Category Archives: Neurology

In healthy people, procalcitonin (PCT) concentrations are low, but in those with bacterial infection it occurs at high concentrations in the blood as early as 3 hours after infection. In people with viral infections, procalcitonin (PCT) levels rise only marginally, if at all.

A PCT-guided strategy applied in primary care in unselected patients presenting with symptoms of acute respiratory infection reduces antibiotic use by 41.6 percent without compromising patient outcome.

The FDA Approved an Automated Procalcitonin (PCT) Test in 2008.

References:
Simple test could cut excessive antibiotic use. Reuters, 2010.

One more sign of the increasing geriatric population - in 2009 the adult size diapers outnumbered the baby diapers at the U.S. waste sites for the first time.

From Twitter:

@drwalker_rph Who counted the diapers???

Lasofoxifene is a part of a class of drugs known as nonsteroidal selective estrogen-receptor modulators (SERMs). It has already been shown to decrease the bone loss associated with osteoporosis, like other SERMs, including tamoxifen and raloxifene. But until now its effect on other health conditions commonly experienced by postmenopausal women was unknown.

The women who took lasofoxifene had an 81% lower risk of estrogen-receptor (ER) positive breast cancer, a 32% lower risk of heart-related events like heart attack, and a 36% lower risk of stroke. "This is the first SERM that reduces the risk of all of these conditions at once."

However, not all the results were positive. As with other SERMs, women taking lasofoxifene had double to nearly three times the risk of experiencing a serious blot clot of the deep veins.

References:
Osteoporosis Drug May Fight Several Diseases. WebMD, 2010.

After remaining stable through the early 1990s, mean hours worked per week decreased by 7.2% between 1996 and 2008 among all physicians (from 55 hours per week in 1996-1998 to 51 hours per week in 2006-2008.

Excluding resident physicians, whose hours decreased by 9.8% due to duty hour limits imposed in 2003, nonresident physician hours decreased by 5.7%.

Physician fees decreased nationwide by 25% between 1995 and 2006, coincident with the decrease in physician hours.

A steady decrease in hours worked per week during the last decade was observed for all physicians, which was temporally and geographically associated with lower physician fees.

Medical Blog Anniversaries

Dr. Rob explains why he has been blogging for nearly 4 years http://goo.gl/seKp

Dr. Bates has been blogging for 3 years, leading to over 1,000 posts and many new friends http://goo.gl/eB1e

ClevelandClinic — May 12, 2010 — "Innovation has made Cleveland Clinic a world leader in medicine, and is the only true long term solution to high quality affordable healthcare. The founders of Cleveland Clinic launched a revolutionary model of medicine, collaborative, patient centered, dedicated to innovation."