Annals of internal medicine
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To review the literature on the effects of amiodarone on thyroid physiology and management of amiodarone-induced thyroid disease. ⋯ Thyroid dysfunction commonly occurs with amiodarone therapy. It may be difficult to recognize the dysfunction because of the many changes in thyroid function test results that occur in euthyroid patients who are receiving amiodarone. Effective strategies exist for the management of hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism; these should be tailored to the needs of the individual patient.
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Review Historical Article
Occupationally acquired infections in health care workers. Part I.
Health care workers are at occupational risk for a vast array of infections that cause substantial illness and occasional deaths. Despite this, few studies have examined the incidence, prevalence, or exposure-associated rates of infection or have considered infection-specific interventions recommended to maintain worker safety. ⋯ The risk for occupationally acquired infection is an unavoidable part of daily patient care. Infections that result from airborne transmission of organisms cause substantial illness and occasional deaths among health care workers. Further studies are needed to identify new infection control strategies to 1) improve protection of health care workers and 2) enhance compliance with established approaches. As health care is being reformed, the risk for and cost of occupationally acquired infection must be considered.
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Six years ago, we proposed a patient benefit-centered definition of medical futility that included both quantitative and qualitative components. We distinguished between an effect of a treatment that is limited to some part of a patient's body and a benefit that improves the patient as a whole. ⋯ The qualitative portion of our definition stipulated that if a treatment merely preserves permanent unconsciousness or cannot end dependence on intensive medical care, physicians should consider the treatment futile. In this paper, we clarify and modify our original proposal and respond to the following major criticisms: 1) Medical futility is simply an attempt to increase the power of the physician over the patient and to repeal recent hard-gained advances in patient autonomy; 2) no professional or societal consensus has been achieved about the definition of futility; 3) futility is a value-laden determination, the usurpation of which by medicine is inappropriate unless only a so-called value-free or strict physiologic definition of futility is used; 4) the concept of futility is not practically useful because empirical treatment data cannot be applied with certainty to any given patient; 5) futility undermines our pluralistic society and threatens, among other things, the free exercise of religion; and 6) because cost considerations will ultimately dictate all such decisions, futility is an unnecessary concept.
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To review the current understanding of the clinical significance, detection, pathogenesis, and prevention of anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity. ⋯ A rapidly growing number of persons, including an alarming fraction of the 150 000 or more adults in the United States who have survived childhood cancer, will have substantial morbidity and mortality because of anthracycline-related cardiac disease. The development of effective protection against anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity will probably have a significant effect on the overall survival of these patients.