March 12th, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News
Tags: breath test, Diagnosis, Infectious Disease, mycobacteria, tb, Technology, tuberculosis
1 Comment »
Menssana Research, Inc is touting results from a trial testing its Breathscanner for diagnosing patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis. Menssana has developed technology that may bring breath testing for a variety of conditions, including the already FDA approved breath test for heart transplant rejection.
Some details about the technology from Menssana:
The Mycobacteria that cause pulmonary TB generate a very distinctive pattern of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) when grown in the laboratory. If these VOCs could also be detected in the breath of infected patients, it might provide a new method for detecting active infection with pulmonary TB. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
March 12th, 2010 by StaceyButterfield in Better Health Network, News
Tags: AHRQ, Carolyn Clancy, Chasm, Clinical, Comparative Effectiveness, Healthcare reform, Quality, Research
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As one would expect from such a diverse group, comparisons were a common topic at the co-located National Medical Home Summit, National Retail Clinic Summit, and Population Health and Disease Management Colloquium this week.
During an opening session, Carolyn Clancy, head of the AHRQ, updated us on some of the comparison work her agency has been doing. Last year’s stimulus bill dedicated a lot of funds ($300 mill directly, more through the Secretary of HHS) to the agency’s work on comparative effectiveness. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
March 12th, 2010 by Shadowfax in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion
Tags: Emergency Medicine, ENT, Peritonsillar Abscess, Pharyngitis, Primary Care, Sore Throat, Steroids
1 Comment »
RCentor has an interesting article on Sore Throats and Pharyngitis over at MedRants. He writes:
There is a new trend in pharyngitis that has taken hold amongst emergency physicians – the use of steroids to provide symptom relief.
I too have noticed this, and I completely agree with Dr Centor that while this is a highly effective treatment, it needs to be used with some caution. For our practice, this has been pushed by the ENTs. It has been our experience that when we see someone with a really bad sore throat or even with a peritonsillar abscess, 100% of the time the instruction from the ENTs has been to administer steroids. While the data is underwhelming (pain relief on average six hours quicker with steroids), the truth is that for a really bad case of tonsillitis, steroids work. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*
March 11th, 2010 by Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, News, Opinion
Tags: addiction, Addiction Medicine, Cigarettes, FDA, nicotine, Nicotine-Free, Quitting, Regulation, smoking, smoking cessation
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In the previous posting I discussed the possibility of FDA requiring that no tobacco products be allowed to emit Carbon Monoxide. While appealing in its simplicity, such a strategy may have problems in that it could be interpreted as a ban on a whole class (or classes) of tobacco products, which the legislation does not allow.
Another strategy might be to reduce the harm from tobacco by lowering the nicotine content/delivery of cigarettes down to the level at which they are no longer addictive. A form of this strategy was proposed in the 1990’s by leading tobacco researchers Professor Neal Benowitz, and Professor Jack Henningfield. The FDA legislation singles out nicotine as the only chemical that cannot be reduced to zero, but this allows FDA the right to reduce the nicotine delivery of tobacco products down to a level just above zero at which they would no longer be addictive. Read more »
This post, Will Nicotine-Free Cigarettes Be Mandated By The FDA?, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D..
March 11th, 2010 by David H. Gorski, M.D., Ph.D. in Announcements, Better Health Network
Tags: Bloggers, Recruiting, SBM, Science Based Medicine
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It’s been a rather eventful week here at Science-Based Medicine. I apologize that I don’t have one of my usual 4,000 word epics ready for this week. I was occupied all day Saturday at a conference at which I had to give a talk, and Dr. Tuteur’s departure produced another issue that I had to deal with. Fortunately, because Dr. Lipson is scheduled to do an extra post today, I feel less guilty about not producing my usual logorrhea. Who knows? Maybe it will be a relief to our readers too.
This confluence of events makes this a good time to take a break to take care of some blog business and make formal what I alluded to on Thursday in the comments after I announced Dr. Tuteur’s departure, namely that it’s time for us at SBM to start recruiting. Our purpose in recruiting will be to make this blog even better than it is already. We have an absolutely fantastic group of bloggers here, and it is due to their hard work and talent that SBM has become a force to be reckoned with in the medical blogosphere. Our traffic continues to grow, and reporters and even on occasion governmental officials have taken notice. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
