CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal articles from January 2006

CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal archives from January 2006

Query.(medicare analysis)
January 3, 2006... I'm sick of it. I'm not going to do it any more. I hereby declare that I am never going to defend medicare again. I've had my last argument with patients in an attempt to explain why they need to wait over a year to have hip surgery, three...

US creates blame-free adverse event reporting.
January 3, 2006... New legislation that allows clinicians to disclose mistakes anonymously is expected to increase reporting of medical errors in the United States. The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 enshrines in federal law what many...

Provinces providing more childhood vaccines.
January 3, 2006... The Public Health Agency's National Immunization Strategy has moved closer to its goal of ensuring equitable access to childhood vaccines, following a $300- million injection from Ottawa. In 2004 the federal government committed the money,...

West Nile virus up in 2005.
January 3, 2006... A surge in the number of deaths from West Nile virus in Canada last year compared with 2004 was likely due to hotter weather. As of Oct. 29, 12 deaths and 172 confirmed human cases of the virus had been reported to the Public Health Agency...

Museum in India tackles HIV/AIDS.
January 3, 2006... A municipality in western India is using a sex museum to educate people about HIV/AIDS and safe sex. The Antarang museum in Mumbai uses excerpts from India's ancient books, including the Kama Sutra and Kumarsambhabam, to describe the...

Rapid HIV test.(News @ a glance)(Brief Article)
January 3, 2006... Rapid HIV test: Health Canada has approved a rapid HIV test kit, developed by a Canadian company, that will allow doctors, emergency health care workers or hospital personnel to test patients on the spot. The INSTI HIV kit uses a finger prick...

Hep C sidestep.(News @ a glance)(Brief Article)
January 3, 2006... Hep C sidestep: It took a year, but the federal government has finally laid out the steps necessary to compensate people who contracted hepatitis C from tainted blood before 1986 and after 1990. In November 2004, Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh...

Media doctor.(Brief Article)
January 3, 2006... Media doctor: A dozen academics are tackling inaccuracy in medical news reporting at www.mediadoctor.ca. The site rates treatment stories on a 5-star scale. Two reviewers, drawn from a bank of 10 from the UBC Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences...

Drugged driving.(News @ a glance)(Brief Article)
January 3, 2006... Drugged driving: Teenagers are more likely to drive after using marijuana than after drinking alcohol, finds a new study (Accid Anal Prev 2005;37:1025-34). Researchers surveyed teenagers in Atlantic Canada and found 15.1% of students, age 16 to...

More physicians.(News @ a glance)(Brief Article)
January 3, 2006... More physicians: Ontario is investing $33 million over 3 years to train an additional 141 family physicians annually. Ontario now graduates 196 FPs annually. The money will be spent on construction ($10 million) at 4 universities, and on...

Hot flashes: what works?(sudden brief sensation of heat (associated with menopause and some mental disorders))(Brief Article)
January 3, 2006... Estrogen is the most effective treatment for hot flashes in menopause; however, some women fear its side effects and seek other treatment options. The results of a systematic review of placebocontrolled trials of non-estrogen therapies suggest...

Nasal sprays for rhinitis.(What's Up, Doc?)(Brief Article)
January 3, 2006... Researchers in Germany compared the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of and patient tolerance for 3 nasal sprays used for seasonal allergic rhinitis. A total of 123 patients used a glucocorticoid (mometasone furoate 200 [micro]g once a day), a...

Self-managing INR.(international normalized ratio)(patient manage anticoagulation by training)(Brief Article)
January 3, 2006... UK researchers randomly assigned 617 patients to either manage their own warfarin dosing or have their physician do so. All of the patients had already been taking warfarin for at least 6 months. Patients in the self-care group used a home...

Flu vaccine and the elderly.(Brief Article)
January 3, 2006... A systematic review of studies of the influenza vaccine reveals that the vaccine is more effective in elderly people living in homes than in those living in the community. For residents of homes, the vaccine reduced rates of influenza-like...

