Arch Intern Med
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Heart failure is a condition for which both palliative care and hospice care can be appropriate. The disease's increasing prevalence and predilection for elderly patients with significant comorbidity underscore the need to integrate these modes of care with the acute care approach that has dominated heart failure treatment. ⋯ A transition of the focus to palliative care rather than mortality reduction should occur over time, when clinical status deteriorates and advanced therapeutic options become inappropriate or ineffective. Failure to respond to the need for palliative care puts at risk the mandate to treat the patient with heart failure during the entire course of illness.
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Comparative Study
Forgoing treatment at the end of life in 6 European countries.
Modern medicine provides unprecedented opportunities in diagnostics and treatment. However, in some situations at the end of a patient's life, many physicians refrain from using all possible measures to prolong life. We studied the incidence of different types of treatment withheld or withdrawn in 6 European countries and analyzed the main background characteristics. ⋯ In all of the participating countries, life-prolonging treatment is withheld or withdrawn at the end of life. Frequencies vary greatly among countries. Low-technology interventions, such as medication or hydration or nutrition, are most frequently forgone. In older patients and outside the hospital, physicians prefer not to initiate life-prolonging treatment at all rather than stop it later.
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Review Meta Analysis Comparative Study
Rate vs rhythm control in patients with atrial fibrillation: a meta-analysis.
The 2 fundamental approaches to the management of atrial fibrillation (AF) are reestablishing and maintaining sinus rhythm (rhythm control) and controlling ventricular rate with atrioventricular node blocking agents (rate control). We performed a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials comparing these strategies in patients with AF to add precision to the relative merits of both strategies on the risk of all-cause mortality and to evaluate the consistency of the results between trials. ⋯ In patients with persistent AF or with AF that is likely to be recurrent, a strategy of ventricular rate control, in combination with anticoagulation in appropriate patients, appears to be at least equivalent to a strategy of maintaining sinus rhythm by using currently available antiarrhythmic drugs in preventing clinical outcomes.
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Infections occurring among outpatients having recent contact with the health care system have been termed health care-associated infections. The objective of this study was to analyze the impact of health care-associated status on effectiveness of initial therapy in hospitalized patients with bloodstream infections. ⋯ Among patients treated in the hospital for bloodstream infection, health care-associated status was an independent predictor of ineffective initial antibiotic therapy. Hospitalization within 90 days prior to hospital admission was the component of health care-associated status most strongly associated with ineffective initial therapy.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Ginkgo biloba and acetazolamide prophylaxis for acute mountain sickness: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial.
Acute mountain sickness (AMS) commonly occurs when unacclimatized individuals ascend to altitudes above 2000 m. Acetazolamide and Ginkgo biloba have both been recommended for AMS prophylaxis; however, there is conflicting evidence regarding the efficacy of Ginkgo biloba use. We performed a randomized, placebo-controlled trial of acetazolamide vs Ginkgo biloba for AMS prophylaxis. ⋯ In this study, prophylactic acetazolamide therapy decreased the symptoms of AMS and trended toward reducing its incidence. We found no evidence of similar efficacy for Ginkgo biloba.