Internal medicine journal
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Internal medicine journal · Jul 2020
Improving regional lung cancer optimal care pathway compliance through a rapid-access respiratory clinic.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality in Australia and delays in diagnosis and management increase the potential for disease progression. Incidence and mortality from lung cancer in our region, Gippsland, are higher than the national average, yet there is no known standard referral pathway for diagnosis in the region. ⋯ Our project highlights the disjointed and delayed lung cancer care in our region and the improvements a dedicated rapid access clinic can have on diagnosis and treatment commencement timeframes.
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Internal medicine journal · Jul 2020
Observational StudyAn observational study of high- and low-abundance anti-retroviral resistance mutations among treatment-naïve people living with HIV in New Zealand between 2012 and 2017.
HIV resistance genotyping detects drug resistance mutations (DRMs) in ≥20% of circulating virus within an infected individual (high-abundance DRMs). Deep sequencing also detects DRMs in smaller viral subpopulations (low-abundance DRMs), although these are of uncertain importance. ⋯ Low-abundance DRMs were present in 36/247 (15%) patients, but none who received anti-retrovirals for which these were present had virologic failure. These findings demonstrate that starting first-line therapy in treatment-naïve patients need not be delayed while awaiting resistance testing.