Arch Intern Med
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Most evidence guiding perioperative medical risk management of patients undergoing hip fracture repair focuses on cardiac and thromboembolic risk. Little is known of the relative clinical importance of other complications. ⋯ Most patients had no medical complications after hip fracture repair. Serious cardiac and pulmonary complications were equally important in frequency, mortality, and survivors' length of stay. Patients with multiple complications had especially poor prognosis.
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Results of previous studies of white older adults suggest that antihypertensive medications preserve cognition. We assessed the long-term effect of antihypertensive medications on cognitive function in a community sample of African American older adults. ⋯ Antihypertensive medication use is associated with preservation of cognitive function in older African American adults.
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Comparative Study
Cancer survival among US whites and minorities: a SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results) Program population-based study.
Available cancer statistics pertain primarily to white and African American populations. This study describes racial or ethnic patterns of cancer-specific survival and relative risks (RRs) of cancer death for all cancers combined and for cancers of the colon and rectum, lung and bronchus, prostate, and female breast for the 6 major US racial or ethnic groups. ⋯ Survival rates in patients with cancer have improved in recent years, but racial or ethnic differences in survival rates and in RRs of cancer death persist. Additional studies are needed to clarify the socioeconomic, medical, biological, cultural, and other determinants of these findings.
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Despite published reports of its safety and efficacy, oral vitamin K (phytonadione) may not be widely used for patients with warfarin-associated coagulopathy. We tested the hypothesis that recommendations for phytonadione use from the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) Fifth Consensus Conference on Antithrombotic Therapy are not routinely incorporated into the clinical practice of many anticoagulation clinics. ⋯ For patients with supratherapeutic international normalized ratio values, our survey suggests that a substantial number of anticoagulation clinics underutilize oral phytonadione.