CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal articles from November 2006

CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal archives from November 2006

Sheltering the homeless/abriter les sans-abri.(Column)
November 7, 2006... In August 2006, concerns were raised across the country in response to the announcement of cutbacks to the federal government's homelessness funding program. (1) Advocates for the homeless remain concerned that the current government intends to...

Liberal musings on health care.(contenders for Canadian Liberal Party leadership )
November 7, 2006... Published at www.cmaj.ca on Oct. 18, 2006. CMAJ invited the 8 contenders for the leadership of the Liberal Party--Michael Ignatieff, Bob Rae, Stephane Dion, Gerard Kennedy, Ken Dryden, Scott Brison, Joe Volpe and Martha Hall Findlay--to...

Governments' conflict of interest in treating problem gamblers.
November 7, 2006... Provincial governments may be glossing over the societal and health costs of problem gambling, including depression and suicide, because of the significant income they gain from gambling, claim several public advocacy and mental health...

More data needed on drug to delay the onset of diabetes.
November 7, 2006... A Canadian-led phase 3 trial has shown that taking 8 mg of rosiglitazone (Avandia) daily, coupled with lifestyle counselling, can reduce the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 62% in individuals at high risk. The study results made...

New health academy must be financially independent.(Canadian Academy of Health Sciences)
November 7, 2006... Financial independence is essential to the future credibility and success of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS), says the former head of the US Institute of Medicine (IOM). Modeled after the IOM and similar national bodies, the...

National Pharmaceutical Strategy's progress comes under scrutiny.
November 7, 2006... Coming later than expected, and focusing on only 5 of 9 stated priorities, the 2-year-old National Pharmaceutical Strategy (NPS) Ministerial Task Force has issued its first official progress report, mapping out directions for pharmaceutical...

Gun control urged.(Brief article)
November 7, 2006... Gun control urged: Canada needs stronger gun control laws, a ban on assault weapons and more access to mental health services for children and youth, urge the Canadian Paediatric Society and Canadian Association for Adolescent Health. The call...

Arnold vetoes bill.(Arnold Schwarzenegger, single-payer universal health insurance plan)(Brief article)
November 7, 2006... Arnold vetoes bill: After vetoing a Democratic bill that would have set up government-controlled single-payer universal health insurance plan (CMAJ 2006;175:860), California's Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has convened a team of...

Determinants of health.(Public Health Agency of Canada, National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health)(Brief article)
November 7, 2006... Determinants of health: The Public Health Agency of Canada has given more than $4 million over the next years to the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health. It will be based at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova...

Global obesity.(10th International Congress on Obesity, Sydney)(Brief article)
November 7, 2006... Global obesity: Worldwide, more than 1.5 billion adults and 10% of children are now overweight or obese, reports Paul Zimmet, chair of the 10th International Congress on Obesity in Sydney, Australia. The 2000 attendees at the September...

Health of rural Canadians lags behind urban counterparts.(Canadian Institute of Health Information)
November 7, 2006... Poverty, motor vehicle crashes, suicide, cardiovascular disease and diabetes are among a raft of contributory factors to higher death rates and shorter life expectancies for rural residents of Canada than their urban counterparts, according to...

Clara M. Davis and the wisdom of letting children choose their own diets.
November 7, 2006... In June of 1939, a petite Chicago pediatrician strode to the dais of Montreal's Windsor hotel and recounted to those attending the CMA's 70th annual meeting the results of what is likely the world's longest, most detailed and most ambitious...

An adult patient with new-onset dysphagia.
November 7, 2006... The Case: A 70-year-old man came to the emergency department with a complaint of dysphagia of acute onset. He reported a similar episode a week earlier that had resolved without treatment. His history included mild cognitive impairment, a...

A middle-aged man with persisting chest opacity and multiple bony swellings.
November 7, 2006... A 50-year-old male farmer, chronic smoker (30 pack-years), was referred to our Institute for persisting pulmonary opacity in chest radiographs taken over an 12-year period. He had chronic cough and mild dyspnea upon exertion. His stature was...

Gambling.(Canadian Public Health Association)
November 7, 2006... The public health perspective on gambling is that it is a behaviour in which people have indulged for millenia, that there are both potential benefits and harms to individuals and communities arising from gambling activities and that the...