Chaperoning fungal resistance.(microbial drug resistance research)(Brief Article)
January 3, 2006... Overcoming microbial drug resistance requires not only the design of new drugs but also a better understanding of how resistance develops in the first place. New research reveals that the protein Hsp90--a molecule that acts like a chaperone to...

Cystic fibrosis lung infections detected in breath.(Bench to Bedside)(Brief Article)
January 3, 2006... The detection of lung infections in cystic fibrosis patients may be only a breath away: new research suggests that bacterial by-products can be detected in the exhaled breath of patients with cystic fibrosis. It is a finding that may lead to...

Why don't pigs get diabetes? Explanations for variations in diabetes susceptibility in human populations living in a diabetogenic environment.(Analysis)
January 3, 2006... Type 2 diabetes is growing in prevalence at different rates in different populations. In developed countries, where rates are rising relatively slowly, the age-adjusted prevalence of diabetes ranges from about 5% among people of European...

The blood bank "black box" debunked: pretransfusion testing explained.(Practice)
January 3, 2006... An ABO-incompatible red blood cell (RBC) transfusion (i.e., transfusion of RBCs with A or B antigens to a recipient with the corresponding antibodies) is fatal in 10% of cases (1) and is the main cause of death from transfusion. Errors leading...

Books received.(Practice)(medical books)
January 3, 2006... Carley S, Mackway-Jone K. Major incident medical management and support: the practical approach in the hospital. Oxford (UK): Blackwell Publishing; 2005. 154 pp. $79.95 ISBN 0-7279-1868-0 Changeux JP, Edelstein SJ. Nicotinic acetylcholine...

Challenges of tuberculosis control.(Public Health)
January 3, 2006... Mycobacterium tuberculosis infects a third of the world's population and kills 2 million people each year: there is a new infection every second. Most cases currently are located in southeast Asia, with one-third of new cases arising in this...

Foot ulcer and osteomyelitis.(Clinical vistas)
January 3, 2006... A 31-year-old man from northern Ontario had acute swelling, purpura and pain in his left lateral forefoot region, which increased progressively over 10 weeks until he became bedridden. A clinical diagnosis of gout was made, but the pain did not...

Trastuzumab (Herceptin) and HER2-positive breast cancer.(In the Literature)
January 3, 2006... Piccart-Gebhart MJ, Procter M, Leyland-Jones B, et al. Trastuzumab after adjuvant chemotherapy in HER2-positive breast cancer. N Engl J Med 2005;353:1659-72. Background: HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) is present in 15%-25%...

Systematic detection and multidisciplinary care of depression in older medical inpatients: a randomized trial.(Research)
January 3, 2006... Abstract Background: Major depression is a frequent and serious disorder in older medical inpatients. Because the condition goes undetected and untreated in most of these patients, we conducted a randomized clinical trial to evaluate the...

Shelter-based managed alcohol administration to chronically homeless people addicted to alcohol.(Research)
January 3, 2006... ABSTRACT Background: People who are homeless and chronically alcoholic have increased health problems, use of emergency services and police contact, with a low likelihood of rehabilitation. Harm reduction is a policy to decrease the...

Homelessness and harm reduction.
January 3, 2006... Every night, about 800 000 Americans and tens of thousands of Canadians sleep on the street or in homeless shelters. (1,2) Countless more stay temporarily with friends or relatives because they have no home of their own. (3) Those who...

Clinical application of a computerized system for physician order entry with clinical decision support to prevent adverse drug events in long-term care.
January 3, 2006... A simple prescribing decision can initiate unforeseen outcomes. The case described in Box 1 exemplifies how a cascade of unintended events can end in the development of a serious adverse drug event and in the elimination from a patient's...

A collective problem of caring.(global health)
January 3, 2006... See related article page 33 Without solidarity it is inevitable that we shall ignore distant indignities, violations of human rights, inequities, deprivation of freedom, undemocratic regimes, and damage to the environment. However, if a...

