News in Brief: Week of Sept. 3-7

This roundup includes the following news briefs:

AAFP members and others interested in attending the AAFP Scientific Assembly, Oct. 16-20 in Philadelphia, have only one week left to save $100 on their Assembly registration. As of Sept. 12, the registration cost for the family medicine event of the year increases. Attendees at the AAFP Scientific Assembly can find answers to clinical and practice questions and earn up to up to 41 AAFP Prescribed credits. There are nearly 350 sessions scheduled, including 39 hands-on clinical procedures workshops.

Because growing evidence indicates that erectile dysfunction (ED) in younger men is a red flag for future cardiovascular disease (CVD), a multidisciplinary panel of researchers recommends that an assessment of sexual function be incorporated into cardiovascular risk evaluation for all men, regardless of their CVD status.

A report from the third Princeton Consensus Conference, which was held in November 2010, noted that in a population-based study of men ages 40-70, adding ED status to the Framingham Risk Score (FRS) in a multivariate statistical model resulted in reclassification of five of 78 low-risk patients to intermediate risk. Data from another study suggest that ED is far more predictive of coronary artery disease in men ages 40-49 than in older men, and the incidence of atherosclerotic cardiovascular events in men younger than 40 who had ED was more than seven times the incidence in a reference population representative of the general male population in Western Australia.

Thus, the researchers said, ED may be particularly useful in assessing cardiovascular risk in younger men and in minorities, whose risk may be underestimated by global risk assessments, such as the FRS. These and other findings appear in the August issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

A recent study (8-page PDF; About PDFs) on the use of rapid, oral fluid HIV home tests suggests that the kits may have a role in preventing HIV exposure in high-risk men who have sex with men (MSM).

Published in AIDS and Behavior, the study looked at the willingness of high-risk, non-HIV-infected MSM who never or rarely use condoms to use the kits, as well as whether these individuals would ask potential casual partners to take the test before having unprotected sex.

Twenty-seven ethnically diverse MSM used the kits before sexual intercourse with about 100 partners, and 10 tested individuals received HIV-antibody positive results. Seven were potential sexual partners, and three were acquaintances of the participants; six of the 10 were unaware of their status. No sexual intercourse took place after positive tests.

The tests were widely accepted, and participants reported wanting to continue to use the kits and to be able to purchase them freely (OTC). "Making (home tests) available within networks where high-risk sexual practices are common may be a cost-efficient and effective prevention method," the study authors concluded.

The United States lags behind France, England and Germany when it comes to the percentage of deaths that could have been avoided with timely and appropriate health care (i.e., amendable mortality), according to a new study by Health Affairs.

The percentage of amendable mortality fell by 18.5 percent in the United States between 1999 and 2007. But that rate of decline lagged behind Britain (36.9 percent), France (27.7 percent) and Germany (24.3 percent), says the study, which is based on data from the World Health Organization and the CDC.

"The study compares data on cause of death for amendable causes with other causes, including treatable cancer and heart disease, which the authors consider 50 percent preventable for this age group," according to a Health Affairs blog post.

The study cited key findings to explain the lower decline in United States amendable rates compared with those of the other countries.

The authors of the study also found that "many Americans failed to obtain recommended treatment for common chronic conditions."