CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal articles from December 2005

CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal archives from December 2005

One bright idea at a time/Une idee brillante a la fois.(Editorial)
December 6, 2005... The editorial offices of CMAJ are in one of Ottawa's many inner suburban neighbourhoods, built in that era of urban development when garages started getting as big as the houses they're attached to and where, by and large, people drive rather...

Privacy issues raised over Plan B: women asked for names, addresses, sexual history.
December 6, 2005... The Canadian Pharmacists Association (CPhA) is advising its members to collect women's names, addresses, and sensitive personal information before dispensing the emergency contraceptive levonorgestrel (Plan B)--a practice that is sounding...

Stalled US plan for Plan B.(Levonorgestrel availability as nonprescription drug)
December 6, 2005... Levonorgestrel (Plan B) is available without a prescription in Canada and at least 38 other countries, but not in the US. There, improving access is a highly divisive issue that has led to the resignation of the Food and Drug Administration...

Saskatchewan MDs oppose new mandatory testing law.(Medical Association)
December 6, 2005... The Saskatchewan Medical Association is opposing a new provincial law that could force non-consensual blood tests for HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. The Mandatory Testing and Exposure (Bodily Substances) Act, which took effect...

Pandemic plan.(News @ a glance)(influenza)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... Pandemic plan: US President George Bush unveiled a US$7.1-billion pandemic influenza plan in November that will increase manufacturing capacity for vaccines and commit US$800 million to develop new vaccines, drugs and diagnostic tests, if...

Measles in Africa.(News @ a glance)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... Measles in Africa: The number of measles cases and deaths in Africa has dropped 60% since 1999 thanks to improvements in routine and supplementary immunization, says the World Health Organization. African governments and the Measles Initiative...

Connected youths.(News @ a glance)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... Connected youths: Teenagers age 12 to 15 with positive family, school, friend and community ties are healthier and have a higher sense of self-worth, according to report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information's Canadian Population...

Tobacco treaty.(News @ a glance)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... Tobacco treaty: Over 105 countries have now signed the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The global treaty was developed in 2003 to curb current and future tobacco-related deaths. Tobacco kills almost 5 million people a year. Without...

Stock shock.(News @ a glance)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... Stock shock: Executives with Guidant Corporation, currently the subject of class-action lawsuits in Canada and the US over its implantable cardiac defibrillators and pacemakers, sold more than US$100 million in company stock recently, the...

Are applicants to Canadian residency programs rejected because of their sex?(Analysis)
December 6, 2005... In 2003, three-quarters of Canadian physicians aged 45-65 were men. This imbalance is expected to correct itself over time, since the proportion of men and women entering medical school has been evenly split in recent years. (1) There is...

Transient monocular visual loss and retinal migraine.(Teaching Case Report)
December 6, 2005... The Case: A 40-year-old man was referred because of multiple events of transient monocular visual loss since adolescence. He described the events as small, translucent, grey-coloured spots similar to those seen after looking at a bright light....

'Tis the season: meningococcal disease.(Public Health)
December 6, 2005... Background and epidemiology: Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) is endemic in Canada, with 2 cases per 100 000 population per year. IMD is more common among young children ([greater than or equal to] year old); incidence declines with age,...

A case of painful elbow: What's your diagnosis?(Clinical Vistas)
December 6, 2005... The Case: A 29-year-old male who had previously been healthy discovered, upon awakening, swelling and pain over the left olecranon. Despite numerous complaints to his wife, this condition was ignored for several hours. The pain increased...

"Playboy Rabbit" sign: what's your diagnosis?(Clinical Vistas)(quiz)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... The Case: A 35-year-old, otherwise healthy woman arrived with complaints of shortness of breath and abdominal pain. Results of a physical examination, electro- and echocardiography, and chest radiography were all normal. An ultrasound scan of...

Suicidal ideation among children taking atomoxetine (Strattera).(Health and Drug Alerts)
December 6, 2005... Reason for posting: As a nonstimulant, atomoxetine is a popular new treatment for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, the US Food and Drug Administration and Health Canada recently warned of increased rates of suicidal...

Social support and education groups for single mothers: a randomized controlled trial of a community-based program.(Research)
December 6, 2005... Abstract Background: Members of families headed by single mothers are at increased risk of psychosocial disadvantage and mental health problems. We assessed the effect of a community-based program of social support and education groups for...

Efficacy of intensive multitherapy for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a randomized controlled trial.(Research)
December 6, 2005... ABSTRACT Background: National guidelines for managing diabetes set standards for care. We sought to determine whether a 1-year intensive multitherapy program resulted in greater goal attainment than usual care among patients with poorly...

Can diabetes management programs create sustained improvements in disease outcomes?
December 6, 2005... Large, well-conducted studies have demonstrated that intensive glucose control and cardiovascular risk reduction can significantly reduce the complications of diabetes. (1-5) Cardiovascular risk reduction is critical because over two-thirds of...

Smart regulation: will the government's strategy work?
December 6, 2005... The regulatory activities of Health Canada safeguard the health of Canadians by ensuring that new drug products and medical devices meet the highest standards of safety, efficacy and quality. Some industry advocates and policy-makers deem that...

Immediate angioplasty after thrombolysis: a systematic review.
December 6, 2005... ABSTRACT Background: The role of immediate transfer for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) after thrombolysis for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction remains controversial. We performed a systematic review of the related...

Advertisement woes.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
December 6, 2005... The March 29, 2005, issue of CMAJ carries a full-page advertisement for Hydromorph Contin on page 848. The advertisement states that "some patients may also experience fewer side effects than with morphine...", and this statement cites two 2...

