Requiem for the grand round

Requiem for the "Jaga"

Requiem for the 'vulnerable plaque'.

The concept of the so-called ‘vulnerable plaque’ has proved highly useful to guide research and thinking regarding the pathophysiology of the acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Yet, the time may have come to reconsider this construct, as knowledge has accumulated, the risk profile of the populace has shifted, and our current therapies have reshaped the disease. Over the last several decades, the q...

Requiem

"In never considering neuromuscular disease to be untreatable, Yves Rideau has found ways to ameliorate every aspect of these conditions. His work has resulted in immeasurably enhancing the quality of life of his patients". This dedication included into the Guide to Evaluation in Management of Neuromuscular Diseases, 1999, made by a coworker who studied in Poitiers from 1981 to 1983, summarizes...

Requiem for the max rule?

In tasks such as visual search and change detection, a key question is how observers integrate noisy measurements from multiple locations to make a decision. Decision rules proposed to model this process have fallen into two categories: Bayes-optimal (ideal observer) rules and ad-hoc rules. Among the latter, the maximum-of-outputs (max) rule has been the most prominent. Reviewing recent work an...

Requiem for Babinski.

With the arrival of the total body scanner and the ubiquitous ultrasound machine, I wonder if I really need to continue examining my patients? Should I discard my patella hammer and tuning fork and just bring my laptop and personal digital assistant to work? What would Charcot, Rhomberg or Babinski think of all those computer printouts revealing the answers in black and white, without having to...