Mayo Clinic proceedings
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Mayo Clinic proceedings · Feb 2025
ReviewA Primer on Carceral Health for Clinicians: Care Delivery, Regulatory Oversight, Legal and Ethical Considerations, and Clinician Responsibilities.
The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, with approximately 1.7 million individuals detained in jails or federal or state prisons. Chronic medical conditions are more prevalent among adults in custody than among their nonincarcerated counterparts, resulting in needs that often surpass the on-site medical treatment capabilities of carceral facilities. ⋯ This special article seeks to address this knowledge gap by providing demographic and patient characteristics of this population, describing health care delivery in the criminal legal system, summarizing incarcerated patients' health care rights, conveying the current state of oversight and regulation for correctional health care, and presenting the role of health care professionals in advocating for the ethical care of incarcerated patients. By equipping themselves with this knowledge, clinicians may provide holistic and ethical care for persons involved in the criminal legal system.
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Mayo Clinic proceedings · Feb 2025
ReviewRelevance of High Bleeding Risk and Postdischarge Bleeding in Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.
Bleeding avoidance strategies are critical in the modern era of percutaneous coronary intervention; however, most efforts are geared toward reducing access-related complications. Improvements in procedural techniques (radial access, improved procedural anticoagulation regimens, etc) and modifications in postdischarge pharmacotherapy (shortened dual antiplatelet therapy, genotype-guided P2Y12 inhibition, etc) that led to a decline in bleeding related to percutaneous procedures were largely offset by increases in complexity and performance of percutaneous coronary intervention in high-risk patients. ⋯ Because postdischarge bleeding connotes an adverse prognosis similar to an ischemic event, postprocedure freedom from adverse outcomes can be best tailored by individualizing and recognizing the patient's bleeding and ischemic risks. This review of the contemporary and historical literature (PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library) summarizes the available data, provides strategies to navigate these complex decisions, and helps individualize antithrombotic therapy.
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Valvular heart disease is one of the most common cardiovascular diseases today and may result in severe limiting symptoms, a shortened lifespan, and, in some cases, sudden death. It is important to identify significant valve disease because intervention can restore quality of life and in many instances increase longevity. In most patients, the diagnosis of significant valvular heart disease can be made on the basis of a physical examination, yet nearly half of the patients who could benefit from interventions are not being recognized or referred. ⋯ There are now national guidelines to aid clinicians in the optimal timing of the intervention, which are presented. However, it is now recognized that the long-standing volume or pressure overload from valve disease can result in incipient ventricular dysfunction even before the onset of symptoms or a drop in ejection fraction; therefore, there is an impetus to recognize and to treat these patients earlier and earlier in the disease natural history. A shared decision-making process should play a key role in the final decision for therapy, outlining the goals and risks of possible intervention coupled with the patient's own needs and expectations.