Whole-cell and acellular pertussis vaccination programs and rates of pertussis among infants and young children.
November 7, 2006... Abstract Background: The transition from a whole-cell to a 5-component acellular pertussis vaccine provided a unique opportunity to compare the effect that each type of vaccine had on the incidence of pertussis, under routine conditions,...

Household transmission of SARS, 2003.(severe acute respiratory syndrome)
November 7, 2006... Abstract Background: In the 2003 outbreak in Toronto (in Ontario, Canada) of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), about 20% of cases resulted from household transmission. The purpose of our study was to determine characteristics...

Has the change to acellular pertussis vaccine improved or worsened pertussis control?
November 7, 2006... Between July 1997 and April 1998, all provinces and territories in Canada switched from using a combination vaccine of diphtheria and tetanus toxoids, whole-cell pertussis, inactivated poliovirus and Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate...

Protecting the protectors: indemnification agreements for REB members.(research ethics boards)
November 7, 2006... Liability risk is a serious issue for members of research ethics boards (REBs) at public institutes in Canada. Yet, few Canadian institutes indemnify their REB members. Some simply have not considered the issue; others have deliberated and...

Current trends in the evaluation and management of female urinary incontinence.(Disease/Disorder overview)
November 7, 2006... Abstract Despite its common occurrence and often seemingly obvious causes, female urinary incontinence requires a thorough and thoughtful evaluation for its proper diagnosis and treatment. With rare exceptions, urinary incontinence is the...

Osler-Weber-Rendu syndrome.(Letter to the editor)
November 7, 2006... The attached image (Fig. 1) is intended to complement the pulmonary radiography and CT imaging that accompany the report of a case of hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia described by Narinder Pal Singh and colleagues. (1) It is this...

Not safer and not cheaper?(Letter to the editor)
November 7, 2006... Roberto Palencia and associates, (1) in their analysis of the economic outcomes of the Term Breech Trial, report that planned cesarean birth is both safer and cheaper for breech fetuses than planned vaginal birth. However, the authors have...

Multitherapy for diabetes.(Letter to the editor)
November 7, 2006... Julie Menard and associates (1) used pravastatin or bezafibrate (or both) as a component of intensive multitherapy in their study of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Although pravastatin is of questionable benefit (according to the...

Looking for peace.(Contact Wounds: A War Surgeon's Education )(Book review)
November 7, 2006... Contact wounds: a war surgeon's education Jonathan Kaplan Picador, UK; 2006 278 pp $24.39 ISBN 0330492586 Ostensibly, Contact Wounds: A War Surgeon's Education is treatise on war surgery. Certainly the landscape of this exquisitely written...

The Rockefellers to the rescue.(Rockefeller Foundation Funding and Medical Education in Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax)(Book review)
November 7, 2006... Rockefeller Foundation funding and medical education in Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax Marianne P. Fedunkiw Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press; 2005 201 pp $75 (cloth) ISBN 0-7735-2897-0 Between 1920 and 1935 the...

Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, 2006.(war casualties)(Brief article)
November 7, 2006... Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, 2006: No words, even a thousand, can describe the reality of a child wounded in a war zone. A photo can only give us a glimpse. Here an injured child clutches a surgical glove made into a balloon and painted with...

From scalpel to sculpture.(Robert Tait McKenzie)(Brief article)
November 7, 2006... "On Dr. Tait McKenzie's statue I have laid flowers of remembrance at the request of mothers and fathers who can never hope to see their lad in bronze. The last I laid was at the bidding of a mother, eighty years of age, an exile in South...

The differential diagnosis of caring.(Room for a view)
November 7, 2006... Our patient lived alone, in an unkempt apartment where she hoarded and hid. She had been admitted to hospital three or four times in the past few years for psychiatric reasons. Each time on admission she had refused a physical exam. We're not...

Deaths.(Donald Lou Alexander, Eric Norman, Lionel N.)(Obituary)
November 7, 2006... Bastedo, Donald Lou Alexander, Kitchener, Ont.; University of Toronto, 1946, pediatrics. Died Sept. 1, 2006, aged 83. "Don was the beloved husband of Sally Caroline (Breithaupt), beloved father of Mary Louise of Richmond Hill, Paul Alexander...

