CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal articles from July 2005

CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal archives from July 2005

Deaths/Necrologie.(physicians)(Obituary)
July 5, 2005... CMAJ welcomes obituaries submitted within 60 days of a death. Send to Kyle Rooks, kyle.rooks@cma.ca; fax 613 565-5471. Brewster, Ormond M., Guelph, Ont.; University of Glasgow (Scotland), 1941; general surgery; FRCS(Ed.); FRCSC. Died Feb....

Query.
July 5, 2005... I'd like to eradicate all the unhappy people in the hospital. I'd get a big Death Ray and blast everyone who felt it was their tightly-held responsibility to gossip, complain or snipe. To launch long and unpleasant soliloquies on how unfair it...

Money and medical education.(Letter to the Editor)
July 5, 2005... I applaud Farrah Mateen (1) for critiquing, among other things, the money-paved road to medical school. Fees for my med school applications this year exceeded $1000. If I receive interviews for any of these applications, I will dry-clean my...

Beyond mythology.(Letter to the Editor)
July 5, 2005... As quoted by Loreen Pindera, (1) Senator Michael Kirby is right that it is a "great myth of Canadian public life" that the Canada Health Act prohibits private delivery of health services. Having worked in the United Kingdom (and now...

Kappa statistic.(Letter to the Editor)
July 5, 2005... I would like to thank CMAJ and the Evidence-Based Medicine Teaching Tips Working Group for the teaching tips series, which is wonderfully useful to those of us who are teaching these basic concepts to residents and other physicians. Part 3 in...

More on India's HIV-1 epidemic.(Letter to the Editor)
July 5, 2005... Paul Arora and colleagues, (1) in their overview of the HIV epidemic in India, appropriately identify known risk groups and possible contributors to the problem, focusing on heterosexual sex, specifically involving commercial sex workers....

Correction.(Correction Notice)
July 5, 2005... In the third instalment of our series about evidence-based medicine, (1) the source of the qualitative classification of kappa shown in Table 1 was incorrectly cited. The correct reference is Sackett DL, Haynes RB, Guyatt GH, Tugwell P....

Problem gambling "like a new disease".
July 5, 2005... A new study on gambling draws a correlation between problem gambling and the number of permanent casinos and video lottery terminals (VLTs) in a province. The authors of the first National Survey of Gambling Problems in Canada [Can J...

Pressure mounts to expand screening of US newborns.(Pediatric Screening)
July 5, 2005... A US health advisory task force is recommending that all children born in American hospitals be screened for a standard range of 29 genetic diseases--a policy that would put an end to what some call "newborn roulette." Currently, each...

Canada lags on newborn screening.(newborn infants medical examination)
July 5, 2005... As the US government prepares to recommend national core newborn screening for 29 conditions and disorders, testing in Canada varies widely. Saskatchewan is the only jurisdiction that tests for 29 conditions, while Ontario and New...

Help wanted: McGill's dean of medicine.(McGill University's recruitments)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2005... After 18 months of unsuccessful efforts to recruit a new Dean of Medicine, McGill University is striking a new advisory committee to help with the search. In a memo to the university community, Interim Provost Anthony Masi stresses that...

Tainted blood case.(News @ a glance)(Canadian Red Cross distributes blood products )(Brief Article)
July 5, 2005... Tainted blood case: The Canadian Red Cross pleaded guilty May 30 in Ontario Superior Court to a charge under the Food and Drugs Act for distributing blood products infected with HIV and hepatitis C between January 1983 and May 1990. The...

Organs for Iraqis.(News @ a glance)(Bruce Gorcyca of Veteran Organ Donors International's services)
July 5, 2005... Organs for Iraqis: A group of veterans is urging people to donate kidneys, livers, bone marrow and umbilical stem cells to Iraqi children injured or maimed in the war. Bruce Gorcyca, 50, a US Coast Guard veteran living in Mississauga, Ont.,...

