Most of the patients in our practice who have been given radioiodine for hyperthyroidism have had at least one course of antithyroid drugs previously. This meta-analysis shows that such treatment has a weak blocking action on the radioiodine if given in the week before or after. I’m not sure what the clinical significance of this […]
Innumerable trials and systematic reviews over the last decade have pressed home the message that early invasive treatment is best for acute coronary syndromes. Now the best marker for cell damage in ACS is elevation of troponins, but these do not peak for half a day or more and so immediate treatment still has to […]
This small Chilean tree justifies its place in the garden all the year round, with handsome tiered branches covered in tiny variegated evergreen leaves. But as winter ends, it begins to waft clouds of vanilla scent from tiny yellow flowers which cover the undersides of the branches. This is one of the most satisfying smells […]
I’ve been outed. Not for my exotic sexual preferences, sadly, but for being a climate hypocrite. A West Coast operation called Medgadget has set up a website tracking my travels – they’ve so far documented 12 trips since 1995, including a couple of walks around the corner to give talks in London – and are […]
Two plant families have the potential to produce a continuous cycle of fragrant flowers throughout the year in Britain – the honeysuckles and the daphnes. This one is a daphne in thin disguise, and has the most wonderfully scented tassels of yellow flowers at this time of the year, […]
Another reason not to smoke: if you live in an infected population, it increases your risk of tuberculosis, according to this systematic review. Though it does not seem to increase your risk of death once you have TB. […]
It’s time to get out the sugar solution and to encourage breastfeeding during infant immunisation: as this editorial reminds us, these are simple and well-proven methods for relieving pain in babies. […]
A group of wise and experienced academics got together in a Cambridge college last year to agree basic principles for designing and evaluating complex interventions to improve health care. But no-one has yet designed an intervention to make politicians listen. The most striking complex interventions in British health care over recent years have been NHS […]
What do you know about hepatitis E? Not a thing, in my case, before I read the editorial on p.949 accompanying this vaccine trial. It’s caused by a tiny RNA virus (HEV) and is endemic in various remote parts of the world. The vaccine is based on recombinant HEV protein and the successful trial was […]
Human papilloma viruses, which are the commonest sexually transmitted pathogens, come and go from the genital tract and usually do little harm except for types 16 and 18, which cause the great majority of cervical cancers. Two thousand US women between the ages of 14 and 59 in the latest round of the National Health […]