Query.(keeping marriage)(Column)
November 7, 2006... Well, things are better. Maybe I shouldn't look too deeply into these things, but I can't help myself. It's amazing, unexpected, exhilarating: my wife and I are having fun again. We went to a concert last night and I actually held her close, we...

A year in the life of Canadian Forces Health Services/Un an dans la vie des Services de sante des Forces canadiennes.(Editorial)
November 21, 2006... November is a month of remembrance, and this year there is much to remember for our military health care personnel, and for the Canadian Forces. This past year, we have moved our small field hospital from Kabul in northern Afghanistan to...

Afghanistan war poses unique challenges for military MDs.(News)(medical practitioners)
November 21, 2006... It has, to be sure, been a long journey for Pte William Salikin since a suicide bomber drove an explosive-filled taxi into an enclosed jeep in which the 22-year-old was riding in Kandahar last January. The explosion took the life of...

Complex and unique HIV/AIDS epidemic among Aboriginal Canadians.(News)
November 21, 2006... Opportunistic infections that were the hallmark of the early days of the AIDS epidemic in Canada--PCP, MAC, CMV and meningitis--are conditions that nurse Doreen Littlejohn sees regularly at the Vancouver Native Health Society. These...

HIV prophylaxis expensive and sometimes difficult to obtain.(News)
November 21, 2006... Canadians seeking help after being accidentally exposed to HIV through a sexual encounter can meet with a range of unhelpful responses and no clear policies. Yet, if a month-long course of anti-HIV medication is initiated within 72 hours...

Fight to free the world of WMD heats up.(News)(calls for disarmament follow North Korea's test of nuclear bomb)
November 21, 2006... The Democratic People's Republic of Korea's decision to test a nuclear bomb on Oct. 9 has renewed fears of an arms race in which the currency of power will be nuclear weapons. North Korea's breach of a global moratoroium on nuclear...

Heart strategy.(News @ a glance)(policy to combat heart diseases)(Brief article)
November 21, 2006... Heart Strategy: Health minister Tony Clement says the federal government will shell out $8.4 million/2 years to develop a comprehensive pan-Canadian heart health strategy. To be crafted by a 30 member committee led by cardiologist Eldon Smith,...

Law suit.(News @ a glance)(Quebec Federation of Medical Specialists vs. Quebec)(Brief article)
November 21, 2006... Law suit: Describing themselves as "victims of an abuse of power," the 8000-strong Quebec Federation of Medical Specialists have filed a suit in Quebec Superior Court against the province for passing legislation imposing a pay settlement that...

Trends in physician supply.(Pulse)(Statistical data)
November 21, 2006... The national physician pool is aging but marginally larger than it was 5 years ago. Canadians are also increasingly more likely to be treated by a female physician, while it's more likely a graduate of a Canadian medical school will remain...

Preparing Canadian military surgeons for Afghanistan.(Analysis)
November 21, 2006... In February 2006, over 160 military personnel from the Canadian Forces Health Services were deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan. One primary task was to establish a hospital to provide surgical treatment for severely injured patients. This...

A child with an underrecognized form of developmental delay: a congenital disorder of glycosylation.(Teaching Case Report)(Disease/Disorder overview)
November 21, 2006... The case: A 7-month-old boy was referred to the pediatric clinic with developmental delay and failure to thrive. His parents were nonconsanguineous. His family history and antenatal course were unremarkable, and he was delivered vaginally...

Laboratory diagnosis of human infection with avian influenza.(Public Health)(Clinical report)
November 21, 2006... Background and epidemiology: Human infection with the Asian strain of avian influenza A (H5N1) virus has heightened our awareness of the potential for the emergence of a pandemic strain of influenza A virus. This Asian strain of H5N1 is highly...

Silent menace: septic abdominal thrombophlebitis.(Clinical Vistas)(Disease/Disorder overview)
November 21, 2006... A 69-year-old man presented with fever and chills of acute onset without any localizing complaints. He was previously generally well, but had a history of dyslipidemia and benign prostatic hypertrophy. The findings of his examination and...

Development of a triage protocol for critical care during an influenza pandemic.(Research)(Clinical report)
November 21, 2006... ABSTRACT Background: The recent outbreaks of avian influenza (H5N1) have placed a renewed emphasis on preparing for an influenza pandemic in humans. Of particular concern in this planning is the allocation of resources, such as ventilators...

