NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Perioperative treatment with low-dose human atrial natriuretic peptide (carperitide) improves outcomes in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) who are undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting, a Japanese team reports in the August 23rd issue of the Journal of the...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Treatment of skin and soft-tissue infections (SSTIs) in children in regions where community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) is prevalent is more likely to fail when trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole or beta-lactams are used, rather than clindamycin, a...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – An updated guideline on the management of chronic heart failure by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) addresses changes in diagnosis, pharmacologic treatment and pacing therapy, and disease monitoring since the first clinical guideline was...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Whole lung irradiation, used to treat pulmonary metastases of solid malignancies in children, can lead to increasing pulmonary problems, Tennessee-based researchers report in a July 28th on-line paper in Cancer. “Pulmonary dysfunction,” Dr. Hiroto Inaba told...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Mitotane combined with fast-acting steroidogenesis inhibitors might avoid the need for emergency bilateral adrenalectomy in patients with severe hypercortisolism, French researchers report in a July 13th on-line paper in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology &...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – For removal of uterine contents during the second trimester, dilation and evacuation (D&E) appears to prompt fewer complications and may be more cost-effective than prostaglandin labor induction, Pennsylvania-based researchers report in a July 25th on-line paper in the...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – An analysis of the sensitivity of several diagnostic tests for histoplasmosis indicates that combining antigen and antibody testing, as well as culture and pathology, is the most reliable way to detect the infection – but it’s not infallible. “Importantly,” say the...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – For best results, laparoscopic cholecystectomy in patients with acute cholecystitis should be performed within 48 hours of hospital admission, a Swiss team reports. “Delaying surgery neither reduces perioperative complications nor shortens postoperative hospital stay,” Dr....

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Most patients with differentiated thyroid cancer metastasized to bone benefit from iodine-131 therapy, with stabilization of disease and significant reduction in pain, a Chinese team reports in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism for October. Iodine-131 has...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Combining an EGFR-directed tyrosine kinase inhibitor with conventional chemotherapy does not seem to be a good treatment strategy for lung cancer. According to the results of a phase II trial, patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with tumor biomarkers...