NEJM 3 Mar 2016 Vol 374 Inducing for better outcomes? 813 This useful British trial was done with the ultimate aim of reducing stillbirth, which tends to happen more in women who give birth for the first time at the age of 35 or older. The presumption is that induction at term will reduce the […]
NEJM 25 Feb 2016 Vol 374 Aspirin with your cabbage? 728 Most people who undergo coronary artery surgery take aspirin. Nobody knew whether they should carry on or stop when they had their CABG. Now we have the results of a big multinational trial: “Among patients undergoing coronary artery surgery, the administration of preoperative aspirin […]
NEJM 18 Feb 2016 Vol 374 Testosterone, lust and rage 611 When the great poet WB Yeats reached the age of 67, he noticed a certain waning of his powers and decided to visit a prostitute. It does not seem to have been a very satisfactory encounter for either party (“like trying to squeeze an […]
NEJM 11 Feb 2016 Vol 374 The decline of Alzheimer’s 523 Let’s start off on a happy note, and think about dementia. On Saturday morning the BBC News website ran a story about a new molecule tested on worms in Cambridge that could block the deterioration of brain cells. So there is hope. For the […]
NEJM 4 Feb 2016 Vol 374 Renal altruism 411 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Failing that, consider live kidney donation. In fact, the risk of you laying down your life by getting end stage failure of the other kidney is really low, especially […]
NEJM 28 Jan 2016 Vol 374 Venetoclax & CLL 311 Venetoclax is a wonderful name. I shall set up a burglar alarm company in Venice so that I can see it painted on the side of gondolas: “Protect your palazzo with VENETOCLAX.” Then, when the moony silence of the Venetian night is pierced with the […]
NEJM 21 Jan 2016 Vol 374 Share data or be damned OL The most important article this week also appears on the websites of JAMA, The BMJ, Annals of Internal Medicine, and The Lancet. It’s a proposal from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors to move towards a requirement that all published research should […]
NEJM 14 Jan 2016 Vol 374 SDM: no looking back 104 There are two interesting Perspective pieces in this week’s NEJM, both about individualizing care. The first is about shared decision making and its difficulties. The author usefully sees these through the eyes of a physician who is just beginning her struggle with the realities […]
NEJM 7 Jan 2016 Vol 374 Predicting next week’s PET 13 This week begins with a toughie. Diagnostic test studies are always tricky to analyse. What matters to you as a clinician is the downstream value of the test—how it will help your management and improve the outcomes of patients. In the PROGNOSIS study a […]
NEJM 24 & 31 Dec 2015 Vol 373 Second cancers after Hodgkin’s cure 2499 Hodgkin’s disease was one of the first cancers to move from invariably fatal to routinely curable. It happened about 50 years ago, and we have long known that the price for this was an increase in risk for later cancers, due […]