Overtreatment, over here

Overdiagnosis and overtreatment over time.

Overdiagnosis and overtreatment are often thought of as relatively recent phenomena, influenced by a contemporary combination of technology, specialization, payment models, marketing, and supply-related demand. Yet a quick glance at the historical record reveals that physicians and medical manufacturers have been accused of iatrogenic excess for centuries, if not millennia. Medicine has long ha...

Put that hunchback over here

Cristae in crisis ristae, the complex involutions of the mitochondrial inner membrane, vastly increase the surface area across which ATP synthase can generate a proton gradient. Now, new findings from Jean Velours (Université Victor Ségalen, Bordeaux, France) and colleagues suggest that ATP synthase may be important in forming cristae in the first place. Velours' theory is that oligomerization ...

Here Today, Here Tomorrow? Urinary Concentrations of Parabens over Time

For many years, the “superbug” methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was confined to hospital patients, but since the 1990s it has been infecting otherwise healthy people in settings such as schools and locker rooms. Researchers now report the discovery of MRSA in U.S. wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), identifying another possible environmental reservoir for the bacteria [EHP 12...

152: a Measure for Estimating the Magnitude of Unnecessary Overtreatment, over Testing and over Preventing

Overtreatment of enterococcal bacteriuria.

BACKGROUND The purposes of this study were to investigate the clinical outcomes of enterococcal bacteriuria and to determine whether current management is adherent to Infectious Diseases Society of America guidelines. METHODS We conducted a retrospective medical record review of patients from 2 academic teaching hospitals for 3 months (September 1 through November 30, 2009). Patients were cla...