Serum liver enzymes - should we count on them?

Fluoride varnishes: should we be using them?

Fluoride varnishes are fast becoming the standard of care as topical fluoride treatments. Fluoride varnishes still await approval from the FDA for use as caries preventive agents. In the meantime, their use for such purposes is considered "off-label." This article highlights the efficacy of fluoride varnishes as caries preventive agents and introduces some of the commercially available fluoride...

Predicted values: how should we use them?

Controversies of surviving sepsis campaign bundles: should we use them?

Sepsis accounts for a huge number of deaths in intensive care units all over the world. In 2002, Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) was launched, targeting a mortality reduction of 25% in 5 years. Treatment guidelines were developed, published in 2004 and revised in 2007. An educational program was initiated based on bundles in which 11 of those guidelines were put together to facilitate their ass...

Introns in UTRs: why we should stop ignoring them.

Although introns in 5'- and 3'-untranslated regions (UTRs) are found in many protein coding genes, rarely are they considered distinctive entities with specific functions. Indeed, mammalian transcripts with 3'-UTR introns are often assumed nonfunctional because they are subject to elimination by nonsense-mediated decay (NMD). Nonetheless, recent findings indicate that 5'- and 3'-UTR intron stat...

Cystic pancreatic tumors: should we resect all of them?

OBJECTIVE Pancreatic cystic tumors are relatively rare tumors and only 1% of them are malignant. They are often asymptomatic and detected as incidental findings through diagnostic imaging. Currently there are no universal guide lines for the correct clinical approach to pancreatic cystic lesions. Cross-sectional imaging demonstrates some typical morphological features that determine the pre-ope...