polydipsia.com » Medicine http://polydipsia.com i had too much to think last night... Sat, 13 Mar 2010 19:37:08 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Frigging brilliant http://polydipsia.com/2010/01/23/frigging-brilliant http://polydipsia.com/2010/01/23/frigging-brilliant#comments Sat, 23 Jan 2010 23:38:59 +0000 commander flatus http://polydipsia.com/?p=300

]]> http://polydipsia.com/2010/01/23/frigging-brilliant/feed 0 The best articles in Gastroenterology and Hepatology – 2009 edition http://polydipsia.com/2010/01/09/the-best-articles-in-gastroenterology-and-hepatology-2009-edition http://polydipsia.com/2010/01/09/the-best-articles-in-gastroenterology-and-hepatology-2009-edition#comments Sat, 09 Jan 2010 16:07:58 +0000 commander flatus http://polydipsia.com/?p=267 Plus some editorializing – as a disclaimer, I have no conflicts of interest in any of the below.

I’m only talking about clinical articles with real impact on practice. I’m not covering some new inducible transmembrane gene linked to sonic hedgehog here.

I think Hepatology is easy – and it’s a tie – but I would give it to:

1. Hézode C, Forestier N, Dusheiko G, et al. Telaprevir and peginterferon with or without ribavirin for chronic HCV infection. N. Engl. J. Med. 2009;360(18):1839-1850. Pubmed link here.

2. McHutchison JG, Everson GT, Gordon SC, et al. Telaprevir with peginterferon and ribavirin for chronic HCV genotype 1 infection. N. Engl. J. Med. 2009;360(18):1827-1838. Pubmed link here.

New drugs for Hep C that appear to work well. Could be a game-changer.

Gastroenterology is tough because (in my opinion) nobody hit it out of the park. Additionally I think Gastroenterology is becoming troubled with financial conflicts of interest and what I would call “personality worship” akin to North Korea’s “Great Leader”, we have ours in GI too – the Doug Rexes and Peter Cottons…

But I think this could have serious long-term effects on practice:

1. Shaheen NJ, Sharma P, Overholt BF, et al. Radiofrequency ablation in Barrett’s esophagus with dysplasia. N. Engl. J. Med. 2009;360(22):2277-2288. Pubmed link here.

Unfortunately, if you review the list of authors on the NEJM article – two of the authors – Wang and Sampliner are also authoring guidelines for management of Barrett’s:

1. Wang KK, Sampliner RE. Updated guidelines 2008 for the diagnosis, surveillance and therapy of Barrett’s esophagus. Am. J. Gastroenterol. 2008;103(3):788-797. Pubmed link here.

Do I think it makes the NEJM article crap? No, but I think that we should expect more from scientists.

]]> http://polydipsia.com/2010/01/09/the-best-articles-in-gastroenterology-and-hepatology-2009-edition/feed 0 On the note of racial bias – Tintin rears his head again http://polydipsia.com/2009/12/29/on-the-note-of-racial-bias-tintin-rears-his-head-again http://polydipsia.com/2009/12/29/on-the-note-of-racial-bias-tintin-rears-his-head-again#comments Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:24:33 +0000 commander flatus http://polydipsia.com/?p=251 A recent article in BMJ (yet again) ponders if Herge isn’t Satan himself, now covering whether or not he correctly depicts mental illness, psychiatry, and substance abuse. It’s laughable on so many levels, but let’s start:

  1. Societal norms change over time, this is an important lesson for children to learn (in addition to adults apparently)
  2. Cartoons are not reality
  3. See Bugs Bunny, Coyote, Muppets, etc.
  4. If you rely on (or allow) cartoon to formulate your children’s world view you deserve a swift kick in the ass
  5. Finally, I’m glad that we have this whole healthcare thing so well figured out that this is the most important thing for us to worry about.

I fully realize that the Christmas issue is usually BMJ’s light issue and perhaps that’s the only reason that they published this politically correct garbage, but come on.

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