Diet in the management of weight loss.
January 3, 2006... ABSTRACT Obesity is an established risk factor for numerous chronic diseases, and successful treatment will have an important impact on medical resources utilization, health care costs, and patient quality of life. With over 60% of our...

Privacy issues and Plan B: the Canadian Pharmacists Association responds.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 3, 2006... We find it surprising that CMAJ, an internationally respected medical journal, feels the need to create controversy at the expense of another health profession. In the December 6 issue, CMAJ dedicated 2 full pages to present its position that...

Biopeptides and immune exclusion.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 3, 2006... Successful probiotics have the ability to adhere to the gut preventing attachment of pathogenic bacteria and help to restore immunologic quiescence. Unfortunately, Nandini Dendukuri and colleagues' systematic review (1) was unable to find...

Drug safety in Canada: 2 steps forward, 1 step back.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 3, 2006... Enhancement of patient safety has become a priority for health care practitioners and organizations. Adverse medication events remain a major concern, as drug error is a significant cause of adverse outcomes for hospital inpatients. (1)...

Corrections.(Letters)(Correction Notice)
January 3, 2006... In recent Analysis article, (1) the second figure illustrating the cases of invasive pneunomoccocal infection among adults 65 years and older was incorrect. The correct figure, Fig. 1, is included here. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] REFERENCE ...

A cautionary tale.(Madhouse : A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine)(Book Review)
January 3, 2006... Madhouse: a tragic tale of megalomania and modern medicine Andrew Scull Princeton: Yale University Press, 2005 349 pp $37.50 (cloth) ISBN: 0-300-10729-3 More than any other medical specialty, psychiatry is prey to groundless theory; I say...

The spaces of the self.(art profession)
January 3, 2006... Christopher Pratt Curated by Josee Drouin-Brisebois, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art National Gallery of Canada Ottawa, Ont. Sept. 30, 2005-Jan. 8 2006 In October 1953, Lawren P. Harris, war artist, son of the Group of Seven painter...

Vampire.(Lifeworks)(Poem)
January 3, 2006... Vampire CBC, lytes, glucose, BUN, creatinine, INR/PTT, liver function tests, cultures x 2, toxicology screen, calcium, magnesium, TSH, cardiac enzymes, blood gases. Stat please on Mr. Whatsisname in...

One thousand words.(The Left Atrium)
January 3, 2006... The belated grains of sustenance. This photograph, taken by first-year McMaster University medical student Sayali Tadwalkar during an 8-week clinical elective, was among the entries exhibited at McMaster's International Women's and Children's...

Election promises: moving beyond health care.(Editorial)
January 17, 2006... It's been barely 18 months since Canada's federal politicians were last drumming up votes. In the June 2004 election, health care was "the" issue of the campaign, the future of medicare the urgent topic of 30-second sound bites and leaders'...

Promesses electorales: au-dela des soins de sante.(Editorial)
January 17, 2006... Il y a 18 mois a peine, les politiciens federaux du Canada sollicitaient des votes. Au cours des elections de juin 2004, les soins de sante ont constitue le > de la campagne et l'avenir de l'assurance-maladie, le sujet urgent des capsules de...

Election 2006: party leaders debate the health of the nation.
January 17, 2006... Early release, published at www.cmaj.ca on Dec. 21, 2005. An abridged version of this article is published in Jan. 17, 2006 issue of CMAJ. As the January 23 federal election looms, health care is featuring prominently in the platforms and...

Ontario pharmacists drop Plan B screening form.(NEWS)
January 17, 2006... After a meeting with Ontario Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian, Ontario's pharmacists have issued new guidelines and will no longer routinely collect women's names, addresses and sensitive personal information before dispensing an emergency...

HTLV-1 virus detected in Nunavut.(NEWS)
January 17, 2006... Nunavut health officials report at least one death related to human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) and "fewer than 20" infected persons. Nunavut's Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Issac Sobol, says residents need to take this very...

