Internal Medicine Alert – January 15, 2015
January 15, 2015
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Can Answering a Phone Call Give You Cancer?
In the past decade, cellular phone usage has grown exponentially worldwide, and this use is prevalent in all age groups, including children.
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Liraglutide Preserves Beta Cell Function — Well, Kind of…
SYNOPSIS: Fifty-one patients with type 2 diabetes of 2.6 +/- 1.9 years duration and an A1C of 6.8 % completed 4 weeks of intensive insulin therapy in order to eliminate glucose toxicity which is injurious to pancreatic beta cells. Thereafter, patients were randomized to receive daily subcutaneous liraglutide or an equivalent volume of placebo. Serial assessments of beta-cell function following oral glucose tolerance testing was performed at 12 week intervals for 48 weeks. Patients using liraglutide noted a rebust enhancement of beta cell function which was sustained over the course of the trial, yet lost within two weeks after stopping treatment.
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Human Papillomavirus 9-valent Vaccine, Recombinant (Gardasil® 9)
The FDA has approved a 9-valent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. The new vaccine covers five more types of HPV than the previous vaccine and protects against 90% of the HPV strains that cause cervical cancer.1 The new vaccine is marketed by Merck as Gardasil®9.
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Internal Medicine [ALERT]
The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) gave a level B recommendation in support of annual low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) to screen for lung cancer in appropriate risk groups. The USPSTF decision was largely based on the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), a mega-trial (n = 53,454) in the United States that randomized subjects to annual LDCT or chest X-ray. The primary endpoint of the study was lung cancer mortality, and all-cause mortality was a secondary endpoint. Inclusion criteria included at least a 30-pack/year history of smoking (if stopped within 15 years), ability and willingness to complete follow-up for abnormal findings, and absence of problematic comorbidities that might otherwise compromise long-term survival.