Clinical medicine (London, England)
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Insulin therapy is important in many patients with diabetes, but the UK National Diabetes Inpatient Audit (NaDIA) suggests that insulin therapy in hospital is poorly monitored and managed. Although most hospitals should have access to an inpatient diabetes specialist team, it is important for the non-specialist clinician to be aware of the indications for insulin therapy, types of insulin and insulin regimens, methods of adjusting insulin doses and the need for care with insulin prescribing. Here, we demystify issues around insulin therapy.
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Hyperlipidaemia is a major risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. Statins are the mainstay of therapy and new guidelines focus on the use of these agents without specific targets for low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol or non high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol. ⋯ Specialised therapies are in development for treatment of orphan disoders such as homozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia (lomitapide) or familial chylomicroaemia (alipogene tiparvovec). These novel lipid-lowering agents are likely to find uses in treating patients at the highest cardiovascular risk.
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The differential diagnosis of haematological abnormalities, such as leucocytosis, erythocytosis, thrombocytosis or indeed anaemia, is wide and disarming. Here we report on significant updates in the differential diagnosis of erythrocyosis and thrombocytosis presenting a simplified schema for the clinician. We then move to discuss significant advances in this field which have followed a series of key molecular findings, most specifically those affecting the JAK/STAT pathway.
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Although surgery is the definitive treatment for almost all hip fractures, there is evidence that outcomes such as morbidity and mortality are not determined by the type of surgery but by comorbidities and postoperative complications. A team approach, especially the involvement of an orthogeriatrician in managing medical issues, has been shown to improve surgical outcomes and should be encouraged in hospitals worldwide. ⋯ An orthogeriatrician-led unit can deal with the preoperative and complex postoperative medical, social, ethical, physical, and mental health issues that are associated with 'hip fracture syndrome', providing structured standardised evidence-based care by trained staff. This could be the model of care for the future.
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Barretts oesophagus represents the most significant risk factor for the development of oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC), although the majority of patients will not develop cancer. However, early detection of OAC and its precursors significantly improves outcome and underlines the importance of endoscopic surveillance programmes. Clearly there is a discrepancy between the small number of people who need to undergo surveillance because they are at significant progression risk, and the large number that do. ⋯ Currently such stratification is currently based on clinical findings, endoscopic diagnosis and histopathological grade. Histopathology can be imperfect and is likely to require molecular confirmation of different grades, thus molecular stratification is becoming more important in this regard and p53 immunohistochemistry is already clinically useful, with other molecular biomarkers likely to prove beneficial in the future. The hope is that non-endoscopic methods, such as the Cytosponge may be able to combine molecular biomarkers with histopathology and therefore perhaps benefit a population screening as well as a surveillance programme.