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News, opinions and meeting coverage in primary care.

AAP: Implants, IUDs Best for Teen Birth Control

Pediatricians declare IUDs and progestin implants as birth control methods of choice for teens.

Portenoy Opioid Talk Sparks Controversy

Opioid advocate Russell Portenoy's invitation to an upcoming NIH workshop is under fire.

Review: Telcare Glucose Meter

An easy-to-use glucose monitor uploads data to the cloud for ready access.

The Bottomline: Cardiac Telemetry

Can a 'wise' choice save $4.8 million in a single year?

Counterpoint: Too Young to Die

Brant S. Mittler, MD, JD, thinks Ezekiel Emanuel is a dangerous man.

Metformin and TSH: Is There a Link?

Canadian study suggests raises questions about metformin use in diabetics with underlying hypothyroidism.

Skull Size Tied to Disability Risk in MS

BOSTON -- Multiple sclerosis patients with larger intracranial volumes -- a measure of their lifetime maximal brain size -- scored better on cognition and physical function tests than those with smaller skull sizes.

Multiple Sclerosis Risk Tied to Some OCs

BOSTON -- Women using combined oral contraceptives containing norethindrone or levonorgestrel were substantially more likely to develop multiple sclerosis than those not on "The Pill."

Generic Copaxone for MS Passes Clinical Test

BOSTON -- A copycat version of the multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone, known generically as glatiramer acetate, performed similarly to the original product in a head-to-head trial, paving the way for it to win regulatory approval as a generic drug.

Novel Drug Beats Avonex for MS Efficacy; Safety Still a Worry

BOSTON -- Daclizumab HYP cut relapse rates and disability progression in multiple sclerosis patients more effectively than interferon beta-1a (Avonex) in a phase III trial, but liver toxicity with the IL-2 inhibitor reared its head again.

Shingles Risks Similar for the RA Biologics

The risk of developing herpes zoster was similar among older patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated with the various different biologic agents, a retrospective study found.

Azithromycin Linked to Belly Blockage in Infants

WASHINGTON -- Infants who received azithromycin (Zithromax) in the early days of life were at an increased risk for developing infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (IHPS), researchers reported here.

C. diff. Differs by Season and Region

WASHINGTON -鈥� March is the month when hospitals see more Clostridium difficile infections, and the Northeast is the region that leads the nation in the difficult to treat infection, researchers reported here.

Ebola Response: Slowed by a 'Perfect Storm' of Setbacks

WASHINGTON -- The world was taken by surprise by the West Africa Ebola outbreak and has been scrambling ever since to catch up, with many setbacks and only a few bright spots in the picture, international experts said at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

Vancomycin May Protect Against C. Diff Recurrence

WASHINGTON -- Prophylaxis with oral vancomycin (Vancocin) appeared to protect at-risk patients from experiencing a recurrence of Clostridium difficile infection, researchers reported here.

BCS: 'Jolie Effect' Drives Genetic Test Referrals

SAN FRANCISCO -- Referrals for genetic testing almost doubled in the first 6 months after actress Angelina Jolie said she would undergo bilateral mastectomy after testing positive for BRCA1 mutation.

ESC: Mixed Results with Steroids in TB Pericarditis

BARCELONA -- Adding steroids to anti-tuberculosis treatment for patients with tuberculous pericarditis can reduce the risk of complication and the resulting hospital admission, but adding prednisolone to tuberculosis treatment did not reduce the risk of death, researchers said here.

Urgent Care Centers Opening For Mental lllnesses

Mental health urgent care centers, also known as crisis stabilization units, are opening throughout California in response to the shortage of psychiatric beds and the increase in patients with mental illnesses showing up at hospital emergency rooms with nowhere else to go.

'Sleep Drunkenness' Common, But Rarely Unexplained

So-called confusional arousals were reported in the past year by some 15% of respondents in a population-based survey, with nearly all episodes associated with mental disorders or drugs with known sleep effects.

Zorvolex for OA Approved by FDA

The FDA today approved a new low-dose formulation of diclofenac (Zorvolex) for the treatment of osteoarthritis pain, manufacturer Iroko Pharmaceuticals announced.

