Table of Contents
From the Editor
- BNP looks like a winner
Natriuretic peptides are out of the research laboratory and into the clinic and hospital ward.
Medical Grand Rounds
- How to assess and counsel the older driver
Suggesting that a patient stop driving is never easy, yet taking no action may have deadly consequences.
Im Board Review
A 52-year-old man with excessive daytime sleepinessWhat is the cause of this patient’s symptoms? A self-test.
Cancer Diagnosis and Management
- Oncologic emergencies for the internist
The complications the general internist is most likely to see and can least afford to miss.
Review
- Hereditary hemochromatosis: A common, often unrecognized, genetic disease
Although hereditary hemochromatosis is one of the most common genetic diseases affecting people of northern European descent, it is underdiagnosed.
Patient Information
Editorial
- Hereditary hemochromatosis: Molecular genetic testing issues for the clinician
A DNA test exists, but who should be tested?
Review
- The B-type natriuretic peptide assay: A rapid test for heart failure
This 15-minute test is highly sensitive and fairly specific and is useful in evaluating suspected heart failure in outpatients and in emergency care.
- How to use nesiritide in treating decompensated heart failure
Nesiritide, a recombinant formulation of BNP, is the first new parenteral drug in more than a decade to be approved for treating heart failure.
1-Minute Consult
- What is the best diagnostic approach when pheochromocytoma is suspected?
First prove there is catecholamine overproduction, then obtain an MRI to locate the tumor.
- What is the best way to determine if thrombocytopenia in a patient on multiple medications is drug-induced?
The only way is to stop the suspected drug and see if the thrombocytopenia resolves. But how to avoid stopping needed drugs that are not a problem?
