American family physician
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The 2001 Bethesda System for reporting cervical or vaginal cytologic diagnoses is an incremental change in the uniform terminology introduced in 1988 and revised in 1991. The 2001 Bethesda System includes specific statements about specimen adequacy, general categorization, and interpretation and results. In the adequacy category, "satisfactory" and "unsatisfactory" are retained, but "satisfactory but limited by" is eliminated. ⋯ The category of "atypical glandular cells of undetermined significance" (AGUS) is eliminated to avoid confusion with ASCUS and is replaced by the term "atypical glandular cells" (AGC), with attempts to identify whether the origin of the cells is endometrial, endocervical, or unqualified. "Endocervical adenocarcinoma in situ" and "AGC, favor neoplastic" are included as separate AGC categories. The presence of normal or abnormal endometrial cells is to be reported in women who are at least 40 years of age. Educational notes and comments on ancillary testing may be added as appropriate.
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American family physician · Nov 2003
Practice Guideline GuidelineACOG releases guidelines on cervical cytology screening.
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Respiratory difficulty is a common presenting complaint in the outpatient primary care setting. Because patients may first seek care by calling their physician's office, telephone triage plays a role in the early management of dyspnea. Once the patient is in the office, the initial goal of assessment is to determine the severity of the dyspnea with respect to the need for oxygenation and intubation. ⋯ Diagnostic work-up includes pulse oximetry, complete blood count, electrocardiography, and chest radiography. If the patient is admitted to the emergency department or hospital, blood gases, ventilation-perfusion scan, D-dimer tests, and spiral computed tomography can help clarify the diagnosis. In a stable patient, management depends on the underlying etiology of the dyspnea.
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The suicide of a patient can be devastating to the family and to the family physician. The patient's death may shake the physician's confidence, undermine any willingness to work with patients with a mental illness, and provoke professional and legal review. In an attempt to help the family physician prevent suicide, this article reviews known risk factors and offers a strategy for assessing these factors in individual patients. The authors outline interventions that fit the existing level of risk and provide suggestions for the physician in the event of a completed suicide.