Clin Med
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Doctors deal with patient's disabilities every day but many in the profession have been nonplussed to see the focus of the disability rights lobbies shift from the recipients of care to the carers themselves. Until recently the number of practising doctors known to have significant disabilities was very low and for many reasons potential medical students were deterred from entering medical education. ⋯ Disability Discrimination Act 1995 was passed. It is a measure of the change in society's view of disability, reinforced by law, that the issue of whether there are disabilities which, in themselves, render a doctor Unfit to practise can be analysed and discussed.
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Myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke are the first and third leading causes of death in the U. S. A. accounting for more than 1 in 3 deaths per annum. ⋯ Human umbilical cord blood (hUCB) appears to be a logical candidate as a source of cells. hUCB is readily available, and presents little ethical challenges. Stem cells derived from hUCB are multipotent and immunologically naive. Here is a critical literature review of the beneficial effects of hUCB cell therapy in preclinical trials.
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Comparative Study
Should we implement 'opt-out' HIV testing for patients with lymphoma?
Patients with HIV are dying due to late diagnosis and physicians are being encouraged to increase HIV testing. The uptake of opt-in HIV screening for 113 lymphoma patients was audited at University College London Hospital. Of the 113 patients, 46 were not tested (41%). Previous research in the antenatal setting suggests that adopting opt-out screening would increase testing rates.
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Case Reports Comparative Study
Discrepancies between histology and serology for the diagnosis of coeliac disease in a district general hospital: is this an unrecognised problem in other hospitals?
The objective of this study was to assess the increasing number of patients with positive biopsies yet negative serology at Medway Hospital, Kent, through a retrospective data collection. All coeliac serology undertaken between 2003-5 (n=3056) with coeliac positive duodenal biopsy results (n=26) were compared. ⋯ This study shows that a small but significant number of cases of coeliac disease will be missed by relying on serology alone. As the diagnosis and management of disease shifts further towards general physicians and primary care, it is important that the limitations of serological testing are recognised.