resistant [… read more]
Does Normal Saline Cause Acute Renal Failure? To internal medicine-trained physicians in the U.S., normal saline solution seems as harmless and healthy as mother’s milk. Intensivists trained in anesthesia or surgery might more often mention normal saline’s hypertonicity compared to blood, and its propensity to cause hyperchloremia, compared to lactated Ringer’s or similar solutions. But [… read more]
Intensive Glucose Control: Safe for Critically Ill Kids’ Brains? After evangelizing globally for intensive glucose control (~100 mg/dL) to be the standard of care for virtually all critically ill adults for a decade, Greet van den Berghe might be disappointed that mounting evidence shows that a fanatical approach to maintenance of normoglycemia in critical illness [… read more]
(image: Wikipedia) Pleural Mesothelioma Biomarker Fibulin-3: Could It Improve Care? Pleural mesothelioma (malignant mesothelioma) has a dismally sad prognosis of about a year after diagnosis. Earlier detection of this lethal pleural cancer could conceivably result in earlier treatment and some improvement in life expectancy. Researchers report in the October 11, 2012 New England Journal of [… read more]
Supraventricular Tachycardia, Initial Diagnosis and Treatment When supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) causes symptoms, it requires immediate medical attention. Although many physicians believe that the precise type of SVT must be identified before providing treatment, this is not true: treatment can often be started safely and effectively without knowing the exact SVT, by tailoring it to the [… read more]
New Lung Tissue Growth Discovered: Is Some Lung Regeneration Possible? Lung regeneration has never been thought possible in adults. But Steven Mentzer et al from Brigham and Women’s at Harvard reported a case of a 33 year old woman who had an apparent 64% increase in the number of functioning alveoli in her left lung, during [… read more]
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