Swiss medical weekly
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Swiss medical weekly · Jan 2011
Lung cancer screening has the potential to safe lives, but shall we do it?
Almost three decades ago several controlled studies failed to show that lung cancer screening by chest x-ray (CXR) and sputum cytology improves survival in a screened population. A number of subsequent studies using chest computed tomography (CT) in smokers revealed lesions suspect for cancer in around 20% and had a lung cancer detection rate of approx. 1%. ⋯ Recently, the preliminary results of the randomised controlled National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), a study organised by the US National Cancer Institute, confirmed for the first time that lung cancer screening by CT is associated with a reduction in lung cancer mortality (20.3%) and in all-cause mortality (7%) compared with a control group undergoing CXR at the same time intervals. However, before lung cancer CT screening can be recommended, many open questions need to be answered with respect to costs and reimbursement, duration of an appropriate screening programme and its psychological impact.
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Swiss medical weekly · Jan 2011
ReviewActual evidence for neuromonitoring-guided intensive care following severe traumatic brain injury.
Therapeutic interventions following severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) are substantially influenced by complex and interwoven pathophysiological cascades involving both, local and systemic alterations. Our main duty is to prevent secondary progression of the primary damage. This, in turn, obliges us to actively search and identify secondary insults related, for example, to hypoxia, hypotension, uncontrolled hyperventilation, anaemia, and hypoglycaemia. ⋯ A more individualised and flexible treatment concept depends on extended neuromonitoring. The present review addresses current evidence in favour of extended neuromonitoring used to guide treatment options aimed at improving intensive care treatment of patients with severe TBI. With increasing experience gained by the use of extended neuromonitoring in clinical routine we may expect that the evidence obtained within the individual patient will translate to convincing evidence on a larger scale for the entire study population.
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Swiss medical weekly · Jan 2011
An evaluation of the RIFLE criteria for acute kidney injury after myeloablative allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
Patients undergoing myeloablative allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) have a higher incidence of acute kidney injury (AKI). RIFLE is a newly developed classification for AKI that includes three grades of severity - AKI-R, AKI-I, AKI-F. ⋯ AKI is common in patients with myeloablative allo-HSCT and is associated with increased risk of death. The RIFLE criteria appear to be an important tool for stratification of these patients on the basis of death risk.
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Swiss medical weekly · Jan 2011
High prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in a Swiss rheumatology outpatient population.
Vitamin D is important for bone metabolism and neuromuscular function. While a routine dosage is often proposed in osteoporotic patients, it is not so evident in rheumatology outpatients where it has been shown that the prevalence of hypovitaminosis D is high. The aim of the current study was to systematically evaluate the vitamin D status in our outpatient rheumatology population to define the severity of the problem according to rheumatologic diseases. ⋯ Insufficiency and deficiency were even seen in 38% of the patients who were taking supplements. These results confirm that hypovitaminosis D is highly prevalent in an outpatient population of rheumatology patients, affecting 86% of subjects. Despite oral supplementation (taken in 38% of our population), only a quarter of those on oral supplementation attained normal values of 25-OH vitamin D.
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Swiss medical weekly · Jan 2011
Use of brain natriuretic peptide to detect previously unknown left ventricular dysfunction in patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Up to 30% of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) simultaneously suffer from often-unrecognised chronic heart failure (HF). Their timely identification is challenging as both conditions share similar clinical presentations. ⋯ Our study confirms that BNP can help physicians in identifying heart failure in patients suffering from an acute exacerbation of COPD.