News @ a glance.(Canadian Mental Health Commission)(briefs)
January 17, 2006... Mental health: The new Canadian Mental Health Commission will promote public education, coordinate fragmented policies and programs and see to it that best practices are shared across Canada. Working at arm's-length from government, the...

Neuroprotection after stroke.(BENCH TO BEDSIDE)(IKK2 has antiapoptotic effect)(Brief article)
January 17, 2006... Stroke is major cause of morbidity and death in the elderly population. Although a small proportion of patients who experience stroke arrive at hospital early enough for reperfusion therapy, for most patients the treatment options are limited....

HIV stalled by St. John's Wort.(BENCH TO BEDSIDE)(Brief article)
January 17, 2006... St. John's Wort, a widely used herbal remedy for depression, has been recently shown to contain a component that inhibits HIV replication. Although the findings are preliminary and the protein, named p27[.sup.SJ], is far from being recommended...

The evolving TNM cancer staging system: an essential component of cancer care.(ANALYSIS)(tumour, node, metastases)
January 17, 2006... Before therapy commences for any cancer patient, 3 essential factors should be known: the site of origin, the histological type (including grade) and the extent or stage of the cancer. Cancer staging is an important component, not only of...

Prevalence of class I, II and III obesity in Canada.(ANALYSIS)
January 17, 2006... Obesity places a substantial burden on public health in Canada, and people with more extreme levels of obesity are at substantially increased risk of premature death. In 2003, Health Canada issued updated guidelines for body weight...

Headache and failure to thrive.(TEACHING CASE REPORT)(craniopharyngiomas diagnosis )
January 17, 2006... The Case: An 11-year-old boy presented with a 2.5-year history of fatigue, poor appetite and growth failure (weight loss and decreased height velocity) (Fig. 1). He described episodes of lethargy and loss of appetite that were often...

Taking away the sting of malaria.(PUBLIC HEALTH)
January 17, 2006... More than 40% of the world's population is at risk of malaria, and more than a million people die of it each year. Malaria kills a child every 30 seconds: 90% of people who die from malaria are children not yet 5 years of age, and most (90%) of...

An elderly man with fever and hypodense lesions in the spleen and liver.(CLINICAL VISTAS)(Disease/Disorder overview)
January 17, 2006... An 82-year-old man with a history of hypertension and prostatectomy for benign hypertrophy was admitted with left flank pain of sudden onset. He had no bowel or bladder symptoms, and findings on physical examination were normal. Results of...

The Evra (ethinyl estradiol/norelgestromin) contraceptive patch: estrogen exposure concerns.(HEALTH AND DRUG ALERTS)
January 17, 2006... Reason for posting: The Evra contraceptive transdermal patch is appreciated by many women for its once-a-week convenience. Recently, however, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned that women using the US version of the patch, which...

Dose-response relation between sulfonylurea drugs and mortality in type 2 diabetes mellitus: a population-based cohort study.(RESEARCH)(Clinical report)
January 17, 2006... ABSTRACT Background: Over the past 30 years, the relation between use of sulfonylureas to treat type 2 diabetes and the risk of cardiovascular events has been vigorously debated. The purpose of this study was to determine if the risk of...

Inequalities in access to medical care by income in developed countries.(RESEARCH)(Survey)
January 17, 2006... ABSTRACT Background: Most of the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) aim to ensure equitable access to health care. This is often interpreted as requiring that care be available on the basis...

Do sulfonylurea drugs increase the risk of cardiac events?(COMMENTARY)(Clinical report)
January 17, 2006... Sulfonylureas have been a mainstay for maintaining glucose control in type 2 diabetes. There is ample evidence that maintaining euglycemia decreases the risk of vascular disease in patients with type 2 diabetes; however, there is also evidence...