MSF arrests.(News @ a glance)(Two Medecins Sans FrontiSres)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2005... MSF arrests: Two Medecins Sans FrontiSres (MSF) workers in Sudan were arrested in late May and charged with crimes against the state, publishing false reports, spying and undermining the Sudanese society. MSF's head of mission, Paul Foreman...

Viagra's downside?(complications and side effects)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2005... Viagra's downside?: Health Canada is investigating reports of sudden peripheral vision loss or a worsening of vision among users of the erectile dysfunction drug sildenafil (Viagra, Cialis and Levitra). "We are investigating to see if there are...

Trafficking in women: the Canadian perspective.(Human Trafficking)
July 5, 2005... Trafficking in human beings is an international crime, an undesirable by-product of globalization that generates annual profits of US$5-$7 billion. Trafficking of women for sexual exploitation is the industry's major component. In 2000, the...

How the gut expels parasites: new clues.(Science and Medicine)
July 5, 2005... Intestinal epithelium acts as a natural barrier against invading pathogens. New research on how parasites affect intestinal epithelial-cell proliferation and what controls cell proliferation may provide a basis for new treatments of...

Use of polysomnography with synchronized digital video recording to diagnose pediatric sleep breathing disorders.(Teaching Case Report)
July 5, 2005... CASE 1: A 16-year-old male student with a body mass index (BMI) of 33.2 kg/[m.sup.2] was referred for evaluation because of a 1-year history of snoring, observed apnea, nocturnal restlessness and morning headache. The patient reported usually...

Safe handling of food at home or cottage.(Public Health)
July 5, 2005... Background and epidemiology: In Canada, summertime and eating home-prepared foods, especially meats, are risk factors for contracting an enteric illness. Almost half (47%) of the 44 451 laboratory-confirmed sporadic cases of gastroenteritis...

Should women at high risk of breast cancer be screened with MRI?(In the Literature)
July 5, 2005... Leach MO, Boggis CR, Dixon AK, Easton DF, Eeles RA, Evans DG, et al; MARIBS study group. Screening with magnetic resonance imaging and mammography of a UK population at high familial risk of breast cancer: a prospective multicentre cohort study...

Scalp lesions in a 78-year-old woman.(Clinical Vistas)
July 5, 2005... A 78-year-old woman presented to the emergency department with a 6-week history of temporal headaches, scalp lesions, jaw claudication and blurred vision in her right eye. Her erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) was 20 (normal [less than or...

Serious allergic reactions following tuberculin skin tests.(Health and Drug Alerts)
July 5, 2005... Published at www.cmaj.ca on June 15, 2005. Reason for posting: Tuberculosis poses an enormous health burden worldwide, and tuberculin skin tests, which are simple and sensitive, are widely used to screen for the infection. Local...

Population rates of cardiac catheterization and yield of high-risk coronary artery disease.(Research/Recherche)
July 5, 2005... Abstract Background: The optimal population rate of cardiac catheterization is unknown. One potential way to determine it would be to examine whether there is a population rate beyond which the yield of high-risk coronary artery disease...

Impact of care at a multidisciplinary congestive heart failure clinic: a randomized trial.(Research/Recherche)
July 5, 2005... Abstract Background: Although multidisciplinary congestive heart failure clinics in the United States appear to be effective in reducing the number of hospital readmissions, it is unclear whether the same benefit is seen in countries such...

Determining optimal population rates of cardiac catheterization: a phantom alternative?
July 5, 2005... Cardiac catheterization is a key step in the diagnosis and management of coronary artery disease (CAD). Recent advances in percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) have enhanced options for the...

The state of the world's children: Canada's paltry aid contribution.(Editorial)
July 5, 2005... As we approach another G8 summit that will again attempt to focus the attention of wealthy nations on the health and development problems of the world's poor, it is difficult to avoid noticing the chasm between the Canadian political...

Multidisciplinary heart failure clinics: are they effective in Canada?(health conditions)
July 5, 2005... As in most Western countries, the burden of heart failure in Canada is increasing, primarily because of the aging of the population, but also in part because of improved survival among patients with hypertension and coronary artery disease. In...

