February 1, 2014

The most common cause of diarrhea is viral gastroenteritis. Travel, comorbidities, and foodborne illness are more often associated with a bacterial infection. Treatment usually focuses on preventing and treating dehydration. Diagnostic investigation should be reserved for…

The goal of scoliosis management is identifying patients who are at risk of developing a deformity, without overtesting or overreferring patients who are unlikely to have further problems. Physical examination with the Adam's forward bend test and a scoliometer measurement can…

Although much of prenatal care is based on tradition and lacks a strong evidence base, standard components include a routine physical examination, maternal weight and blood pressure measurement, fetal heart rate auscultation, and fundal height measurement. Patients should also…

Patients with Bell palsy present with paralysis or weakness of the muscles on one side of the face. Routine testing for diabetes mellitus and Lyme disease is not recommended. Magnetic resonance imaging can be helpful to rule out cranial mass effect if there is no resolution…

Recommending and providing childhood vaccines is a vital part of a family physician's role in delivering health care to our youth. This editorial reviews several changes in childhood vaccines in the past two years.

Medical journals go to great lengths to ensure that authors disclose potential conflicts of interest. In research journals, financial ties between authors and the makers of drugs and medical devices are inevitable because more than half of research is funded by the…

Patients presented with personalized risk information are more likely to make informed decisions about screening than patients who are presented with generic risk information. Individualizing risk appears to improve the accuracy of patients' risk perception and decrease anxiety.

Is aspirin, with or without an antiemetic, an effective therapy for acute migraine headache in adults?

Survey: Majority of Americans Want Physicians Handling Their Health Care | Physician Groups Urge Congress to Extend Medicaid-Medicare Parity Program | Patients Get Early Look at Rates of MRSA and <i>C. difficile</i> Infection Among Hospitals | FDA Extends Deadline for Comments…

Photo Quiz presents readers with a clinical challenge based on a photgraph or other image.

Disparities in health and access to health care continue to persist among the American Indian/Alaska Native population, despite federal efforts to call attention to and address these disparities.1 Policy makers should direct resources to ensure that this population has…

The personal side of medicine told from the patient's perspective. The patient's story is followed by commentary from a physician and a list of resources.

Population-based screening for heart disease or valve disease with echocardiography will identify cardiac pathology in patients but does not decrease mortality, myocardial infarction risk, or stroke risk.

This meta-analysis found that the influenza vaccine is associated with a significantly lower risk of major adverse cardiovascular events in adults with coronary disease. The benefit of influenza vaccination is strongest in adults with a history of recent acute coronary syndrome…

Treating acute bronchitis with amoxicillin/clavulanate or the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen is no more effective than placebo in decreasing symptoms in general or duration of frequent cough. Treatment does, however, produce adverse effects in one in eight…

When used in addition to conventional anti-inflammatory therapy, colchicine decreases the rate of incessant or recurrent pericarditis. You would need to treat four patients with colchicine to prevent one such episode.

There are a few changes to the 2014 immunization schedule for children and adolescents, as well as the catch-up schedule, from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) that are pertinent for family physicians.

Letter

Acute diarrhea is three or more watery or loose stools per day for less than 14 days.