• Articles

    Chronic Kidney Disease: Detection and Evaluation

    DAVID Y. GAITONDE, DAVID L. COOK, IAN M. RIVERA

    Chronic kidney disease can silently progress to advanced stages, and early detection is critical for initiating effective interventions. Multiple guidelines recommend at least annual screening with serum creatinine, urine albumin/creatinine ratio, and urinalysis for patients...

    Palpitations: Evaluation in the Primary Care Setting

    RANDELL K. WEXLER, ADAM PLEISTER, SUBHA V. RAMAN

    Distinguishing cardiac from noncardiac causes is important because of the risk of sudden death in those with an underlying cardiac etiology. A thorough history and physical examination, followed by targeted diagnostic testing, can distinguish cardiac conditions from other...

    Pigmentation Disorders: Diagnosis and Management

    SCOTT PLENSDORF, MARIA LIVIERATOS, NABIL DADA

    Pigmentation disorders are often benign, but they can be psychologically distressing to patients. Hyperpigmentation, which results from excess melanin production, may be caused by postinflammatory effect, melasma, solar lentigines, ephelides, and café au lait macules....

    AAFP News Now: AFP Edition

    AAFP News: AFP Edition

    Legal Opinion Commissioned to Help Family Physicians Gain Hospital Privileges | AAFP Opts to Not Endorse New AHA/ACC Hypertension Guideline | AAFP Releases Summary of Changes to 2018 Medicare Fee Schedule | New Medicare Beneficiary Numbers Coming Soon; CMS Resources Available

    Editorials: Controversies in Family Medicine

    Yes: It Offers Patients More Individualized Ways of Managing Their Health

    W. GREGORY FEERO

    Medicine has entered a transformational era in which prevention, screening, and therapy are increasingly based on a precise understanding of attributes of health and disease in the individual patient. Ignoring this puts patients at risk from avoidable, ineffective, or...

    No: It Is Barely Ready for Testing

    VINAY PRASAD, ADAM OBLEY

    Precision medicine has, at times, been vaguely defined, or used to convey the age-old concept of tailoring tests and treatments to an individual patient. To be a truly new paradigm, however, a more meaningful definition must signify the use of -omic (e.g., genomic, proteomic,...

    Putting Prevention Into Practice

    Statin Use for the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Adults

    QUYEN NGO-METZGER, RYAN GOTTFREDSON

    L.D., a 66-year-old generally healthy white man, presents for his annual physical. He has no history of cardiovascular disease (CVD); he has had consistent systolic blood pressure measurements of 140 mm Hg; he is not taking any medications; he does not smoke; he exercises...

    Photo Quiz

    Eye Changes After Recent Travel

    NATHAN KITTLE, CHRISTINA LIERMAN, ANNA DECHANT

    A man presented with fever, diarrhea, body aches, and vomiting shortly after returning from Puerto Rico.

    Practice Guidelines

    Preventive Pediatric Health Care: Updated Recommendations from the AAP

    LISA HAUK

    The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has updated its recommendations for preventive pediatric health care (Periodicity Schedule). These recommendations are intended for children receiving appropriate care from parents and with no health problems whose growth and...

    U.S. Preventive Services Task Force

    Vision Screening in Children Aged 6 Months to 5 Years: Recommendation Statement

    The USPSTF recommends vision screening at least once in all children aged 3 to 5 years to detect amblyopia or its risk factors.

    FPIN's Help Desk Answers

    Hypnosis for Surgical Pain

    PATRICIA ADAM, ANDREA LARSON

    Hypnosis provides small to moderate improvements in surgical pain and burn debridement pain in adults.

    POEMs

    Gabapentinoids for Chronic Low Back Pain: Limited Evidence, More Harm Than Benefit

    HENRY C. BARRY

    The existing data on gabapentinoids for chronic low back pain are limited in number and quality. The amount of pain reduction is low to moderate, and the rate of adverse effects is high. The few studies that assessed function found no improvement.

    Home Glucose Monitoring Offers No Benefit to Patients Not Using Insulin

    ALLEN F. SHAUGHNESSY

    Home glucose monitoring of patients in primary care does not improve A1C scores or quality of life over one year in patients who are not taking insulin.

    In Hospitalized Patients with Influenza and an Infiltrate, Adding Clarithromycin and Naproxen to Oseltamivir Improves Outcomes

    MARK H. EBELL

    Adding clarithromycin and naproxen to oseltamivir significantly lowered all-cause mortality at 30 days and at 90 days. This study was limited by its open-label design. The outcome of mortality would not be subject to observer bias, though, and the groups were balanced.

    Letters to the Editor

    Effects of Contraceptives on Weight Gain or Loss

    Acupuncture Is Ineffective for Treatment of Low Back Pain

    Information from Your Family Doctor

    Chronic Kidney Disease: What You Should Know

    The kidneys clean the blood by removing waste products, which then leave the body through the urine. The kidneys have an important role in balancing the body's fluids. They also help control blood pressure, keep bones strong, and make red blood cells.



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    All editors in a position to control content for this activity, AFP journal, are required to disclose any relevant financial relationships. View disclosures.


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