Diabetes: can we stop the time bomb?

Diabetes: can we stop the time bomb?

Type 2 diabetes is increasing in prevalence and it is estimated that three million individuals in the UK will have the disease by 2010. People with diabetes have a high risk of cardiovascular disease-coronary heart disease is more prevalent, more extensive, and more diffuse. For all cardiovascular syndromes, the mortality is virtually doubled in patients with diabetes. Large clinical trials hav...

Qualitative point-of-care human chorionic gonadotropin testing: can we defuse this ticking time bomb?

Qualitative point-of-care (POC) human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) testing is routinely performed on urine samples obtained in the Emergency Department (ED) or before surgery to rule out pregnancy and prevent fetal injury or death. Because potentially harmful treatments are allowed to proceed on the basis of a negative hCG test result, falsenegative results can have disastrous consequences. We ...

Can we stop the stroke epidemic in Pakistan?

Controversies in the antiphospholipid syndrome: can we ever stop warfarin?

Patients with antiphospholipid syndrome are at increased risk for recurrent arterial and venous thrombosis and therefore benefit from long term warfarin therapy. The optimal duration of warfarin therapy after a first venous thromboembolic event is however a matter of some controversy and many questions remain unanswered. After reviewing and analysing the available evidence, we discuss some comm...

Juvenile homicide in America: how can we stop the killing?

Juvenile homicide remains a serious problem in the U.S., despite recent decreases in the juvenile arrest rate for murder. Reflecting on her clinical experiences evaluating 90 adolescent murderers, the author identifies 15 factors that appear to have contributed to the escalation in juvenile homicide beginning in the mid-1980s. These factors can be grouped into five categories: situational facto...