Recently, the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) released a focused update to the 2007 guidelines for the management of patients with unstable angina (UA)/non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (non-STEMI).

A panel of experts presented a general strategy for evaluating patients with refractory hypertension, but ultimately cautioned the audience to assume non-compliance until proven otherwise.

The panel presented three challenging cases of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFPEF) (see Update on Diastolic Heart Failure). In an innovative twist, the panel solicited feedback from a standing-room-only audience through SmartPhone technology-attendees voted for their favored diagnostic approach, therapy, or final diagnosis, with voting results instantly integrated into the presenter’s Powerpoint display.

Diastolic heart failure (or HFPEF-heart failure with preserved ejection fraction) is characterized by inadequate myocardial relaxation and diastolic filling ("stiff ventricle"), with heart failure signs and symptoms despite normal ejection fraction. The most common cause is long-standing hypertension.

Systemic inflammation has been identified as a risk factor for the development of heart failure in population studies. In the 5-year prospective MESA study, researchers from Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore recorded a baseline nonspecific marker of systemic inflammation, C-reactive protein (CRP).

Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston presented results from the PROTECT (ProBNP Outpatient Tailored Chronic Heart Failure) study. NT-proBNP (b-type natriuretic peptide) is a biomarker released from myocardial tissue in response to high levels of wall stretch and has been studied as a marker for decompensated systolic heart failure.

Global humanitarian James Orbinski, MD, will deliver the Franz M. Groedel Presidential Plenary Lecture at this year's Scientific Showcase Session on Sunday, April 3.

Two of the numerous geriatrics offerings at this year’s ACP convention were part of a series entitled “Modifying Your Office Practice for the Tsunami of Older Adults.” This eminently apropos title was actually something of a theme for the convention as a whole. This year, only 3 clinical categories boasted more offerings than geriatrics. Clearly, primary care physicians are beginning to feel the impact of the baby boomers’ coming of age.

Michael F. Holick, MD, PhD, the Boston University professor of medicine and well-known “apostle of vitamin D,” attracted a standing-room-only crowd Friday for a presentation on his favorite topic. It was a performance that had the audience at rapt attention for a full hour-not just because of the celebrity of the speaker, but because of the extraordinarily clever and engaging nature of his presentation.

Early in his keynote address, James Orbinski, MD, Senior Fellow at the University of Toronto and one of the world’s leading scholars and scientists in global health, complimented the United States on the recent passage of its health care bill, a “seminal achievement” that he said brought the US “just a hair’s breadth away” from achieving universal health care.

Probiotics and prebiotics are now widely used by patients – and even present in many common foods.

How will your practice manage the coming “tsunami” of older patients as the baby boomers enter their golden years?

On the hundredth day of the new administration, the President’s campaign promise of health care reform looks less like a gamble and more like a sure bet. But are policymakers throwing down the deed to the ranch?

Not only can your practice become a patient-centered medical home, or PCMH -- but would you want it to? And if the answer to both these questions is "yes," how do you go about making the transition?

Like great newspapers, medical journals play a crucial role in our society-and in the midst of the protracted transition from print to web publishing, they need our support. This was the message of the keynote address presented by Harold C. Sox, MD, at the 2009 meeting of the American College of Physicians in Philadelphia.

Every year, Dr Ronald N. Rubin, professor of medicine at Temple University School of Medicine, presents review courses for specialty board exams at the American College of Physicians annual meeting.