Bordetella pertussis: the intersection of genomics and pathobiology.
July 5, 2005... Abstract THERE HAS BEEN MUCH RECENT CONCERN over an increasing incidence of pertussis despite high levels of vaccine coverage of infants. Many reports have documented that much of the increased incidence is due to infection in adolescents...

The historical present: Clio in the clinic: history in medical practice.(Book Review)
July 5, 2005... The historical present Clio in the clinic: history in medical practice Jacalyn Duffin, editor Toronto: University of Toronto Press; 2005 334 pp $35 (paper) ISBN 0-8020-3798-4 $65 (cloth) ISBN 0-8020-3854-9 The idea for this collection of...

Next to the living room.(cancer patiet visit)
July 5, 2005... I step into the room and absence fills me. It fills my eyes, my pockets, my lungs. As a doctor, come to sign the certificate of death, I only make the absence thicker. Not long ago she breathed loudly, and now she doesn't move. Her family and I...

In Lesotho.(health conditions)
July 5, 2005... I wake at 6:00 am and drag myself into the orange glow of a southern African sunrise for my morning run. I spend the entire distance--on dirt paths, through open fields, dodging cows, under the shadow of mountains, peeking over river-etched...

Query.
July 19, 2005... I worked my first walk-in shift yesterday, as a favour for a colleague who had a family emergency. Until then, I'd taken the view that walkins exemplified the worst aspects of medicine: patients allowed only one problem, patients ushered out...

Deaths/Necrologie.(Obituary)
July 19, 2005... Arslanian, Hubert, Mont-Royal, Que.; Universite de Montreal, 1976; medecin de famille; CCFP, CCFP(EM), FCFP; ancien membre de personnelle, Hopital Maisonneuve-Rosemont; professeur, Universite de Montreal. Decede le 24 novembre 2004, a l'age de...

Knowing Nowlan.(Book Review)
July 19, 2005... Knowing Nowlan Alden Nowlan & Illness Canadian Masters Series: Volume One Edited and introduced by Shane Neilson Victoria: Frog Hollow Press, 2005 Letterpressed and hand-bound edition of 150 copies 96 pp $125 (cloth)...

Friday afternoon.(Room for a view)(Short Story)
July 19, 2005... Melanie insisted on being his last patient on Friday afternoon. The doctor leaned forward and studied her face in his windowless hospital office. Under the fluorescent lights her skin was pale. Her eyes were glassy, bloodshot, half-closed. ...

Dysmenorrhoea.(Brief Article)
July 19, 2005... A survey of our case records reveals a number of significant features. For example, dysmenorrhoea is not, as is so often thought, restricted even in large part to single women and marriage of itself is rarely a cure for it. When marriage per se...

Probiotic therapy for the prevention and treatment of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea: a systematic review.
July 19, 2005... Abstract Background: The recent increase in the number and severity of cases of nosocomial Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD) has prompted interest in the use of probiotics for the prevention and treatment of this disease. We...

New insights into the health priorities and needs of older women.(Commentary/Commentaire)
July 19, 2005... Modern medicine has recognized that paternalism serves patients less well than including them in decision-making regarding their health. In the United States, the Institute of Medicine has called for health care systems that respect patients'...

Effect of serostatus for hepatitis C virus on mortality among antiretrovirally naive HIV-positive patients.(Research/Recherche)
July 19, 2005... Abstract Background: We examined the effect of hepatitis C virus (HCV) seropositivity on risk of death among people receiving their first antiretroviral treatment (ART) for HIV infection. Methods: In British Columbia, the HIV/AIDS Drug...

Older women's health priorities and perceptions of care delivery: results of the WOW health survey.(Research/Recherche)(What Older Women Want survey)
July 19, 2005... Abstract Background: As women get older, their health priorities change. We surveyed a sample of older Canadian women to investigate what health priorities are of concern to them, their perceptions about the care delivered to address these...

