Postgraduate medicine
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Postgraduate medicine · Aug 2020
Evaluation of internal medicine physicians' attitudes toward the treatment of dyslipidemia.
Objectives: Dyslipidemia is one of the risk factors for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular events decrease with decreasing LDL-C levels and all guidelines emphasize the importance of LDL-C lowering. However, implementation in real life is suboptimal. ⋯ Conclusion: Despite overwhelming evidence, some physicians did not use guidelines and some physicians doubted the necessity of dyslipidemia treatment. A significant proportion of physicians were affected by the patient's reluctance. There is a clear need to educate physicians about the importance of guidelines.
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Postgraduate medicine · Aug 2020
The impact of concurrent Hashimoto thyroiditis on thyroid nodule cytopathology assessed by ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology.
Objective: Thyroid nodules are highly prevalent and a common clinical problem worldwide. How to identify the nature of a nodule is a major concern of clinicians. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) has an established role and is well-utilized in nodule management. ⋯ No statistical difference was found either in the rate of a nondiagnostic cytology results or in the rate of indeterminate cytology results between patients with positive anti-thyroid autoantibodies and patients with negative test for anti-thyroid autoantibodies (P > 0.05). The same was true between patients with histopathologically confirmed HT and HT-negative ones (P > 0.05). Conclusions: The presence of concurrent HT, whether clinically implied with positive anti-thyroid autoantibodies or pathologically confirmed, is unlikely to predispose an FNAC diagnosis of thyroid nodules to be non-diagnostic or indeterminate.
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Postgraduate medicine · Aug 2020
Sex-specific differences in the prevalence of and risk factors for hyperuricemia among a low-income population in China: a cross-sectional study.
Objectives: China has already entered the aging society, and its aging population is the largest worldwide. Accordingly, several aging-related conditions including hyperuricemia are becoming a public health concern owing to their increasing prevalence in rural areas. However, the sex-specific differences in the risk factors for hyperuricemia among the middle-aged and elderly in rural North China are unclear. ⋯ A high eGFR was a protective factor in both sexes. Conclusions: Hyperuricemia was highly prevalent in low-income adults in Tianjin, with men and women showing differences in risk profiles and comorbidities. Early management of hyperuricemia according to sex-specific risk factors should be considered in primary care to reduce the prevalence and burden of hyperuricemia in rural China.
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Postgraduate medicine · Aug 2020
Case ReportsA case of chronic sarcoidosis presenting with lupus pernio.
Sarcoidosis is a systemic granulomatous disease of unknown cause. Skin involvement may be specific lesions in which granulomas are detected on biopsy or nonspecific lesions without granulomatous inflammation on biopsy. ⋯ A 57-year-old female patient applied to the dermatology outpatient clinic with a lesion on the nose. We report a case of chronic sarcoidosis presenting with lupus pernio with clinical and radiological improvement.
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Postgraduate medicine · Aug 2020
Hospital preparedness for COVID-19 pandemic: experience from department of medicine at Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System.
The 2019-2020 pandemic Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has inundated hospital systems globally, as they prepare to accommodate surge of patients requiring advanced levels of care. Pandemic preparedness has not been this urgently and widely needed in the last several decades. According to epidemiologic predictions, the peak of this pandemic has still not been reached, and hospitals everywhere need to ensure readiness to care for more patients than they usually do, and safety for healthcare workers who strive to save lives. We share our hospital-wide rapid preparedness and response to COVID-19 to help provide information to other healthcare systems globally.