Stroke patients whose family members are involved in their physical recovery are more likely to recuperate quickly and gain a higher level of physical function than those who do not have relative assistance

• Researchers divided a group of stroke survivors into two study groups.
• One received routine physical therapy, while members of the other set participated in a Family Meditated Exercise intervention (FAME).
• Patients received daily therapy sessions either from their family members or outside caretakers to help improve their leg movement.
• The study results showed that survivors in the FAME group were discharged from the hospital an average of five days sooner than those who received routine care.
• Furthermore, the researchers found that FAME members exhibited better performances on a walking test than those in the other group.
• Family members who assisted in the stroke victims’ recovery also reported that they experienced little stress in their roles as caregivers.
• Instead of adding burden to the caregiver, participating in exercise actually enabled the family member to do something practical for their loved one in hospital.

For further reading log on to
http://www.drcutler.com/news/family-participation-enhances-post-stroke-exercise-therapy-800447005/

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have released updated guidelines for the prevention of catheter-related bloodstream infections.

• The guidelines are aimed at health care providers who insert intravascular catheters and those who are responsible for surveillance and control of infections in the hospital, in outpatient settings, and in home health care settings.
• They focus on five major areas
  1. Educating and training health care providers.
  2. Using maximal sterile barrier precautions during central venous catheter insertion.
  3. Avoiding routine replacement of central venous catheters.
  4. Cleaning skin with chlorhexidine; avoiding routine replacement of central venous catheters.
  5. Using antiseptic/antibiotic-impregnated short-term central venous catheters and chlorhexidine-impregnated sponge dressings if infection rates are not decreasing through other strategies. Read the rest of this entry »

• Younger children are at higher risk for injury related to organized sports, so they may need modified guidelines for playing in certain sports to reduce the chance of injury.
• Guidelines such as no headfirst sliding in baseball and no bodychecking in hockey are examples of modifications to reduce injury among younger players.
• Other safety guidelines can include smaller playing fields, shorter game times, and matching opponents by weight rather than age.
• Parent participation in their children’s sports is important, but too much emphasis on competition or performance may rob children of the opportunity to learn that sports and exercise can be fun.
  Read the rest of this entry »

A combination of 4 blood proteins may serve as biomarkers to help clinicians distinguish patients with asthma from those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

• Better diagnosis could lead to improved management of these conditions and a better understanding of their pathogenesis
• The biomarkers were identified through proteomics, which can simultaneously identify multiple proteins associated with different disease states and potentially discover novel proteins not previously associated with particular disease states.
• To conduct their study, the researchers first collected blood samples from 3 clinical groups: 21 patients with asthma, 5 patients with COPD, and 17 healthy control individuals.
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In the ideal world, your specialty picks you. If you are paying attention, you will be pulled towards the specialty that fits you best. If the pull towards a particular specialty is very strong, you really shouldn’t ignore it.  Some of the most miserable doctors picked their specialty based on income, “lifestyle” or other “practical” issues…and then were miserable.

• The “pull” towards a specialty can be really strong or not so strong. So does one figure out what one should do if one doesn’t have a strong calling for a specific field of medicine?
• Most of us are either “surgical” or “medical” in the way we view our professional world.  It’s like the Yin-Yang symbol – the two halves that make up the whole.
• There is some “medicine” in every good surgeon and some “surgery” in every good internist or pediatrician. Read the rest of this entry »