Erythema nodosum as a presentation of inflammatory bowel disease.(Teaching Case Report)
July 19, 2005... THE CASE: An 11-year-old girl had a 3-week history of painful, red nodules on her lower legs and a painful, swollen right foot that precluded weight-bearing. Fever developed on the day of presentation. She was previously well without a history...

Hantavirus: 'tis the season.(PUblic Health)
July 19, 2005... Background and epidemiology: In May 2005, public health officials received laboratory confirmation from Health Canada of Quebec's first reported case of hantavirus infection, contracted by someone from Nicolet, near Trois-Rivieres. In that same...

Is CABG the preferred method of revascularization in multivessel coronary artery disease?(In the Literature)
July 19, 2005... Hannan EL, Racz MJ, Walford G, Jones RH, Ryan TJ, Bennet E, et al. Long-term outcomes of coronary-artery bypass grafting versus stent implantation. N Engl J Med2005;352(21):2174-83. Background: Clinicians still debate the merits of...

A woman whose radiographs showed subcutaneous metallic objects.(Clinical Vistas)
July 19, 2005... A 67-year-old Indian Muslim woman was admitted with mild occipital headaches preceded by neck pain. She had been experiencing the headaches and neck pain weekly for several years. The woman had a history of hypertension, diabetes mellitus,...

Supreme disagreement: the highest court affirms an empty right.(Private Health Care)
July 19, 2005... In a narrow and contentious 4:3 decision in the appeal case of Chaoulli v. Quebec (Atttorney General), the Supreme Court of Canada has struck down Quebec laws prohibiting the sale of private health insurance on the basis that they violate...

Immunotherapy made more accessible?(Science and Medicine)(monoclonal antibodies)
July 19, 2005... Monoclonal antibodies have been developed for the treatment of numerous diseases, but their manufacture is lengthy and labour intensive. A recent discovery may lead to improved production, however. In a new study, Fang and colleagues...

Adverse reaction database has minimal information.(Drug Database)(Health Canada)
July 19, 2005... Critics charge that Health Canada's recently minted Canadian Adverse Drug Reaction Information System (CADRIS) is user-unfriendly and downright uninformative, in that it doesn't allow physicians or patients to determine the likely incidence of...

UK launches inquiry into Clostridium difficile outbreak.(Nocosomial Infection)
July 19, 2005... England's Health Secretary launched a national inquiry June 14 into an outbreak of Clostridium difficile that has killed at least 25 patients and infected 565 more at 2 hospitals, and which may be linked to what Quebec officials have called an...

Quebec reports C. difficile mortality statistics.(Infectious Disease)(Brief Article)
July 19, 2005... Published at www.cmaj.ca on June 13, 2005. Quebec's Ministry of Health reports that 165 patients died after contracting Clostridium difficile infection in hospitals across the province from late August to December 2004. The province...

Supreme Court strikes ban on private health insurance.(Canadian Medicare)
July 19, 2005... Published at www.cmaj.ca on June 9, 2005. Revised on June 29, 2005. In a decision that opens the door to more privatized health care, the Supreme Court has ruled 4-3 in favour of a Quebec patient and doctor who challenged the province's ban...

Time to evaluate why high-volume hospitals have better surgical outcomes.(CIHI Reports)
July 19, 2005... Two studies from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) linking hospitals that perform larger volumes of surgery to better patient outcomes are prompting another round of soul-searching over the need for centralization of certain...

Gefitinib warning.(News @ a glance)(non-small cell lung cancer)(Brief Article)
July 19, 2005... Gefitinib warning: Access in the US to the lung cancer drug gefitinib (Iressa) has been limited to current users and those who previously found it effective. A trial comparing gefitinib with placebo in 1700 patients with non-small-cell lung...

Task force resignations.(News @ a glance)(Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care)(Brief Article)
July 19, 2005... Task force resignations: All 8 members of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care resigned June 20 due to a "lack of provincial and federal funding for the past 3 years." The 29-yearold team of clinician-researchers systematically...

