Mon, June 19 – 10 Stories of The Day!
19 Jun, 2017 | 00:03h | UTC
Invited commentary: Remembering the basics: interventions to improve sputum collection for tuberculosis diagnosis (free)
Pooled sputum collection (sputum that was pooled from each spontaneous expectoration into the same sputum container over a period of several hours) increased the diagnostic performance of smear microscopy 1.6 times and the delivery of standardized instruction emphasizing the difference between sputum and saliva (verbally or visually) increased the odds of a positive microscopy result 1.4 times. “The effect of these simple, inexpensive strategies on diagnostic performance was similar to that of the relatively expensive GeneXpert MTB/RIF test, which, in the largest published studies, increased the odds of diagnosing tuberculosis by 1.3–1.5 times”
Invited Commentary: Trimming the Fat on Diet Recommendations for a Healthy Heart: Emphasis on Eating Patterns over Dietary Restrictions (free)
Top Ten Things to Know: Dietary Fats and Cardiovascular Disease: A Presidential Advisory from the American Heart Association (free PDF)
AHA News: Advisory: Replacing saturated fat with healthier fat could lower cardiovascular risks (free)
News release: Replacing saturated fat with healthier fat may lower cholesterol as well as drugs in context of a healthy diet (free)
AHA no longer recommends decreasing total fat, but to replace saturated fats with polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fats. “Replacing saturated fat with healthier fat in the diet lowers cardiovascular disease risk as much as cholesterol-lowering statin drugs”
Commentary: New web calculator to more accurately predict bowel cancer survival – University of Nottingham, via EurekAlert (free)
See also: QCancer-2017(colorectal, survival) risk calculator (free risk calculator based on the data)
4 – Racial Differences in the Relationship of Glucose Concentrations and Hemoglobin A1c Levels – Annals of Internal Medicine (link to abstract – $ for full-text)
Commentaries: Glycation of Hemoglobin Differs by Race – Physician’s Briefing (free) AND Hemoglobin A1c Overestimates Average Glucose in Blacks – Medscape (free registration required) AND Why a key diabetes test may work differently depending on your race – CNN (free)
In this study with 104 black patients and 104 white patients with type 1 diabetes, HbA1c values in black persons were 0.4 percentage points higher than those in white persons for a given mean glucose concentration.
5 – Free online course. Starts today! Improving the Health of Women, Children and Adolescents: from Evidence to Action – London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, via FutureLearn (free)
Press release: New Guideline Aims to Reduce Infections in Total Hip & Knee Replacement Patients (free)
Commentaries: New medication guidelines for rheumatic disease patients having joint replacement – Hospital for Special Surgery, via EurekAlert (free) AND New Guidelines Issued on Antirheumatic Drugs for Patients Undergoing Knee or Hip Replacement – Physician’s First Watch (free)
7 – What If (Almost) Every Gene Affects (Almost) Everything? – The Atlantic (free) (RT @AllenFrancesMD see Tweet)
8 – Evolocumab for Treatment of High Cholesterol: Clinical Effectiveness (free PDF) (RT @AnilMakam see Tweet 1, Tweet 2, Tweet 3 and Tweet 4)
News release: Institute for Clinical and Economic Review’s “New Evidence Update” on PCKS9 Inhibitors Highlights Lack of Mortality Benefit With Evolocumab (free)
Lack of mortality benefit in a recent large trial is highlighted in this updated review. Se more on the FOURIER trial and commentaries in our March 20th issue, see #2.
9 – Why are doctors killing themselves? – by Anne Malatt, via MJA Insight (free)
Related: Why are doctors plagued by depression and suicide? A crisis comes into focus – STAT News (free)