JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association
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Poor public knowledge of stroke warning signs and risk factors limits effective stroke intervention and prevention. ⋯ Public knowledge of stroke warning signs within the greater Cincinnati region has significantly improved from 1995 to 2000, although knowledge of stroke risk factors did not improve significantly during the same time period. Public education efforts must continue and should focus on groups at the highest risk of stroke.
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Encouraged by direct-to-consumer marketing, smokers and their physicians are contemplating lung cancer screening with a promising but unproven imaging procedure, helical computed tomography (CT). ⋯ Even if efficacy is eventually proven, screening must overcome multiple additional barriers to be highly cost-effective. Given the current uncertainty of benefits, the harms from invasive testing, and the high costs associated with screening, direct-to-consumer marketing of helical CT is not advisable.
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Multicenter Study
Effect of serologic status and cesarean delivery on transmission rates of herpes simplex virus from mother to infant.
Neonatal herpes most commonly results from fetal exposure to infected maternal genital secretions at the time of delivery. The risk of transmission from mother to infant as it relates to maternal herpes simplex virus (HSV) serologic status and exposure to HSV in the maternal genital tract at the time of labor has not been quantified. Furthermore, no data exist on whether cesarean delivery, the standard of care for women with genital herpes lesions at the time of delivery, reduces HSV transmission. ⋯ Neonatal HSV infection rates can be reduced by preventing maternal acquisition of genital HSV-1 and HSV-2 infection near term. It can also be reduced by cesarean delivery and limiting the use of invasive monitors among women shedding HSV at the time of labor.