Mini-med.(News @ a glance)(Brief Article)
July 19, 2005... Mini-med: A group of Halifax medical students are encouraging grade 4 students to adopt healthier lifestyles. In May, more than 170 Dalhousie University medical students in The Everest Project visited 1500 children in schools across the city...

CMAJ gold.(News @ a glance)(Brief Article)
July 19, 2005... CMAJ gold: CMAJ was awarded first prize for Best News Coverage at the Canadian Business Press' recent Kenneth R. Wilson Awards. News Editors Laura Eggertson and Barbara Sibbald won Gold for their news article, "Hospitals battling outbreaks of...

Drug sales.(News @ a glance)(Brief Article)
July 19, 2005... Drug sales: Sales of patented drugs increased by 7.9% (to total $10.9 billion) from 2003 to 2004. This rate of growth is the lowest recorded since 1997/1996. Patentees reported spending $1.17 billion on research and development in 2004, a...

MSF in Sudan.(News @ a glance)(Brief Article)
July 19, 2005... MSF in Sudan: Charges have been dropped against 2 Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) workers in Sudan. Following the release of the MSF report, The crushing burden of rape: sexual violence in Darfur. Paul Foreman and Vincent Hoedt were arrested in...

Telemedicine and rural care.(Letters/Correspondance)
July 19, 2005... Telemedicine can be a marvellous bridge between rural hospitals and tertiary centres, but the spectacular case recounted by Bruce Campana and colleagues (1) may not illustrate this point well. Telemedicine works best when it does not degrade...

A life in the country.(Letters/Correspondance)
July 19, 2005... James Rourke (1) suggests numerous strategies for increasing the enrolment of students of rural origin, in the hope of increasing the supply of rural physicians. Yet these proposals fail to address the fact that many rural students will not...

Perspectives on drug withdrawals.(Letters/Correspondance)(Letter to the Editor)
July 19, 2005... Physicians are the ultimate decisionmakers in the use of prescription drugs, but we depend on the integrity of pharmaceutical companies. We spend much of our time modifying risk factors for vascular disease, but in the past few years, 2 major...

Importance of open access for clinicians and researchers in developing countries.(Letters/Correspondance)(Letter to the Editor)
July 19, 2005... The CMAJ editorial on the topic of open access (1) is of special relevance for developing countries. I am a South Asian physician pursuing graduate studies in a Canadian institution, and the online availability of the latest medical literature...

DKA and thrombosis.(Letters/Correspondance)(Letter to the Editor)
July 19, 2005... Josephine Ho and associates (1) report an unfortunate case of a 6-year-old girl with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and thromboembolic stroke. Although the authors do a credible job of describing the diverse causes of pediatric stroke and the...

Home invasion.(Letters/Correspondance)(Letter to the Editor)
July 19, 2005... Remind me not to invite Dr. Ursus to my next "at home." (1) While he was awed by his colleagues' fancy cars, I was awed by his lack of etiquette. Since when is it acceptable to accept someone's hospitality, and then underhandedly criticize your...

Poor Dr. Ursus!(Letters/Correspondance)(Letter to the Editor)
July 19, 2005... Poor Dr. Ursus! (1) Don't you feel sorry for him, pining away because he doesn't have any really sick patients? Too bad he didn't live and practise 50 years ago when he wouldn't have had to get his kicks by sending patients for lab tests and...

Correction.(Letters/Correspondance)(Correction Notice)
July 19, 2005... The following sentence in a recent article, (1) "By our estimates, among the 149 000 Canadians who fall within the highest-risk quartile in this group, the number needed to treat with 5 years of statin therapy to prevent 1 CAD-related death...

Lament for a health care system/Elegie pour un systeme de sante.(Editorial)(Editorial)
July 19, 2005... Published at www.cmaj.ca on June 20, 2005. Revised on June 29, 2005. The Supreme Court of Canada's decision (1) to disallow Quebec's prohibition of private insurance to cover medically necessary services available through the public system...