Todd Kunkler

We present a round-up of recent news, trial results, and other developments for infectious disease experts and other physicians who treat patients with C. difficile infection.

With more patients and practitioners expressing interest in non-Western modes of healing and other complementary and alternative forms of medicine, researchers are studying whether traditional Chinese methods like tai chi are effective in treating arthritis and other painful conditions.

Negotiating a contract for a position in academia, industry, or private practice can be a complex and nerve-wracking process, with many physicians unsure of which questions to ask and which elements of their compensation beyond salary are negotiable.

Although there is some evidence showing treatment with medical marijuana can benefit patients with arthritis, chronic pain, and other conditions, there are also serious concerns over quality control, non-standardized dosing, and other potential safety risks.

With Medicare and Medicaid incentives scheduled to start this year, physicians owe it to their patients and their practices to learn about the requirements to qualify as meaningful users of health care technology.

All practices should perform self-audits of their medical and billing records to ensure that they are properly documenting care and receiving the maximum allowable reimbursement.

Researchers using fMRI claim that the unique structural changes observed in the brains of patients with osteoarthritis can be used to predict placebo response.

Dissimilar pharmacokinetics make blood and urine testing useful for different purposes in compliance monitoring.

Paul J. Christo, MD provides an overview of the prevalence of pain in older adults while discussing physiological age-associated changes in pain processing.

There are many conscious and unconscious factors that affect clinicians' reactions to patients suffering with pain.

The grief and experience of loss felt by many patients is an often overlooked component of chronic pain.

Effective chronic pain management requires a structured approach to evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment.

Clinicians in all settings can teach their patients to use relaxation, meditation and other techniques to achieve relief from chronic pain conditions.

The results of a study that looked at the competing effects on left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) of hypokalemia and treatment with hydrochlorothiazides (HCTZ) in hypertensive patients were presented Monday, November 15 at the American Heart Association Scientitifc Sessions 2009.

Research shows that early-stage CKD is related to atherosclerosis; therefore, management of CKD might lower the incidence of coronary spastic angina

Although treatment with low-dose aspirin is standard care for secondary prevention of cardiovascular (CV) events, some studies have shown that up to half of all patients stop taking aspirin. Other studies have shown that discontinuation of aspirin in these patients is linked to an increased risk of MI and other ischemic events.

The 2009 American College of Rheumatology/Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals Scientific Meeting will feature several “Curbside Consult/Ask the Professors” sessions. Designed to feature information and discussion about “difficult management decisions that must be made in the absence of strong data,” these sessions give attendees the opportunity to “compare their personal management approaches” to the clinical problems outlined in the featured vignettes and scenarios with those of “the academic expert consultants and other clinicians in the audience.”

The Monday morning sessions at the 2009 American College of Rheumatology/Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals featured several presentations that focused on cognitive functioning in fibromyalgia and lupus.

The history of the neurologic examination, referral pattern among neurologists for neurointerventional procedures, Parkinson's disease on the Internet, and online learning are just a few of the many topics discussed during the Day 2 sessions at the AAN meeting.

In a wide-ranging review of the evidence base for the current standard of care for primary brain tumors and other central nervous system malignancies, Amy A. Pruitt, MD, touched on a variety of topics in neuro-oncology, including an overview of the epidemiology and diagnosis of primary brain tumors.

Here are 10 studies about Parkinson's disease which were among the hundreds cited by Susan H. Fox, MD, PhD, during her presentation on movement disorders at the 61st Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.

The "Guidelines, Practice, and Advocacy Open House Featuring Digital Demos" session had two things going for it that made it an easy choice for us to attend the and cover it for MDNG readers: 1) the tagline "Technology Solutions that You Can Afford" and 2) the triple bill of David Kibbe, MD; former MDNG: Neurology Edition Physician Editor-in-Chief Daniel Hier, MD, MBA, FAAN; and current MDNG: Neurology Edition Health IT Advisory Board member and columnist Steven Zuckerman, MD. The good doctors (and their colleagues) did not disappoint.

New research indicates that "men who experience erectile dysfunction between the ages of 40 and 49 are twice as likely to develop heart disease than men without dysfunction."

Researchers have found that "coronary bypass surgery may carry less risk of serious complications if stents coated with a drug that suppresses cell growth are used in the procedure rather than bare-metal stents."

Are doctors implanting too many stents? Can a new diagnostic tool enable physicians to get a better picture of coronary arterial blood flow and determine whether medication may be a better option than stenting?

The American Roentgen Ray Society reported that two tools commonly used to assess patients for risk of CHD may not accurately predict patients’ risk of CHD.

Researchers have found that "testing patient's blood for two proteins or biomarkers that occur when inflammation is present could help doctors identify which patients are more likely to have a stroke."

Researchers have "identified a variation in a particular gene that increases a person's susceptibility to early coronary artery disease."

According to an American Heart Association news release, "age-adjusted death rates for coronary heart disease and stroke have each reached about a 30 percent reduction since 1999." However, this welcome news is offset by troubling trends in several risk factors, including rising obesity rates among children and adolescents, as well as chronic lack of exercise among adults age 18 years and older.