September 3rd 2024
The updated COVID-19 vaccine targets the currently circulating Omicron variant JN.1 strain of SARS-CoV-2.
Diagnostic Images, Treatment Decisions
December 31st 2006For 3 days, a 42-year-old man has had episodic dullchest pain. The anterior precordial and retrosternalpain intensifies with inspiration and movement. He has nohistory of recent viral infection, hypertension, coronaryartery disease, cardiac surgery, diabetes mellitus, or hyperlipidemia.There is no family history of cardiovasculardisease.
Chest “Tightness” in an Elderly Woman
December 31st 2006A 76-year-old woman presents with chest pain-which she describes as“muscle tightness”- that began when she awoke in the morning. Thepain is constant, exacerbated by deep inspiration, and accompanied by asubjective sense of slight dyspnea; she rates its severity as 3 on a scale of1 to 10. She denies pain radiation, nausea, diaphoresis, palpitations, andlight-headedness. Her only cardiac risk factors are hypertension and a distanthistory of smoking.
A painful, red, swollen ear; recurrent vesicles on 1 hand; a pururitic truncal eruption
December 31st 2006For 1 week, a 35-year-old woman’s left ear has been very painful, erythematous,and swollen. There is no history of insect bite or trauma. Her conditionimproved only slightly after the physician she initially consulted prescribedmethylprednisolone and cephalexin.
Low-Tech Measures Slash Catheter-Related ICU Infections
December 27th 2006BALTIMORE -- Potentially lethal ICU blood-stream infections were cut by as much as 66% through the use of inexpensive common-sense measures such as hand-washing, removal of unneeded catheters, and the use of safer catheter sites, researchers reported.
Prion-Filtering Technique Aimed at Protecting Blood Supply
December 22nd 2006BALTIMORE -- An investigational approach to sifting infectious prions from donated blood could help quell fears, focused in Britain, about the possible spread by transfusion of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), researchers here reported.
Diagnostic Methods Equivalent for Mechanical Ventilation-Related Pneumonia
December 20th 2006KINGSTON, Ontario, Dec. 20 -- For critically ill patients on mechanical ventilation, bronchoalveolar lavage and endotracheal aspiration appear to be equally effective when diagnosing pneumonia, said researchers here.
Ketek Antibiotic: Second-Line Therapy for Community-Acquired Pneumonia
December 15th 2006ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Two FDA advisory committees agreed today that the antibiotic Ketek (telithromycin) should be limited to second-line therapy for community-acquired pneumonia, and that the drug should have black box warning added to its label.
FDA Advisers Recommend Limits for Ketek Antibiotic
December 15th 2006ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Two FDA advisory committees agreed today that the antibiotic Ketek (telithromycin) should be limited to second-line therapy for community-acquired pneumonia, and that the drug should have black box warning added to its label.