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Study Examines Efficacy Of Merck Drug On HIV Reservoirs
Patients who added Merck"s HIV drug Isentress to their regular daily HIV drug regimen "fared no better than those who added a placebo to the mix," as the drug failed to "reduce low-level reservoirs of HIV," in the body, according to findings presented at the International AIDS Society conference in Cape Town, South Africa, Bloomberg reports. As part of the 53-participant study led by Harvard University, researchers looked at patients whose viral loads were at undetectable levels and "were given either Isentress or a placebo for 12 weeks, then switched to the alternate agent for an additional 12 weeks. The study found no difference in low levels of the virus between the two groups, using a highly sensitive test," the article states. "The results are a setback for doctors looking for ways to seek and destroy the last vestiges of HIV, which aren"t reached by currently available drugs. Eliminating these so-called viral reservoirs may potentially cure patients, allowing them to stop taking daily medicines," according to Bloomberg (Pettypiece, 7/22).
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Electronic Coding Overestimates Prevalence Of Barrett's Esophagus
In a review of more than 2,000 patients coded for Barrett"s esophagus, electronic diagnosis overestimated the prevalence of the disease according to researchers in California. They found that only 61.9 percent of patients assigned a billing diagnosis code for Barrett"s esophagus actually had Barrett"s esophagus after a manual record review. The study evaluated the accuracy of diagnostic codes for Barrett"s esophagus by contrasting codes from electronic databases with diagnoses from a detailed medical record review. Researchers also evaluated the reproducibility of a pathologic diagnosis of Barrett"s esophagus between two pathologists and between a single pathologist on two different occasions. The study appears in the May issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE).
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Two Day Treatment Of Auditory Hallucinations By High Frequency RTMS Guided By Cerebral Imaging: A 6 Months Follow-up Study
Auditory hallucinations are one of the more disturbing features of schizophrenia, and tend to persist even when patients are treated with conventional medication treatments. Researchers from the University of Caen, France, report on a new treatment for hallucinations at the meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping. They used a technique called Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation- rTMS, which sends magnetic pulses at high frequency (20 Hz) over the brain surface. By placing the pulses guided by anatomical and functional cerebral imaging over the auditory cortex where hallucinations are generated, they found a significant reduction in auditory hallucinations that lasted for nearly 2 weeks following the treatment; 2 patients were hallucination free after 6 months. While the study is still preliminary, it suggests the potential for 20 Hz- rTMS as a new, noninvasive approach to treatment of schizophrenia that is relatively safe and free of side effects.
Cardiovascular

Washing Hands And Wearing Face Masks At Home May Help To Prevent Pandemic Flu

The recent H1N1 pandemic has highlighted the importance of identifying public health measures which can help to mitigate flu virus transmission. Researchers conducted a prospective cluster-randomized trial to test whether improved hand hygiene or surgical face masks could reduce the spread of flu within households. The researchers studied 407 people with flu-like symptoms who visited one of 45 outpatient clinics across Hong Kong within 48 hours of symptom onset, had rapid tests that confirmed infection with influenza A or B, and lived in a household with at least two other individuals, none of whom had reported flu symptoms in the preceding 14 days. The flu patients plus their household members were randomly assigned to one of three groups: control, control plus enhanced hand hygiene, and control plus enhanced hand hygiene plus face masks. The researchers found that hand hygiene and face masks appeared to be effective at preventing household transmission of the flu virus only when implemented within 36 hours of symptom onset. These findings have important public health implications, as they suggest that non-pharmaceutical interventions can reduce flu transmission if implemented early after symptom onset. Angela Collom American College of Physicians


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