Jackie Syrop

A new study of obese adolescents highlighted the link between obesity and chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) pain and limitations on physical function and quality of life (QOL).

Colorectal surgery is often performed for inflammatory disease or malignancy-known risk factors for venous thromboembolism (VTE). Although a patient safety priority, comprehensive recommendations for these VTE patients are lacking. Most patients receive perioperative and in-hospital VTE chemoprophylaxis, but extended prophylaxis rates lag.

The global pandemic of diabetes poses a huge public health challenge to every nation. In 2014 more than 380 million people around the world were living with diabetes-8.3% of the adult population. That number is expected to increase to 592 million by 2035.

Overt hyperthyroidism is a known risk factor for osteoporosis and fractures. More subtle alterations in thyroid function, such as those that occur in subclinical thyroid dysfunction, may also be associated with increased fracture risk and bone loss, but until recently no clinical trials have adequately explored that issue.

A recent Chinese study of antibiotic use in primary care settings found that up to 93% of respiratory tract infections (RTIs) were treated with antibiotics, with more than 60% reported as inappropriate.

Click here to review the Cardiology Review editorial advisory board.

UnitedHealth, the nation's largest health insurance company, recently announced a partnership with 3 telemedicine companies to cover video-based doctor visits in the same way it covers in-person visits.

More than 13,000 physicians and cardiovascular team members attended the ACC 2015 meeting in San Diego on March 14-16, 2015. In this issue of Cardiology Review, we focus on 6 important studies presented at ACC 2015: LEGACY, OSLER, PEGASUS, EMBRACE-STEMI, MATRIX, and CoreValve.

The recent FDA approvals of ivabradine and the WATCHMAN Left Atrial Appendage Closure Device, study results on EHRs and quality of medical care, and more are covered in this installment.

Vascular aging may play a substantial role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and brachial artery pulse pressure is a well-established marker of vascular aging.

Research, led by Michela Ripolone, PhD, Centro Dino Ferrari, Universita degli Studi Milano, concluded that an altered regulation of myogenesis and a downregulated mitochondrial biogenesis contribute to pathologic changes in the muscle of patients afflicted with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), recommending that therapeutic strategies aim at counteracting these changes.

In states that expanded the number of low-income people eligible for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, the number of people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes increased by 23 percent.

Obesity Week 2014 was the second annual combined meeting of The Obesity Society (TOS) and the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS).

The recent measles outbreak linked to an amusement park in southern California had reignited a controversy about the values of public health, personal choice, and parental rights.

Nearly a million children annually develop tuberculosis (TB), with caseloads highly concentrated in areas affected by poverty and social disruption.

Although the prevalence of Barrett's esophagus is considered moderate, the condition is the only established precursor of esophageal adenocarcinoma, and thus it has become the focus of programs of endoscopic screening and surveillance.

A recent JAMA Surgery study by Danielle A. Bischof, MD, of Johns Hopkins University and her American and Canadian colleagues was the first to estimate conditional disease-free survival (CDFS) for primary gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) following complete surgical resection.

Air pollution should be viewed as one of several major modifiable risk factors in the prevention and management of cardiovascular disease.

A recent study has generated a great deal of excitement because Dutch researchers reported that a new intra-arterial treatment greatly improves the prognosis for people with acute ischemic stroke caused by a proximal intracranial arterial occlusion of the anterior circulation.

The recent US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) surveillance report stated that this year's flu season has crossed the threshold for being considered an epidemic – that is, the proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza (8.5%) through the 122 Cities Mortality Reporting System was above the agency's epidemic threshold of 7%.

Persistent infection with oral HPV16 is believed to play a part in the development of most oropharyngeal cancers.

Patients with a history of cancer are considered high-risk candidates for solid organ transplantation because of concerns about potential adverse effects or recurrence with posttransplant immunosuppression.

A nationwide study of elderly enrollees in Medicare Advantage health plans concluded that disparities in control of blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose had not improved nationally for blacks in these plans despite the disparities being eliminated in the US west in 2011.

The FDA has published Long Awaited guidelines on the cybersecurity of medical devices.

Strategies of no antibiotic prescription or delayed antibiotic prescription in primary care patients with acute respiratory tract infections (RTIs) resulted in fewer than 40% of patients using antibiotics, according to a study published in BMJ.

Smoking cessation had long been associated with reduced depression, anxiety, and stress and improved positive mood and quality of life compared with continuing to smoke. Yet many smokers who wish to quit are afraid to do so because they believe smoking decreases their feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress and improves their mood and promotes relaxation. This sentiment is reported by smokers both with and without diagnosed mental disorders.

A group of international researchers led by Luosheng Li, MD, of the Rolf Luft Research Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology at the Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, recently demonstrated that age-dependent decline in insulin secretion (and thus glucose homeostasis) from the beta cell in experimental mice models is associated with subtle changes in Ca2+ dynamics.

In the American Journal of Medicine, Christopher Sorli, MD, of the Billings Clinic in Montana, reviewed new developments in insulin therapy for type 2 diabetes. He explained that insulin initiation often involved basal-only therapy in conjunction with existing oral glucose-lowering drugs.

Patients' body weight (BW) is the accepted way to calculate the starting dose of levothyroxine (LT4) after total thyroidectomy. However, Italian researchers sought to find a new way to improve the accuracy of the LT4 starting dose following total thyroidectomy by identifying other major predictive factors of LT4 requirement.

Current users of oral fluoroquinolone (FQs) antibiotics, especially new users of FQs, are at higher risk of developing peripheral neuropathy (PN), concludes a recent study published in Neurology.