Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder in Adults.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and panic disorder (PD) are common mental health conditions in adults that are often seen in primary care. Although there is insufficient evidence to support universal screening for PD and GAD, evaluation should be considered in patients who express recurrent, pervasive worry or present with somatic symptoms not attributed to underlying medical conditions. The GAD-7 and Patient Health Questionnaire for PD are validated screening tools that can aid in diagnosis and assessment. Anxiety disorders often present with substance use disorders, which should be treated concurrently. Effective therapies for PD and GAD include cognitive behavior therapy and anti-depressants, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors. Benzodiazepines are not recommended for first-line therapy or long-term use because of adverse reactions, risk of dependence, and higher mortality. No consistent evidence currently supports a specific prevention strategy for PD or GAD, but exercise may be beneficial.

Treatment of the Common Cold.

Acute upper respiratory tract infections are extremely common in adults and children, but only a few safe and effective treatments are available. Patients typically present with nasal congestion, rhinorrhea, sore throat, cough, general malaise, and/or low-grade fever. Informing patients about the self-limited nature of the common cold can help manage expectations, limit antibiotic use, and avoid over-the-counter purchases that may not help. Treatments with proven effectiveness for cold symptoms in adults include over-the-counter analgesics, zinc, nasal decongestants with or without antihistamines, and ipratropium for cough. Lower-quality evidence suggests that Lactobacillus casei may be beneficial in older adults. The only established safe and effective treatments for children are acetylcysteine, honey (for children one year and older), nasal saline irrigation, intranasal ipratropium, and topical application of ointment containing camphor, menthol, and eucalyptus oils. Over-the-counter cold medications should not be used in children younger than four years. Counseling patients about the importance of good hand hygiene is the best way to prevent transmission of cold viruses.

Bladder Cancer: Diagnosis and Treatment.

Bladder cancer is the sixth most prevalent malignancy in the United States and causes more than 16,000 deaths annually. The most common clinical presentation is asymptomatic hematuria, which should prompt evaluation with cystoscopy, renal function testing, and upper urinary tract imaging in adults 35 years and older and in those with irritative voiding symptoms, risk factors for bladder cancer, or gross hematuria at any age. Transurethral resection of the bladder tumor allows for definitive diagnosis, staging, and primary treatment. Non-muscle-invasive disease is treated with transurethral resection, most often followed by intravesical bacille Calmette-Guérin or intravesical chemotherapy. Bladder cancer that invades the muscle layer is typically treated with radical cystectomy and neoadjuvant chemotherapy because of higher rates of progression and recurrence. No major organization recommends screening asymptomatic adults for bladder cancer, and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force concluded that current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening.

ACR Appropriateness Criteria® Suspected Osteomyelitis, Septic Arthritis, or Soft Tissue Infection (Excluding Spine and Diabetic Foot): 2022 Update.

Musculoskeletal infections involve bones, joints, and soft tissues. These infections are a common clinical scenario in both outpatient and emergent settings. Although radiography provides baseline findings, a multimodality approach is often implemented to provide more detailed information on the extent of infection involvement and complications. MRI with intravenous contrast is excellent for the evaluation of musculoskeletal infections and is the most sensitive for diagnosing osteomyelitis. MRI, CT, and ultrasound can be useful for joint and soft tissue infections. When MRI or CT is contraindicated, bone scans and the appropriate utilization of other nuclear medicine scans can be implemented for aiding in the diagnostic imaging of infection, especially with metal hardware and arthroplasty artifacts on MRI and CT. The ACR Appropriateness Criteria are evidence-based guidelines for specific clinical conditions that are reviewed annually by a multidisciplinary expert panel. The guideline development and revision process support the systematic analysis of the medical literature from peer-reviewed journals. Established methodology principles such as Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation or GRADE are adapted to evaluate the evidence. The RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method User Manual provides the methodology to determine the appropriateness of imaging and treatment procedures for specific clinical scenarios. In those instances in which peer-reviewed literature is lacking or equivocal, experts may be the primary evidentiary source available to formulate a recommendation.

How to minimize the pain of local anesthetic administration.

Expertise in the delivery of effective local analgesia is critical to the success of in-office procedures. Here's how to optimize patient outcomes and satisfaction.

Neonatal hyperbilirubinemia: An evidence-based approach.

This review provides the latest advice on the screening and management of hyperbilirubinemia in term infants.

Foot-strike haemolysis in an ultramarathon runner.

This case report describes mild anaemia and intravascular haemolysis in an otherwise healthy 41-year-old ultramarathon runner. In long-distance endurance athletes, trace gastrointestinal bleeding and plasma volume expansion are recognised sources of mild anaemia, often found incidentally. However, repetitive forceful foot striking can lead to blood cell lysis in the feet, resulting in a mild macrocytic anaemia and intravascular haemolysis, as was demonstrated in the patient described herein. Mild anaemia in runners, often called 'runner's pseudoanaemia', is typically clinically insignificant and does not require intervention. However, an unexplained anaemia can cause undue worry for otherwise healthy patients and lead to costly further testing, providing an argument against routine testing with complete blood counts in healthy, asymptomatic patients.

Celiac Disease and Gluten Sensitivity.

Celiac disease is an immune-mediated enteropathy triggered by gluten that affects genetically predisposed individuals, typically causing intestinal symptoms and malabsorption. Diagnosis requires stepwise evaluation with anti-tissue transglutaminase IgA and histologic analysis of the small bowel. Strict adherence to a gluten-free diet is the primary treatment. Patients with symptoms thought to be related to gluten but without evidence of celiac disease are difficult to diagnose and treat. Consider first advising general nutritional improvements. If symptoms persist, involve a trained dietitian for restrictive diets and consider evaluation for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth or other treatments for irritable bowel syndrome.

Inhibition of oncogene-induced inflammatory chemokines using a farnesyltransferase inhibitor.

BACKGROUND: Farnesyltransferase inhibitors (FTI) are small molecule agents originally formulated to inhibit the oncogenic functions of Ras. Although subsequent analysis of FTI activity revealed wider effects on other pathways, the drug has been demonstrated to reduce Ras signaling by direct measurements. The purpose of the current study was to determine if FTI could be used to inhibit the inflammatory activities of a known Ras-activating human oncoprotein, RET/PTC3. RET/PTC3 is a fusion oncoprotein expressed in the thyroid epithelium of patients afflicted with thyroid autoimmune disease and/or differentiated thyroid carcinoma. Previous studies have demonstrated that RET/PTC3 signals through Ras and can provoke nuclear translocation of NFkappaB and the downstream release of pro-inflammatory mediators from thyroid follicular cells in vitro and in vivo, making it an ideal target for studies using FTI. METHODS: For the studies described here, an in vitro assay was developed to measure FTI inhibition of RET/PTC3 pro-inflammatory effects. Rat thyrocytes transfected with RET/PTC3 or vector control cDNA were co-cultured with FTI and examined for inhibition of chemokine expression and secretion measured by RT-PCR and ELISA. Immunoblot analysis was used to confirm the level at which FTI acts on RET/PTC3-expressing cells, and Annexin V/PI staining of cells was used to assess cell death in RET/PTC3-expressing cells co-cultured with FTI. RESULTS: These analyses revealed significant mRNA and protein inhibition of chemokines Ccl2 and Cxcl1 with nanomolar doses of FTI. Neither RET/PTC3 protein expression nor apoptosis were affected at any dose of FTI investigated. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that FTI may be applied as an effective inhibitor for RET/PTC3-oncogene induced pro-inflammatory mediators.