|
Medical News from Johns Hopkins
This is a service for doctors worldwide from Johns Hopkins International. To receive reports directly, please send e-mail to jhis@jhmi.edu or visit www.jhintl.net.
1. New Predictor of Coronary Artery Disease Identified
2. MRI Useful in Diagnosing Inflammatory Bowel Diseases in Children
3. Hopkins Among Nation's Top 100 Performance Improvement Leaders
4. A Wealth of Information in Pancreas Cancer Website
5. JHI Seminar: Early Registration Discount Expires April 2
1. New Predictor of Coronary Artery Disease Found
By more closely scrutinizing levels of creatinine, doctors may be able to prevent future heart attacks in people who present at hospitals with chest pain, a Johns Hopkins study reveals. For several years, doctors have known that individuals with high levels of creatinine, an indication of kidney failure, are at increased risk of developing coronary artery disease.
The researchers followed 459 patients with ongoing chest pain who were admitted to the hospital because of a suspected heart attack. Among patients with high-normal creatinine, 22 percent suffered a subsequent myocardial infarction, revascularization or death by 120 days, vs. 13 percent of patients with low-normal levels of creatinine. "In evaluating patients with chest pain, if there is even a mild elevation of creatinine in the high-normal range, doctors should think twice about how they triage those patients," says Charles Henrikson, M.D., M.P.H., who presented the research March 8 during the American College of Cardiology's annual meeting.
2. MRI Useful in Diagnosing Inflammatory Bowel Diseases in Children
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), coupled with the use of the contrast dye gadolinium, may help pediatricians better diagnose children with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, according to a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins.
Results of the study, published in the March issue of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, showed that the gadolinium-enhanced MRI confirmed these diagnoses in more than 90 percent of the children in the study who had inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Because ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease -- two painful ailments with similar origins and symptoms -- have two very different treatment regimens, especially if surgical treatment is contemplated, early diagnosis is critical, the researchers say.
"For the most severe cases of ulcerative colitis, surgical removal of the colon is the only cure, while there is no cure for Crohn's disease," says Anil Darbari, M.D., lead author of the study. "Unfortunately, many children who are originally diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and have their diseased colon surgically removed are later found to actually have had Crohn's, which is discovered when the disease resurfaces in another area within the intestinal tract."
3. Hopkins Among Nation's Top 100 Performance Improvement Leaders
The Johns Hopkins Hospital has been named one of the nation's top 100 performance improvement leader hospitals in a study conducted by Solucient, a firm that provides strategic business and clinical information for the health care industry. The hospital was one of only 15 major academic medical centers nationwide to be selected. Hopkins and its senior management team were recognized for developing consistent and effective organization-wide performance improvement across critical measures at a faster rate than other U.S. hospitals between 1997 and 2001. These measures include quality of care, operational efficiency and financial performance.
4. A Wealth of Information on Pancreas Cancer Website
A leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. and abroad, cancer of the pancreas is also a major clinical and research focus at Johns Hopkins. The disease is not only common, but it is also extremely difficult to treat. For these and other reasons, cancer of the pancreas has been called "the challenge of the twenty-first century." Much of what is known about the disease can be found in a highly-trafficked website at http://www.path.jhu.edu/pancreas/.
According to the site editors, the site aims to educate patients and family members as they make complex medical decisions; and to provide a virtual support group of patients and family members who are facing this disease. Sections on the site detail the research and clinical developments (with the very latest described in the "What's New" page), and introduces users to the members of the multidisciplinary team of clinicians and scientists who are working at Johns Hopkins to improve diagnosis, treatment and prevention of pancreas cancer.
One popular feature of the site is a "chat room" for patients and family members to share ideas and support. The site also has an illustrated list of frequently asked questions and gives users a way to register in the National Familial Pancreas Tumor Registry, based at Johns Hopkins, for persons who have more than one family member afflicted with pancreas cancer.
5. JHI Seminar: Early Registration Discount Expires April 2
The dealdine to receive the early registration discount for the Johns Hopkins International seminar on The Future is Here: Managing Change in Clinical Care (visit www.jhintl.net for details) expires Friday, April 2. For more information, please send e-mail to jhis@jhmi.edu. All sessions will be interpreted in Spanish.
|
