Articles related to Internal Medicine

MDCalc.com offers this helpful tool, which calculates creatinine clearance (CrCl) according to the Cockcroft-Gault equation. The tool also allows height input, which analyzes BMI and provides a modified estimate and range.

Source: BMC Pulmonary MedicineFindings:  IPF patients who switched from one antifibrotic therapy to the alternative — whether from pirfenidone (Esbriet) to nintedanib (Ofev, Vargatef) or the other way around – had improved survival. This observation held true whether the reason for switch was disease progress or tolerance issues.Design: Multi-center retrospective cohort study; 262 patients

Often undiagnosed due to its unspecific symptoms, hereditary angioedema (HAE) is a tricky condition that causes many patients unnecessary suffering with unnecessary surgeries and invasive diagnostic/therapeutic interventions. Read on to educate yourself on some of the alarming numbers on the orphan disease.   

It was time for a change in neuroblastoma treatment planning, and this Original Report from the Journal of Clinical Oncology validates a revised classifier using the International Neuroblastoma Risk Group Staging System (INRGSS) while incorporating segmental chromosome aberrations (SCA) as an additional genomic biomarker.

In this comprehensive Journal of Clinical Oncology clinical review, the authors suggest that reexamination of breast cancer risk reduction strategies and clinical practice is needed. Prediction models, breast cancer mortality, prognostic categories, and the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) randomized trials, dietary modification (DM) trial, hormone therapy trials, estrogen, and estrogen plus progestin trials are all discussed in great detail.

Key Points: In two study cohorts, less-intensive therapies increased mortality in each of three risk groups defined by age, comorbidities, and cytogenetics. The differences became nonsignificant after accounting for physician perception of cure, emphasizing the need for a randomized trial.Design: Multicenter retrospective cohort (1,292), 6 institutions, 2008-2012; prospective cohort (695), 13 institutions, 2013 – 2017Connected Content: Fitness for Intensive Chemotherapy: A Continuing Conundrum