New recommendations from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices call for a zoster vaccination for all adults aged 60 and older, even if they have never had a single shingles episode. Shingles is a painful, often blistering, localized skin rash caused by the chickenpox or varicella-zoster virus (VZV). As Aisha Jumaan, PhD, of the…
If the source of a woman’s chronic cough has you puzzled, try checking for iron deficiency. All 16 healthy female nonsmokers who participated in a recent Italian study had normal lung function tests and no history of atopy, asthma or other bronchopulmonary diseases. They showed no symptoms or ENT evidence of gastroesophageal reflux. Yet all…
A slightly underactive thyroid can present as much of a cardiovascular threat as diabetes or hypertension, according to findings presented at the American Thyroid Association meeting in New York City in October. To date, only small studies have shown an association between cardiac dysfunction and subclinical hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism. The new trial involved 3,065 persons…
The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America has ranked the country’s metropolitan areas according to how difficult they made life for allergy patients this fall. Factors included pollen and mold-spore levels and allergy-medicine use per patient. The map shows the 10 worst locations. Source: Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, www.aafa.org.
Results from wo meta-analyses suggest that rosiglitazone (Avandia) is associated with increased cardiovascular risk.
Product: Azor Company: Daiichi-Sankyo Pharmacologic class: Antihypertensive (calcium channel blocker + angiotensin II receptor blocker) Continue Reading Active ingredients: Amlodipine (as besylate) 5 mg, olmesartan medoxomil 20 mg; tabs. Also: Azor 5/40 Active ingredients: Amlodipine (as besylate) 5 mg, olmesartan medoxomil 40 mg; tabs. Also: Azor 10/20 Active ingredients: Amlodipine (as besylate) 10 mg, olmesartan…
CASE #1 The patient was an 11-year-old Hispanic girl who had an area of hair loss on her scalp that measured 6 mm in length at its maximum. Born following an uncomplicated vaginal delivery, the child was noted at birth to have a scalp ulceration that, over the course of several days, became covered with…
A 5-year-old Asian girl presented with yellow bumps on her left cheek. She developed the first of these approximately two years ago, and now her parents had noticed a few more. Aside from their appearance, the lesions were not bothersome; they were not pruritic or painful. Her parents reported a small amount of gradual growth…
A 31-year-old Vietnamese woman in her 28th week of gestation complained of a pruritic, blistering rash that began at approximately the same time as her pregnancy. She had no history of similar problems during her previous pregnancy. Erythematous patches with erosions, crusting, and occasional vesicles were present over her right parietal scalp, right forearm, back,…
If there were something that you could do in less than one minute per patient encounter that could reduce the risk of a health-care-associated complication, would you do it? Of course, and the good news is that this intervention exists: It’s called hand hygiene. The bad news is that we aren’t doing it enough. In…