Wait times affect kids too.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
December 6, 2005... We are pleased that Dr. Brian Postl has been named the new Federal Advisor on Wait Times. (1) Despite a mandate prescribed by the First Ministers' Health Accord of 2004 to concentrate on five key areas (heart, cancer, diagnostic imaging, joint...

Medical care delivery.(Letters)
December 6, 2005... As an admirer of the invariably high standards of CMAJ's lead editorials, I would like to record a small comment about the one on monitoring the quality of medical care delivery. (1) A hospital admission is frightening enough for patients,...

Female genital mutilation.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
December 6, 2005... Shame on CMAJ for using the term "female circumcision." (1) More than a decade ago, the UN seminar on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (Burkino Faso, 1991) recommended that the term "female genital mutilation" be...

Giant cell arteritis.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
December 6, 2005... Renatta Varma and Anil Patel remind us of the variability in presentation of giant cell arteritis (GCA).1 Another patient's story presents yet another pitfall in GCA diagnosis. A 76-year-old woman presented to the emergency department with...

Corrections.(Letters)(Correction Notice)
December 6, 2005... The DOIs for a recent commentary1 and a recent review article2 should have read 10.1503/cmaj.051291 and 10.1503/cmaj.050141, respectively. REFERENCES (1.) Knoll G, Cockfield S, Blydt-Hansen T, et al, for the Kidney Transplant Working...

What not to wear.(medical students clinical clerkship)
December 6, 2005... After years of anticipation, the golden day had arrived: the first day of my clinical clerkship. I reported to the obstetrics ward 15 minutes early, wearing my favourite shirt-and-tie ensemble and practically hopping with excitement. A...

Refrigerator blindness: selective loss of visual acuity in association with a common foraging behaviour.(Auscultations)
December 6, 2005... The Case: Three male offspring, aged 9-14 years, of one of the authors (M.B.) were observed to experience visual problems profound enough to imply functional blindness. The visual deficit was evident on almost every occasion when any one of the...

A novel method for the removal of ear cerumen.(Auscultations)
December 6, 2005... We describe the off-label use of a recreational device (the Super Soaker Max-D 5000) in the alleviation of a socially emergent ear condition. A 45-year-old male complained of a profound reduction in his left ear acuity while staying at an...

Bad moon rising: the persistent belief in lunar connections to madness.(Over and above)
December 6, 2005... I see the bad moon arising. I see trouble on the way. I see earthquakes and lightnin'. I see bad times today. --Creedence Clearwater Revival Six patients walk into the emergency department asking for opiates while 3 code blues are...

An unsuitable old age: the paradoxes of elder care.(Over and above)
December 6, 2005... There is a spectre haunting Canadians. Will we be able to get the health care we need when we need it? Many Canadian baby-boomers first encounter a system gone wrong when a parent becomes ill: they become caught in the emergency department...

Nodding and napping in medical lectures: an instructive systematic review.
December 6, 2005... ABSTRACT A comprehensive, international systematic review, spanning more than 100 years of data collection, suggests that soporific lectures at medical meetings are common, annoying and persistent. Low lights and boring material are...

The check-off: a precursor of Medicare in Canada?(Past progressive)
December 6, 2005... The public system of health care insurance that exists in Canada today was implemented nationally in 1968 and was greatly influenced by the 1964 Royal Commission on Health Services, headed by Justice Emmett Hall. When, in his final report,...

A pathologist's phrasebook.
December 6, 2005... Pathology is not generally viewed as the most sociable medical specialty. And yet the greatest tool of the pathologist is none other than the ability to communicate: the power to describe pathology in a manner so compelling that the clinician...

Emergency haiku.(In other words)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... As an emergency and urgent care psychiatrist, I find that writing haiku engenders a sense of purposeful focus in the midst of emotionally charged clinical work. I began exploring this poetic form with a "haiku kit." (1) This consisted of a book...

Lillian.(On the other side)
December 6, 2005... Lillian was 16 and from Lake Victoria in western Kenya. She came to our clinic after testing positive for HIV. The diagnosis was no big surprise: both her parents were already dead from HIV, and it was an academic question whether Lillian got...

Plus ca change ...(Book Review)
December 6, 2005... Bodily matters: the anti-vaccination movement in England, 1853-1907 Nadja Durbach Durham, NC: Duke University Press; 2005 296 pp 12 illust US$79.95 (cloth) ISBN 0-8223-3412-7 US$22.95 (paper) ISBN 0-8223-3423-2 Not long ago, CMAJ reported...

General surgery.(Poem)
December 6, 2005... I PATIENCE Two legs come off. Another's hip's gone wrong. Across the ward a chest scar's like a trench. One's knees are out of joint. The next bed's pneumoniac, tubed like an astronaut, drowns slowly in his fluids. ...

Ignorance is disease.(McMaster University clinical elective for medical students)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... Ignorance is disease. First-year medical students at McMaster University enjoy the opportunity to arrange an 8-week clinical elective in the location and specialty of their choice. This September, students donated photos taken during their...

Deaths.
December 6, 2005... Bailey, John Davidson, Etobicoke, Ont.; University of Toronto, 1947, pediatrics. Died Aug. 24, 2005, aged 83 "He is survived by his wife, Mary, his children, Dr. Kathryn, Peter, Martha, John and Bob and 6 grandchildren. Dad was a great role...

Query.
December 6, 2005... The music was loud. People were dancing in the living room, the kitchen and the bathroom, I think. Conversations were held at decibels. Every so often, someone would crank up the stereo. The party was several bottles of wine old, and the last...

Last gasp.
December 6, 2005... "Torture numbers, and they'll confess to anything."--Gregg Easterbrook Rank of doctors in a Canada-US poll of sexiest occupations: 9 Rank of nurses: 7 Rank of "event planners:" 6 Percentage of Canadians who say they like...