Publications

BACKGROUND

Clinician's knowledge of a woman's cancer family history (CFH) and counseling about health-related behaviors (HRB) is necessary for appropriate breast cancer care.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate whether clinicians solicit CFH and counsel women on HRB; to assess relationship of well visits and patient risk perception or worry with clinician's behavior.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional population-based telephone survey.

PARTICIPANTS

Multiethnic sample; 1,700 women from San Francisco Mammography Registry with a screening mammogram in 2001-2002.

MEASUREMENTS

Multiethnic sample; 1,700 women from San Francisco Mammography Registry with a screening mammogram in 2001-2002.

PREDICTORS

well visit in prior year, self-perception of 10-year breast cancer risk, worry scale.

OUTCOMES

Patient report of clinician asking about CFH in prior year, or ever counseling about HRB in relation to breast cancer risk. Multivariate models included age, ethnicity, education, language of interview, insurance/mammography facility, well visit, ever having a breast biopsy/follow-up mammography, Gail-Model risk, Jewish heritage, and body mass index.

RESULTS

58% reported clinicians asked about CFH; 33% reported clinicians ever discussed HRB. In multivariate analysis, regardless of actual risk, perceived risk, or level of worry, having had a well visit in prior year was associated with increased odds (OR = 2.3; 95% CI 1.6, 3.3) that a clinician asked about CFH. Regardless of actual risk of breast cancer, a higher level of worry (OR = 1.9; 95% CI 1.4, 2.6) was associated with increased odds that a clinician ever discussed HRB.

CONCLUSIONS

Clinicians are missing opportunities to elicit family cancer histories and counsel about health-related behaviors and breast cancer risk. Preventive health visits offer opportunities for clinicians to address family history, risk behaviors, and patients' worries about breast cancer.

Alcoholic hepatitis is a disease with a wide range of severity. Patients with severe disease have short-term mortality rates above 35%. In these high-risk patients, pharmacologic therapy is an important adjunct to supportive medical care and has been proved to improve survival. Given the benefit of drug treatment, it is important to identify patients at risk of early mortality from alcoholic hepatitis. A number of validated scoring systems are useful for this purpose, including the Maddrey Discriminant Function, the Model of End-Stage Liver Disease score, and the Glasgow Alcoholic Hepatitis score. Patients judged by one or more of these criteria to have severe alcoholic hepatitis should be treated with corticosteroids or pentoxifylline, provided they have no contraindications for this treatment. Adequate nutrition is also critical and should be provided by tube feeding if necessary. A prompt decline in serum bilirubin indicates a favorable response to therapy. Patients who do not exhibit a reduction in serum bilirubin within 1 week are considered nonresponders and have a 6-month mortality rate of 50% or higher.

BACKGROUND

Although chronic renal insufficiency (CRI) is associated with increased cardiac and noncardiac mortality, there is limited data on the relationship between CRI and survival in patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs), particularly across a wide range of renal function.

METHODS

We studied 507 consecutive patients receiving first-time ICDs from 1993-2003 at a single center. Preimplant serum creatinine measurements were used to determine glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and stage of chronic kidney disease (CKD). The primary outcome was time to death.

RESULTS

During a mean follow-up of 4 years, all-cause mortality through completion of follow-up increased stepwise by GFR stage (I: 16%, II: 20%, III: 35%; IV: 40%; V: 50%; P < 0.001 for trend). After multivariate adjustment, CRI was independently associated with death (HR = 1.7, P = 0.02), as were a serum creatinine >or=2.0 mg/dL (HR 2.5, P = 0.003) and the presence of end-stage renal disease (HR 6.8; P < 0.001). For every 10-unit decrease in GFR, the adjusted hazard of death increased 12% (P = 0.04).

CONCLUSION

The presence of CRI prior to implant is independently associated with increased mortality in patients receiving ICDs. The risk is proportional to the degree of renal dysfunction and is apparent even when GFR is only mildly reduced. Differences in mortality are observed within the first year of implant, and patients on dialysis are at highest risk. Because randomized trials of ICDs have not included large numbers of patients with moderate or severe renal disease, our findings may have important implications in prognosis and case selection of patients who otherwise meet current indications for ICD implantation.

We describe a case of treatment failure caused by a strain of USA300 community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) with intermediate susceptibility to vancomycin and reduced susceptibility to daptomycin. The strain was isolated from the bone of a 56-year-old man with lumbar osteomyelitis after a 6-week treatment course of vancomycin for catheter-associated septic thrombophlebitis.