Betial Asmerom, a fourth-year medical student at the University of California-San Diego, didn’t have the slightest interest in becoming a doctor when she was growing up.As an adolescent, she helped her parents — immigrants from Eritrea who spoke little English — navigate the health care system in Oakland, California. She saw physicians who were disrespectful […]
Cancer patients who receive an immune checkpoint inhibitor have more than a doubled rate of venous thromboembolism during the subsequent 2 years, compared with their rate during the 2 years before treatment, according to a retrospective analysis of more than 2,800 patients treated at a single U.S. center.The study focused on cancer patients treated with […]
The cause of a patient’s severe hand dystonia affecting three fingers had clinicians stumped, but tenacious clinical investigation eventually led them to make the call on this very unusual case.The patient, in his mid-50s, presented to Vikram Preet Kaur, MBBS, and MD candidate working under Alan R. Hirsch, MD, Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in […]
Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. As COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations continue to accelerate in the U.S., the CDC on Thursday bluntly advised Americans not to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday.webmd.ads2.defineAd({id:’ads-pos-1122′,pos: 1122});”Amid this critical phase, the CDC is recommending against travel during the Thanksgiving period,” said […]
Patients with cognitive impairment may experience greater improvements in cognition with transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) than with surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR), new research suggests.Investigators analyzed data from the PARTNER 3 (Safety and Effectiveness of the SAPIEN 3 Transcatheter Heart Valve in Low-Risk Patients with Aortic Stenosis) trial of 1000 patients with severe aortic stenosis, who […]
Contrary to historical evidence, among older people, elevated LDL cholesterol levels increase risk for heart attack and cardiovascular disease, and older patients benefit as much, if not more, from statins and other cholesterol-lowering drugs than do younger people, two new studies show.”By contrast with previous historical studies, our data show that LDL cholesterol is an […]
Medtronic’s launch of a new version of its smart insulin pen with integrated continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) is the first such “connected” device for use by people with diabetes who use multiple daily injections (MDI) of insulin. Initially launched by Companion Medical in 2017, the InPen system is a reusable insulin injector pen combined with […]
Like most doctors, Megan Ranney, MD, MPH, grabs a wipe to disinfect her stethoscope every time she examines a patient who might have an infectious disease.But the usually ubiquitous canisters of commercially-made wipes have been in shorter supply during the past few months.webmd.ads2.defineAd({id:’ads-pos-1122′,pos: 1122});Reflecting that shortage, the cost of wipes spiked up to seven times […]
Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. Early treatment with the antidepressant fluvoxamine (Luvox) may help prevent respiratory deterioration in patients with mild symptomatic COVID-19, results of a preliminary randomized controlled trial suggest.webmd.ads2.defineAd({id:’ads-pos-1122′,pos: 1122});In the trial, none of the patients who took fluvoxamine within 7 days of first […]
A novel algorithm-based disease management program, led by pharmacists and nonlicensed navigators, optimized cholesterol and blood pressure levels in high-risk patients, according to an interim report from the first 5000 patients.Mean low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels fell from 125 mg/dL to 73 mg/dL among those who finished active treatment titration and from 133 mg/dL to […]