Income and equity of access to physician services.(COMMENTARY)
January 17, 2006... Van Doorslaer and colleagues (1) have produced a timely piece for Canadian health policy discussions regarding income, access to care and the role of private insurance. They examined equity in physician utilization in 21 member countries of the...

Is the current approach to reviewing new drugs condemning the victims of rare diseases to death? A call for a national orphan drug review policy.(COMMENTARY)
January 17, 2006... Powerful financial incentives created by orphan drug legislation, particularly in the United States, (1) have resulted in the emergence of new, innovative therapies for a number of rare diseases. In Canada, approval for the commercial sale of...

Is there still a role for spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reactions?(COMMENTARY)
January 17, 2006... In an age of large, linked databases, is there still a role for a system of spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reactions? The problems associated with reports are well-known: poor quality of submitted reports; significant underreporting of...

The use of antidepressants to treat depression in children and adolescents.(REVIEW)(Drug overview)
January 17, 2006... ABSTRACT The dramatic increase over the past 10 years in the amount of available clinical research on the use of antidepressants to treat major depression in children and adolescents has substantially improved our knowledge of the safety...

Sharpening the point.(Letter to the editor)
January 17, 2006... Medical manuscripts tend toward the prosaic, but this does not mean that they should also be grammatically flawed. A review of many fine journals shows a high batting average for correct grammar but suggests room for improvement. Surely, the...

Clarifying a misunderstanding on clinical trial registry.(Letter to the editor)
January 17, 2006... The statement of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (1,2) that clinical trial registration is a requirement for publication of trial results in their journals has captured the attention of researchers around the...

Reducing procedural pain.(Letter to the editor)
January 17, 2006... We were most dismayed to read of the use of a placebo in a study of analgesia and the success rate of cannulation when a topical anesthetic was used on children requiring venipuncture. (1) It would seem unethical to expose any patient to...

Getting a grip on waiting lists.(Letter to the editor)
January 17, 2006... David Hadorn's analysis1 fails to distinguish between waiting lists for diagnostic procedures (such as MRI) and those for therapeutic procedures. Diagnostic information is often required to confirm the presence of disease and assess its...

Corrections.(Correction notice)
January 17, 2006... The DOI attached to a recent letter (1) should have been DOI:10.1503/cmaj.1050093. REFERENCE 1. Lexchin J. A hypertensive snow bird [letter]. CMAJ 2005;173(11):1357. DOI:10.1503/cmaj.051682 In a recent research paper, (1) the...

Spheres of influence.(Film review)(The sea inside)(Rory O'Shea Was Here)(Movie review)
January 17, 2006... The sea inside (Mar adentro) Directed by Alejandro Amenabar Sogecine, 2004, 125 min Screenplay by Alejandro Amenabar and Mateo Gill Starring Javier Bardem, Belen Rueda and Lola Duenas Rory O'Shea Was Here Directed by...

Psychiatry is hard.(Notes)(Brief article)(Column)
January 17, 2006... Psychiatry is hard. My patients aren't getting better. Actually, I think they're getting worse. The psychotic hears so many voices, I bet he thinks he's at the UN. The bulimic is spending half the day in the bathroom. The manic hasn't slept for...

Counter attack.(Room for a view)(nonprescription drugs supply through pharmacists)
January 17, 2006... Let's be honest: my life as a lawyer is one of unrelenting tedium. The days are long, the work is familiar, and my stash of quirky client stories is getting a bit thin. So when I was asked to do a bit of news investigation for CMAJ to see what...

Midday snack at the nutritional centre, Rhini, Eastern Cape South Africa.(One thousand words)(Brief article)
January 17, 2006... Midday snack at the nutritional centre, Rhini, Eastern Cape South Africa. This is the last of 3 photographs selected for publication in CMAJ from 6 finalists in a medical student photo contest and charity auction sponsored by McMaster...