Changes in illicit opioid use across Canada.(Research letter)
November 21, 2006... For almost a century, heroin addiction has been a core element of the illicit drug use problem in Canada. (1,2) According to recent data, there are an estimated 125 000 injection drug users in Canada, most of whom use heroin and cocaine. (3)...

A bibliometric analysis by geographic area of published research in several biomedical fields, 1995-2003.(Research brief)
November 21, 2006... Abstract We summarized the findings of several studies of ours to compare the quantity and quality of published research from around the world for the years 1995 to 2003. We evaluated the number of articles published and their mean journal...

Pandemic triage: the ethical challenge.(Commentary)
November 21, 2006... In their article describing a triage protocol for critical care during an influenza pandemic, Christian and associates (page 1377) (1) identify some of the medical and ethical issues that are likely to arise during a pandemic. The authors have...

The need to promote public health in the field of illicit drug use.(HIV infections)
November 21, 2006... In this issue of the CMAJ, 2 important articles shed light on policies that Canada should adopt to stem the spread of HIV infection among users of illicit drugs. In the first article, Evan Wood and colleagues of the BC Centre for Excellence in...

Summary of findings from the evaluation of a pilot medically supervised safer injecting facility.
November 21, 2006... Abstract In many cities, infectious disease and overdose epidemics are occurring among illicit injection drug users (IDUs). To reduce these concerns, Vancouver opened a supervised safer injecting facility in September 2003. Within the...

Diet and weight loss.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
November 21, 2006... Irene Strychar's recent review of diet in the management of weight loss (1) contains some incorrect and biased statements. For example, according to the author, during very-low-carbohydrate intake, "the body depletes its glycogen stores, and...

Cycling without a helmet.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
November 21, 2006... An advertisement for Atacand (candesartan cilexetil) that appeared in several issues of CMAJin 2006 shows an older man on a bicycle without a helmet and asks, "Where will his heart take him today?" Without a helmet, his heart may help him to...

War: a crucible for advances in surgery.(Annotations)(Excerpt)
November 21, 2006... Dr. Angus Campbell Derby (1914-2006) was only one year out of medical school (McGill '41) when he joined the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps in 1942. In 1943, he was posted overseas, where he served as a physician in an Advance Surgical...

One thousand words.(The Left Atrium)(Yousuf Karsh's photography)(Brief article)
November 21, 2006... "My chief joy is to photograph the great in heart, in mind, and in spirit, whether they be famous or humble."--Yousuf Karsh. In 1942, Dr. Angus Campbell Derby, a brand new physician and aspiring surgeon, joined the Canadian Armed Forces....

The placebo effect deserves our time.(The Placebo Effect and Health: Combining Science and Compassionate Care)(Book review)
November 21, 2006... The placebo effect and health: combining science & compassionate care W. Grant Thompson Prometheus Books; 2005 350 pp $23.00 ISBN 1-59102-275-4 Grant Thompson, a gastroenterologist, has written a reasoned, careful analysis of many aspects...

Wrestling with evidence-based medicine.(Notes)
November 21, 2006... Wrestlers and bodybuilders used to scare me, absolutely petrify me out of my wits, and my self-confidence evaporated forthwith. Make no mistake--I do think of myself as a big guy but my bigness is more vertical, whereas my transverse growth was...

Apparition.(Poem)
November 21, 2006... Apparition scant couple seconds that dreaded whine to stinking puff of mortar sent wherein on target right on time life's blood once more is freely spent were it I there putrefaction 'neath that cross are...

Deaths.
November 21, 2006... Fast, Bernhard, Winnipeg; University of Manitoba, 1951, internal medicine. Died Aug. 27, 2006, aged 81. Kirkwood-Hackett, Thomas James, Campbellford, Ont.; Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, 1953. Died July 28, 2006, aged 85. La,...

Query.(benefits of coffee)(Column)
November 21, 2006... I love coffee. An ode to coffee, a paean to the bean: I need you in the morning. So much so that I get Coffee Machine ready the night before, so that you'll be ready in the least amount of time possible come the AM. Let's linger with Coffee...