Infective endocarditis is a serious infection, often resulting from injection drug use. Inpatient treatment regularly focuses on management of infection without attention to the underlying addiction. The authors aimed to determine the addiction interventions done in patients hospitalized with injection drug use-associated infective endocarditis.

Sudden cardiac death is often linked with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in young athletes, but with a divergence of study results. We performed a meta-analysis to compare the prevalence of sudden cardiac deaths associated with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy vs sudden cardiac deaths associated with structurally normal hearts.

Is it possible to reverse frailty? Spanish researchers used an exercise intervention in two rural care centers involving 100 volunteer frail men and women, age 70+, who were sedentary with slow gait speed to gauge improvement in frailty, gait, and cognitive and emotional well-being as well as social networking. Fifty-one were in the intervention group and 49 in the control group. There was marked improvement in all areas in the intervention group, which led to a decrease in primary care physician visits.

Young men's reproductive knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs during adolescence predict their future fatherhood status, timing, and residency. Earlier public health and educational interventions to identify at-risk young men may optimize fatherhood outcomes.

Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis is a systemic necrotizing vasculitis that occurs in patients with asthma. The aim of this study was to assess the upper and lower airways in 37 patients with EGPA when they were in partial or complete remission from systemic involvement. At the time of the study visit, almost all patients were receiving low-dose oral corticosteroids and immunomodulating drugs, but only 50% were being treated with inhaled corticosteroids. While low systemic disease activity was documented in most patients, poorly controlled asthma and rhinosinusitis with eosinophilic airway inflammation were demonstrated in almost all patients. Systemic treatment controls systemic involvement in EGPA, but not asthma and nasal diseases, which negatively affect patient's quality of life.

Pain catastrophizing may be assessed as a dispositional measure using a previous painful experience as a reference, or as a situational measure using ongoing pain as a reference. The latter has shown more robust correlations with pain-related outcomes; the relative influence of dispositional and situational pain catastrophizing remains unknown in relation to populations with no pain prior to surgery. In this study, patients undergoing corrective surgery were asked to complete the Pain Catastrophizing Scale with reference to a previous painful experience, experimental pain, and clinical pain after surgery. The report notes that pain catastrophizing should be captured in relation to specific painful events to predict postoperative pain in otherwise healthy patients.

Costs for managing cervical cancer are high in the initial treatment and terminal care phases, and are driven by hospital and physician costs.

A study published in Hypertension found that tracking blood pressure patterns over time can help determine stroke risk. The research found a high risk of stroke or death from blood pressure-related diseases in patients whose systolic blood pressure readings sharply increased in middle age, as well as adults whose hypertension dropped after age 65. Patients with the greatest risk of stroke overall had moderately high blood pressure, underscoring the importance of treatment, said researcher Dr. Marileen Portegies.

Researchers found that stimulants and alternative medications, particularly extended-release methylphenidate and amphetamine formulations, were effective in reducing teens' attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms but that treatment compliance is a concern with this age group. The findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association, based on a review of 17 studies involving 2,668 adolescents with ADHD, also showed that psychotherapy can help improve youths' academic performance.

A study in JAMA Pediatrics found that infants whose mothers drank one or more artificially sweetened beverages daily during gestation were more likely to be heavier at birth and had a twofold risk of having excess weight gain by age 1, compared with those whose mothers didn't consume drinks with artificial sweeteners. The findings were based on data involving more than 3,000 mothers and their babies.

Two FDA advisory panels recommended physicians receive mandatory training to prescribe opioid medications. Members said the training should include immediate-release, extended-release and long-acting drug formulations. Some panel members also suggested that training center on pain management and include mental health screening.

Implementing a patient-centered care model is one step toward addressing safety concerns outlined in a recent ECRI Institute report, says Lisa Freeman, executive director at the Connecticut Center for Patient Safety. "We need to start looking at everything through the patient perspective," she said, adding that there is no single, straightforward solution. The top safety concerns cited in the report were health IT systems and organizational workflow that do not support each other, patient identification errors, and inadequate management of behavioral health issues outside of behavioral health settings.

Group medical visits are becoming more common for pregnant women and patients with diabetes, obesity and liver disease, because they can reduce costs, improve efficiency and ease the impact of clinician shortages. "Group visits have so much to offer busy, backlogged and harried physicians," said Edward Noffsinger, a psychologist and consultant on group visits.