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INDIANAPOLIS — Two days after her father was admitted to the hospital from his nursing home with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a woman presented to urgent care with fever, chills, chest discomfort, body aches, and mild tachycardia. The physician assistant recorded “no wheezing or rhonchi, positive mild congestion” before diagnosing an upper respiratory infection and

Tirzepatide (Mounjaro) — the new twincretin approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes — was priced by Lilly, the company that will market the drug, at a list price of $974.33 for four weekly doses regardless of dose size, a cost that adds up

“Fentanyl is like the boogeyman, it’s ubiquitous, it’s everywhere. It’ll creep in your mask, and there’s nothing you can do.” — Jon Zibbell, PhD, of RTI International in North Carolina, on a CDC video used to warn of fentanyl threat to police that may mislead officers about their risk of exposure and overdose. “Otherwise, these

A voice can carry a long distance, but in patients with heart failure (HF) a voice can also carry otherwise hidden signs useful for predicting short-term risk for worsening disease, even acute decompensation. Potentially, it only has to reach a smartphone to do it, suggests a preliminary study of a mobile app designed to alert

The first prospective study to evaluate the accuracy of a blood test for people being screened for colorectal cancer (CRC) revealed a high sensitivity and specificity. At 90% specificity, the blood assay (Guardant Health) was 100% sensitive for detecting CRC. At 95% specificity, sensitivity was 88%. The blood assay detects circulating tumor DNA from cancer

ATLANTA — Paclitaxel-coated devices for femoropopliteal artery revascularization were not associated with any excess mortality risk in the latest update from Medicare data. The risk of death from any cause, if anything, trended slightly lower (hazard ratio 0.98, 95% CI 0.96-0.99) with paclitaxel-eluting stents or -coated balloons compared with bare metal stent or percutaneous transluminal

The first-ever guidelines for interventional cardiologists using percutaneous patent foramen ovale closure recommend expanding the use of the procedure beyond the Food and Drug Administration-approved indication following PFO-associated ischemic stroke, adding clarification about the use of PFO with anticoagulation and hedging against abuse and overuse of the procedure, said the chair of the guideline writing

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. Misinformation about nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (Paxlovid, Pfizer) for treating mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in patients at high risk for severe disease is feeding misunderstanding among prescribers and patients, two experts from the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) said on Friday. They briefed reporters on

Dupilumab (Dupixent) became the first drug approved to treat eosinophilic esophagitis in adults and pediatric patients ages 12 and older weighing at least 40 kg (~88 lb), the FDA announced. Eosinophilic esophagitis is a chronic, progressive disease in which the esophagus becomes inflamed due to a buildup of eosinophils, creating difficulty swallowing and eating. Dupilumab

The FDA has opened the public comment period for the agency’s proposed ban on menthol cigarettes. Epidemiology and global health professor Rafael Meza studies data modeling in disease prevention and cancer risk. David Mendez, who studies smoking cessation and tobacco control policies, is an associate professor of health management and policy. These University of Michigan

Patients who self-report as Black or Hispanic appear more likely than White patients to experience occult hypoxemia during anesthesia, a large retrospective cohort study suggests. Dr Matthew Levin “The rate of occult hypoxemia — arterial blood oxygen saturation less than 88% despite a pulse oximetry reading greater than 92% — was significantly higher in patients

The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March 2020. But it’s only in recent days, in May 2022, that the secretive Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) has reported its first confirmed cases of the virus. While it may seem somewhat astounding that a country has managed to get so far into

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, signed off today on an advisory panel’s recommendation that children ages 5 to 11 years should receive a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine booster dose at least 5 months after completion of the primary series. The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted 11:1 Thursday

Similar to their older peers, children ages 5 to 11 should get a third dose of Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty), the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) said on Thursday. In an 11-1 vote, with one abstention, the committee agreed that children ages 5 to 11 should receive an additional dose of the mRNA

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is a struggle, especially when you’re surrounded by temptations and distractions. It may be easier at first to say that you’re switching to a healthy lifestyle or diet, but it can become more difficult during the process. You need to adapt to a new lifestyle, change your diet, and follow a

President Joe Biden took steps on Wednesday to deal with the nationwide shortage of powdered baby formula.  He used the Defense Production Act to require suppliers to direct resources to baby formula makers before other customers, the White House said in a fact sheet. “Directing firms to prioritize and allocate the production of key infant

Imagine walking into the Library of Congress, with its millions of books, and having the goal of reading them all. Impossible, right? Even if you could read every word of every work, you wouldn’t be able to retain or comprehend everything — even if you spent a lifetime trying.  Now let’s say you somehow had

[embedded content] In this video, Mikhail Varshavski, DO — who goes by “Dr. Mike” on social media — watches painful TikTok gym accidents. Following is a transcript of the video (note that errors are possible): Varshavski: We all want to go to the gym and get swole, but how many of us have had accidents

WIESBADEN, Germany — To differentiate temporary or even long-lasting symptoms, such as in the back, from one of the 100 or so “actual” rheumatologic conditions is not easy, even for specialists. “Inflammatory conditions of the connective tissue, which pervades the body, can be found throughout, in joints, muscles, vessels, organs,” explained Ulf Müller-Ladner, MD, chair

Gastroenterologists, like many other physicians, fared better financially in 2021 than during the height of the pandemic in 2020, according to the 2022 Medscape Gastroenterology Compensation Report. Gastroenterologists’ average annual income rose from $406,000 in 2020 to $453,000 in 2021 — an increase of 12% over the prior year, second only to otolaryngologists (+13%). “Compensation

Our profession often sends the message that we are invincible heroes. Here’s my vulnerable and honest admission: I lapped that up. There was something so seductive about denying pesky human requirements, like sleep, regular exercise, and time to decompress. I liked being needed more than I liked having needs. I sublimated mine under my superhero

May 17, 2022 – The FDA expanded an emergency use authorization (EUA) today allowing the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 booster shot for children between the ages of 5 to 11 who are at least 5 months out from their first vaccine series. According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 28.6%

As of May 2022, the U.S. is experiencing another uptick in the number of COVID-19 cases. High rates of infection in Europe and Asia, along with the continued emergence of new sub-variants, such as omicron BA.4 and BA.5, raise concerns that another surge could be on the way. Even though demand for COVID-19 tests greatly

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. Regardless of the severity of their initial illness, 89% of people who were hospitalized with COVID-19 had returned to their original work 2 years later, a new study shows. The burden of persistent COVID-19 symptoms appeared to improve over time, but

Four trained dogs detected people who were positive for SARS-CoV-2 with similar accuracy to PCR tests, according to a randomized trial and real-life study at a busy international airport earlier in the pandemic. In the validation trial, the dogs had 92% accuracy, with 92% sensitivity (95% CI 89-94) and 91% specificity (95% CI 89-93) compared

Reduced levels of the cholinergic-system enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) may provide another piece of the puzzle for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), preliminary data from Australian researchers suggested. A small case-control study led by Carmel T. Barrington, PhD, a sleep medicine expert and honorary research fellow at the Children”s Hospital at Westmead (Australia), found that measurements

Well over two years into the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of COVID cases continue to be recorded around the world every day. With the rise of new variants, the symptoms of COVID have also evolved. Initially, the NHS regarded a fever, cough, and loss or change in sense of smell or taste as the main

Calling the death of 75-year-old patient Charlene Murphey a “terrible, terrible mistake,” a Tennessee judge sentenced former nurse RaDonda Vaught, RN, to 3 years of supervised probation on Friday. Before sentencing, a tearful Vaught, 38, asked for leniency and apologized for the first time to the Murphey family. “I’m sorry I haven’t said this sooner.