Barton.(Frederick Joseph of Dalhousie University passes away)(Obituary)
January 17, 2006... Barton, Frederick Joseph, Dartmouth, NS; Dalhousie University, 1941, general surgery. Died Sept. 18, 2005, aged 89. "He was a past president of the Halifax Medical Society and winner of the Queen's medal." NOTICE CMAJ welcomes...

Benk.(DEATHS)(Veronique Andree Marie of Universite de Lille II passes away)(Obituary)
January 17, 2006... Benk, Veronique Andree Marie, Toronto; Universite de Lille II, 1985, radiation oncology. Died Oct. 4, 2005, aged 47.

Brett.(DEATHS)(Harry Brian Belton of University of Western Ontario )(Obituary)
January 17, 2006... Brett, Harry Brian Belton, Guelph, Ont.; University of Western Ontario, 1956. Died Sept. 17, 2005, aged 77.

Capombassis.(DEATHS)(Obituary)
January 17, 2006... Capombassis, Panayotis, Toronto; University of Athens, 1955, ophthalmology. Died Oct. 19, 2005, aged 76.

Cass.(DEATHS)(Obituary)
January 17, 2006... Cass, Elie, Toronto; University of Toronto, 1953. Died Sept. 11, 2005, aged 82.

Changfoot.(DEATHS)(Obituary)
January 17, 2006... Changfoot, George Himlee, Coquitlam, BC; University of London, 1964, internal medicine. Died Oct. 29, 2005, aged 77.

Claveau.(DEATHS)(Obituary)
January 17, 2006... Claveau, Cleophas, La Baie, Que.; Universite Laval, 1949. Died Oct. 11, 2005, aged 84.

Cleghorn.(DEATHS)(Obituary)
January 17, 2006... Cleghorn, Gordon Murray, Winnipeg; University of Manitoba, 1955, diagnostic radiology. Died Oct. 27, 2005, aged 76.

Danais.(DEATHS)(Obituary)
January 17, 2006... Danais, Slevin, Laval, Que.; Universite Laval, 1961, nuclear medicine. Died Sept. 23, 2005, aged 72.

Dansereau.(DEATHS)(Obituary)
January 17, 2006... Dansereau, Alphonse, Montreal; Universite de Montreal, 1941, obstetrics. Died Oct. 13, 2005, aged 91.

De Kenedy.(DEATHS)(Obituary)
January 17, 2006... De Kenedy, Geyza Leslie, Barrie, Ont.; Szegedi Orvostudomanyi Egyetem, 1938, urology. Died Oct. 16, 2005, aged 93.

Dickman.(DEATHS)(Obituary)
January 17, 2006... Dickman, David Lloyd, Toronto; University of Cape Town, 1964, psychiatry. Died Oct. 30, 2005, aged 64.

Gregor.(DEATHS)(Obituary)
January 17, 2006... Gregor, William McLeod, St. Catharines, Ont.; University of Glasgow, 1941. Died Oct. 5, 2005, aged 88.

Henry.(DEATHS)(Obituary)
January 17, 2006... Henry, Laurence Philip, Thornhill, Ont.; University of London, 1955. Died Oct. 12, 2005, aged 77.

Hin.(DEATHS)(Obituary)
January 17, 2006... Hin, George Davies Ng Cheng, Kirkland, Que.; Universite de Bordeaux II, 1982. Died Sept. 26, 2005, aged 54.

Hiscock.(DEATHS)(Obituary)
January 17, 2006... Hiscock, Laura Marie, Salmon Arm, BC; Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1992, family medicine. Died Nov. 1, 2005, aged 39.

Hodkinson.(DEATHS)(Obituary)
January 17, 2006... Hodkinson, Ernest Spencer, Owen Sound, Ont.; Queen's University, 1961. Died Oct. 3, 2005, aged 70.

Labelle.(DEATHS)(Obituary)
January 17, 2006... Labelle, Arthur R., Carignan, Que.; Universite de Montreal, 1951, ophthalmology. Died Sept. 30, 2005, aged 85.