 |
 |
|
|
Articles 
Amalia A. van Everdingen, Johannes W.G. Jacobs, Dirk R. Siewertsz van Reesema, and Johannes W.J. Bijlsma Prednisone, 10 mg/d, provides clinical benefit, particularly in the first 6 months, and substantially inhibits progression of radiologic joint damage in patients with early active rheumatoid arthritis and no previous treatment with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. Because of their limited disease-modifying effects, glucocorticoids should be combined with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Joette M. Meyer, Nancy P. Silliman, Wenjin Wang, Nancy Y. Siepman, Jennifer E. Sugg, David Morris, Jie Zhang, Helen Bhattacharyya, Eileen C. King, and Robert J. Hopkins Clinicians should consider risk factors for antimicrobial resistance when deciding which patients should have susceptibility testing and when choosing appropriate Helicobacter pylori treatments in the empirical setting.
E. Wesley Ely, Arthur P. Wheeler, B. Taylor Thompson, Marek Ancukiewicz, Kenneth P. Steinberg, Gordon R. Bernard for the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Network Although the survival rate among mechanically ventilated patients 70 years of age or older in this study was high, these patients were twice as likely to die of acute lung injury compared with their younger counterparts, even after adjustment for covariates. Older survivors recovered from respiratory failure and achieved spontaneous breathing at the same rate as younger patients but had greater difficulty being liberated from the ventilator and being discharged from the intensive care unit.
Brief Communications
Andrea Obernosterer, Manuela Aschauer, Wolfgang Schnedl, and Rainer W. Lipp An anomaly of the inferior vena cava should be suspected if thrombosis involving the iliac veins occurs in patients 30 years of age or younger. Patients with an anomaly and thrombosis may be at higher risk for thrombotic recurrence.
Academia and Clinic
Edzard Ernst The author outlines risk–benefit profiles for the most commonly used herbal medicines. These profiles are based on systematic reviews where possible.
Reviews
Saul Benedict Freedman and Jeffrey M. Isner This review discusses the biology of angiogenesis that forms the basis for clinical studies of patients with coronary artery disease, and it summarizes information from clinical trials of therapeutic angiogenesis for myocardial ischemia.
Perspectives
Richard A. Parker The author describes interactions with families of dying patients, discusses logistic issues around dying, examines do-not-resuscitate orders, and highlights experiences with home visits.
Position Papers
American College of Physicians–American Society of Internal Medicine* This paper explores the increased scope of practice of U.S. pharmacists, presents background information on the pharmacy profession, and outlines how the medical profession can work with pharmacists to enhance patient safety and quality of care.
Editorials
Theodore Pincus, Tuulikki Sokka, and C. Michael Stein The elegantly designed and well-executed study by van Everdingen and colleagues in this issue presents a unique opportunity to evaluate benefits and risks of corticosteroid therapy for rheumatoid arthritis independent of other therapies; this clinical setting is unlikely to recur. It is commendable that these authors chose to reanalyze a therapy that has been available for more than 50 years.
Letters Osteoarthritis: New Insights
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In this Issue
Articles
Previous Issue