Doctors' Spouses: What's Not to Like?

When it comes to domestic life for physicians, things have changed since an oversexed and gory 1971 film with Gene Hackman called "Doctors' Wives" featured as one of its taglines, "Doctors' wives have everything. Except husbands."

HypoMap: A New Way to Track Hypoglycemia

Keeping accurate tabs on hypoglycemic events is a challenge, since they often happen between clinic visits. But Joslin Diabetes Center and technology company Glooko are trying to change that.

Derms Want NP/PA Practice Limits

NPs and PAs who bill Medicaid as independent practitioners are more likely to bill for a dermatology visit than for any other office-based service -- so much so that in 2012, 55% of their Medicaid billings were for derm codes, to which dermatologists claim scope of practice violations.

New Melanomas Likely to Recur at Same Rate

CHICAGO -- A diagnosis of in situ or invasive melanoma conferred a similar long-term risk of invasive melanoma recurrence, a 40-year retrospective review showed.

Glucometer Control Test Underused in Diabetes

ORLANDO -- Control solution for ensuring the proper function of glucose meters didn't appear to be a priority among physicians, pharmacists, or patients, researchers reported here.

Truth vs. Fiction: Measuring 'The Knick'

How does John Thackery -- from Cinemax's "The Knick" -- measure up to the surgeon his character is based on, William S. Halsted?

Patients Want Diabetes-Friendly Meals on the Menu

ORLANDO -- It's easy to find heart-healthy or vegetarian-friendly meals labeled on restaurant menus, but diabetes patients are often left in the dark about options best suited to them.

CardioBuzz: Toward the $500 an Hour Physician

In this guest blog, Mark Jay Zucker, MD, JD, an attorney and transplant cardiologist at Rutgers University New Jersey Medical School in Newark, explains why he thinks it's time to talk money.

Dementia Tied to More ICD Placements

Dementia patients get more implantable cardioverter-defibrillators than expected, and even cognitively normal individuals may not understand their options about cardiac device replacement.

Vitamin D Blog: Nutrient or Hormone?

Few people view their vitamin D supplement as hormone replacement therapy, but that鈥檚 exactly what it is, experts told 麻豆传媒.

Kennedy Rebuts Critics on Thimerosal

On July 24, 麻豆传媒 published a blog post on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s upcoming book on thimerosal in vaccines. Kennedy responded in an interview Tuesday.

Minor Changes in Kidney Function With RA Drug

Slight increases in serum creatinine levels were seen in a small number of rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with tofacitinib (Xeljanz) in phase III trials, but the clinical significance of the finding is uncertain.

Smoking Worsens Psoriatic Arthritis

Patients with psoriatic arthritis who smoke have worse patient-reported disease features at baseline and don't respond as well as nonsmokers to anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) treatment, a Danish study found.

HIV Drug Cleared of Cognition Hit

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Although it has well-known psychiatric side effects, the HIV drug efavirenz (Sustiva) does not affect cognition, a researcher said here.

High Urate? Get Moving, Study Finds

Regular exercise significantly lessened the excess mortality risk associated with elevated serum uric acid, a large Taiwanese study found.

Three-Drug Cocktail Has Promise in TB

MELBOURNE, Australia -- An experimental, three-drug tuberculosis treatment regimen demonstrated bactericidal activity in patients with drug-sensitive or multidrug-resistant disease, researchers reported here.

Anti-Amyloid Drug Has Mixed Results

COPENHAGEN -- The amyloid plaque-busting drug crenezumab for Alzheimer's disease slowed cognitive decline in patients with mild baseline impairment but missed its primary endpoint in a phase II trial.

Are Your Patients Using Fake Names?

A case study in the American Journal of Medicine poses a vexing question many healthcare professionals have faced: What should you do when your patients use fraudulent names?

Tesamorelin May Help HIV Patients Shed Fat

MELBOURNE, Australia -- HIV-infected patients treated with tesamorelin, a growth hormone releasing hormone analog, achieved modest reductions in abdominal and liver fat, researchers said.

Morning Break: The B.O. Talk, No Love for Niacin

Health news and commentary from around the Web, gathered by the 麻豆传媒 staff.

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