Screening practice and misplaced priorities

PURPOSE: To estimate cancer screening coverage among a large sample of Greek individuals. METHODS: 7012 adults from 30 Hellenic areas were surveyed. Tests included: faecal occult blood test, sigmoidoscopy,chest X-ray, urine test, testicular examination,trans-rectal ultrasound, full blood count, skin examination,digital rectal examination, PSA, Pap test, mammography,clinical breast examination (CBE), self breast examination and breast ultrasound. RESULTS: Eighty-eight percent of males and 93% of females declared being interested in cancer screening; 37.8% of men and 37.9% of women had had a medical consultation for screening purpose in the previous 2 years. Less than 2%reported having received screening for colorectal cancer or skin malignancies. Screening for cervical cancer, mammography and CBE was reported by 39.6%, 22.8% and 27.9% of females respectively. Twenty percent of males reported screening for prostate cancer. CONCLUSION: The actual opportunistic screening approach presents important deficiencies with displaced priorities in test performance and a low proportion of individuals undergoing recommended tests (AU)

SESy-Europe: a multi-language database dedicated to cancer screening monitoring.

Cancer is the second cause of death in developed countries. Many efforts to educate the public to more tumor free life-style and screening practice have been therefore adopted. Considering the high costs of diagnostic procedures and educational programs a cancer prevention/screening practice monitoring system is required to reduce costs, to assist health making policy decisions, and to tailor more targeted interventions whenever indicated. We, therefore, realized a computerized data-base able to assist medical personnel in health intervention monitoring and making policy at community level with a focus on the European region. An international medical board provided the translation of medical-related contents in English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Rumanian, Spanish and Turkish. The electronic system recognizes and finds relationships between screening events or secondary prevention tests and various causes of medical examinations (symptoms, diseases, professions, presence and type of health insurance, sex, age, medical history, family history, educational level, knowledge about cancer screening and prevention, patient location, type of community, region of provenance, etc). Due to its multi-language standardized characteristics its application may bridge European countries in cancer screening monitoring policy.

Hyperpyrexia secondary to acute hypocalcemic status. Is there a role for calcitonin therapy in bone metabolism derangements due to anticonvulsant drugs?

Hypocalcemia, hyperparathyroidism, hypovitaminosis D, hypocalcitoninemia and decreased bone mass are side effects of several anticonvulsant drugs. Since calcitonin inhibits the mineral mobilization of bone and augments minerals bone content, combined therapy with calcitonin, calcium, vitamin-C and vitamin-D was administrated to a patient with severe anticonvulsant disturbances of bone metabolism. Calcitonin hypersensitivity was evident. The symptomatology, characterized by the rare hypocalcemic hyperpyrexia, regressed after calcium infusion.