Primary Care Corner with Geoffrey Modest MD: Too low blood pressure and cognitive decline in elderly

By: Dr. Geoffrey Modest  An Italian prospective cohort study of elderly patients (>65 yo) with baseline cognitive impairment assessed the association between achieved blood pressure in those who were hypertensive and the rate of cognitive decline (see JAMA Intern Med. 2015;175(4):578-585​). Details: –172 patients followed in 2 outpatient memory clinics, mean age 79, 63.4% female, mean mini-mental status exam (MMSE) baseline score […]

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Primary Care Corner with Geoffrey Modest MD: Risks of colonoscopy in older people

By: Dr. Geoffrey Modest The medical literature has been pretty clear for the past few decades that there are significantly increased risks and decreased benefits from doing screening colonoscopy in older people. The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine just published a document highlighting this point (see here).   Details: –baseline risk of colonoscopy in general […]

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Primary Care Corner with Geoffrey Modest MD: US effort to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria

By: Dr. Geoffrey Modest The US White House just released a report (see here) outlining a 5-point 5-year plan to reduce and combat antimicrobial resistance, including plans to: –improve surveillance efforts –slow the emergence and spread of resistant bacteria –develop rapid tests to identify and characterized resistant bacteria –accelerate development of antibiotics and vaccines –improve international collaboration Specific […]

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