Browse all articles in Case Reports

Fewer than a third of people understand when situations do not require emergency services, according to research published online in the Emergency Medicine Journal.(1)

According to the results of a study[1] published recently in the Archives of Internal Medicine, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) produces a 41% reduction in fatal and non-fatal first recurrent cardiovascular disease (CVD) events.

A manufacturer of medical devices has announced that Croydon University Hospital in London successfully resuscitated a 53-year-old man from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) using the ZOLL AutoPulse® Non-invasive Cardiac Support Pump for 3.5 hours. The automated CPR machine performed nearly 20,000 chest compressions before the man’s pulse returned.

As the cold weather continues throughout the UK, it underlines warnings of problems in caring for the elderly from the British Geriatrics Society (BGS). A survey of BGS members has predicted that the third consecutive cold winter currently faced by Britain could mean patients will face many more delays than were experienced in the previous two winters (2008/9, 2009/10).¹

New guidelines[1] for managing atrial fibrillation (AF) have been jointly published by the American Heart Association (AHA), American College of Cardiology (ACC), and Heart Rhythm Society (HRS), containing some information which may not be as comprehensive as the recently released AF guidelines from the Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) and the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in September and October respectively.

The UK Stroke Association is in the process of planning an awareness campaign around atrial fibrillation (AF) and its link to stroke.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) recently announced its plans to launch a market study into private healthcare. The study will examine the nature of competition in the market, and whether the market is fully competitive.

There is much current interest in the entirely subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (S-ICD) which is heralded as a major advance for the prevention of sudden cardiac death in selected patients.

“Worldwide, strokes are the most common cause of death. This makes it a top priority for medicine to expand prevention in this area,” said Prof. Dr. Karl Max Einhäupl, from the University Clinic Charité in Berlin, who is co-chair of the Annual Meeting of the European Neurological Society (ENS) which took place in Berlin recently.

Allopurinol, which has commonly been used to treat gout for over 40 years, has had a new lease of life recently as it may help preserve renal function, according to an analysis appearing in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN) (1) and it is also potentially a drug for treatment of angina.