I suppose that I receive about half a dozen autoanalyser reports of serum phosphorus levels from my patients every day, but I can’t remember ever having made a clinical decision […]
Richard Lehman’s weekly review of medical journals
Ann Intern Med 15 May 2007
At first glance, the message from the abstract of this paper is startling: an in-practice intervention can reduce 5-year mortality in seriously depressed elderly patients by 40%, entirely due to […]
Plant of the Week: Clematis “Warszawska Nike
The Monument to the Heroes of Warsaw 1939-45, which now stands in front of the beautiful rebuilt Grand Theatre, is known locally as “Nike […]
JAMA 9 May 2007 Vol 297
After myocardial infarction, areas of the myocardium may remain ischaemic without producing any symptoms – this is known as silent ischaemia and is revealed by sophisticated forms of stress imaging. […]
NEJM 10 May 2007 Vol 356
In the USA, there is much debate about compulsory vaccination of girls at the age of 11 or 12 against the most oncogenic strains of human papillomavirus (HPV). Opposition comes […]
BMJ 12 May 2007 Vol 334
This is one of three important papers on aspirin to appear this week and it shows that whatever the merits of this drug in other contexts, it does not prevent […]
Lancet 12 May 2007 Vol 369
It’s not often that a professor of neurology is the corresponding author of a study on the prevention of colorectal cancer and indeed this particular part of the body was […]
Plant of the Week: Magnolia sinensis
The magnolias were among the first of flowering trees, and in many respects they remain first for the beauty and scent of their flowers. There are three species with dangling […]
Plant of the Week: Allium ursinum
This is has been the best week of the year for plants in England: wisterias, tree peonies, the incomparable Paeonia mlokosewiczii, the first bearded irises, and everywhere towering horse-chestnuts of […]
Ann Intern Med 1 May 2007 Vol 146
Giant cell arteritis is not a diagnosis we make readily in general practice, though in theory it can be made on clinical grounds without the necessity of a temporal artery […]