Risultati per: Terapia antibiotica: breve durata vs. lunga durata

To the Editor A recent Research Letter reported that temperatures measured by temporal thermometers are lower than those measured orally in Black patients but not in White patients. However, I am concerned that this study used race as a proxy for skin color. Because people can have a range of skin colors despite their so-called race, the results of this study would have been more meaningful if it had used a biological parameter with one of the more objective measurements of skin color, such as a spectrophotometer or one of the visual scales.

In Reply We thank the authors for their comments about our recent article exploring racial differences in the accuracy of temporal thermometers. We agree with Dr Newman that self-reported race is an imperfect proxy for skin color. If differences in skin color are the basis of the temperature differences observed between oral and temporal thermometers, the magnitude of the difference would be better measured using an objective measure of skin color in a prospective study rather than self-reported race in a retrospective data analysis.

L’Assimefac annuncia la pubblicazione della guida per i medici di medicina generale in merito alla terapia domiciliare del paziente Sars-Cov-2.

To the Editor A recent study assessed the noninferiority of IMRT alone vs concurrent chemoradiotherapy for treating low-risk NPC. The noninferiority claim was based on a 3-year failure-free survival rate with a noninferiority margin of 10% for the absolute failure-free survival rate difference.

This clinical trial compares the efficacy of torsemide vs furosemide in decreasing the risk of death from any cause among patients hospitalized for heart failure (regardless of ejection fraction).

To the Editor We have several comments about the recent study that found that intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) alone was not inferior for 3-year failure-free survival compared with concurrent chemoradiotherapy in patients with low-risk nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).

In Reply We agree with Ms Hu and Dr Kao that the current NCCN guidelines recommend definitive radiotherapy with or without concurrent chemotherapy for NPC with stage II and T3N0 disease, and in this subset, induction or adjuvant chemotherapy only for patients with high-risk features including bulky tumor volume or high serum EBV DNA copy number. Our study excluded patients who had NPC with high-risk features, so all patients with low-risk NPC were not treated with induction or adjuvant chemotherapy. Although triweekly delivery of cisplatin has been the standard regimen for concurrent chemotherapy, a phase 2 clinical trial comparing weekly and triweekly cisplatin during radiotherapy reported that the therapeutic effect and acute reactions of triweekly regimen were similar to that of the weekly regimen. However, other studies have reported significantly greater hematological toxicity but lower gastrointestinal reactions with a weekly cisplatin regimen.

To the Editor The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines currently recommend that concurrent chemoradiotherapy be the primary treatment for patients with T1-2N1M0, T3N0M0, and T2N0M0 NPC with high-risk features. A recent study reported that patients with low-risk stage II and T3N0M0 cancer who received IMRT alone had the same oncologic outcomes but better long-term quality of life than those who received concurrent chemoradiotherapy. We have 3 concerns about the definition of the truly low-risk NPC.

This randomized clinical trial compares the effect of early high-flow oxygen therapy vs standard oxygen therapy on length of hospital stay in children with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure.

Nelle donne è associata a migliore memoria e capacità cognitive

In HIV and ID Observations, Dr. Paul Sax looks at a study on masks worn by healthcare workers.

To the Editor A recent study showed that aspirin, compared with enoxaparin, resulted in a significantly higher rate of symptomatic VTE within 90 days in patients undergoing hip or knee arthroplasty for osteoarthritis. Mortality from pulmonary embolism after hip and knee arthroplasty has decreased significantly over the past few decades and now remains low regardless of the prophylaxis drug used. Other improvements in perioperative care have played an important role in reducing the mortality rate. In this study, every hospital could provide all patients with pneumatic compression calf devices and compression stockings, which may have contributed to the low incidence of VTE.

To the Editor We have some comments about the CRISTAL study, which investigated the effect of aspirin vs enoxaparin on symptomatic venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients undergoing hip or knee arthroplasty.

In Reply First, we would like to address some of the concerns about the issue of confounding from unmeasured variables (anesthesia type and postoperative rehabilitation) that was mentioned by Dr Chia-Chien Hsu and colleagues. Due to the randomized, crossover design of our study, each participating cluster (hospital) served as its own control. This design provided balancing of baseline variables (Table 1 in the article) and likely also resulted in balancing of unmeasured covariates.

To the Editor We have some comments about the limitations of the CRISTAL trial, which evaluated the effect of aspirin vs enoxaparin on symptomatic VTE in patients undergoing hip or knee arthroplasty.

This randomized clinical trial compares pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) vs PVI with posterior wall isolation for achieving freedom from atrial arrhythmia in adult patients with persistent atrial fibrillation undergoing first-time catheter ablation in Australia, the UK, and Canada.