• Articles

    Sickle Cell Disease in Childhood: Part II. Diagnosis and Treatment of Major Complications and Recent Advances in Treatment

    DORIS L. WETHERS

    Early diagnosis and aggressive management of the complications of sickle cell disease, including infections, acute splenic sequestration and acute chest syndrome, are important. Complications can progress quickly and become life-threatening.

    Assisted Vaginal Delivery Using the Vacuum Extractor

    LAKSHMIDEVI V. PUTTA, JEANNE P. SPENCER

    Forceps are being replaced by vacuum extractors for many situations in which assistance is required to achieve vaginal delivery. Vacuum extractors should be used when indicated, usually for a nonreassuring fetal heart tracing or failure to progress in the second stage of labor.

    Alternative Therapies: Part II. Congestive Heart Failure and Hypercholesterolemia

    VINCENT MORELLI, ROGER J. ZOOROB

    Certain natural supplements may be helpful in the management of common medical conditions, but careful selection of patients and knowledge of side effects are critical components in effective use. The second part of this two-part article discusses the role of natural...

    Proteinuria in Adults: A Diagnostic Approach

    MICHAEL F. CARROLL, JONATHAN L. TEMTE

    Primary care physicians need to differentiate the patient who has a common benign cause of proteinuria from one who has a more serious cause, such as glomerulonephritis or multiple myeloma, and who may need referral for further evaluation.

    Management of Bipolar Disorder

    KIM S. GRISWOLD, LINDA F. PESSAR

    Collaboration between the patient's family physician and psychiatrist is important. The use of tricyclic antidepressants should be avoided in these patients because they may induce a rapid cycling of symptoms.

    Update on Vitamin Supplements for the Prevention of Coronary Disease and Stroke

    KEVIN A. PEARCE, MARIA G. BOOSALIS, BRYAN YEAGER

    This article reviews patient-oriented evidence on the role that dietary and supplemental antioxidants and folic acid may play in the prevention of coronary disease and stroke.

    AFP 50 Years Ago

    This feature is part of a year-long series of excerpts and special commentaries celebrating AFP's 50thyear of publication. Excerpts from the two 1950 volumes of GP, AFP's predecessor, appear along with highlights of 50 years of family medicine.

    Inside AFP

    AFP: Bringing Our Best to You

    Janis Wright

    Earlier this month, AFP held its annual editorial board meeting at the AAFP headquarters in Leawood, Kan. It's a compressed two-day event that offers AFP's editors a chance to mingle and let ideas cross-pollinate. We were particularly pleased with the achievements of this...

    AAFP News Now: AFP Edition

    Newsletter

    Rosemarie Sweeney, Toni Lapp

    Selected policy and health issues news briefs from AAFP News Now.

    Quantum Sufficit

    Quantum Sufficit

    Lori Parry

    This will only hurt a little. A team of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Veterans Affairs surgeons and anesthesiologists recently performed minimally invasive direct coronary bypass (MIDCAB) surgery on a 51-year-old patient. Not exactly newsworthy, you say? It is,...

    Editorials

    Vacuum Extraction: A Necessary Skill

    MARK DEUTCHMAN

    Vacuum extraction is an important maternity care skill for family physicians. Nationally, 82 percent of family physicians delivering infants have hospital privileges to perform vacuum extraction, which is nearly double the 44 percent who have privileges to assist delivery...

    Weighing the Evidence for Vitamin Supplementation and CVD Prevention

    ALEXANDRA ADAMS, GAIL UNDERBAKKE, PATRICK E. MCBRIDE

    Many patients are frustrated by the mixed messages regarding vitamin supplements. They look to their physicians for guidance, but we often have insufficient or contradictory information because of the complexities of nutritional science and incomplete evidence. Health care...

    Diary from a Week in Practice

    Diary from a Week in Practice

    Many family physicians pay lip-service to a pillar of our specialty: continuity of care. But, in truth, much of what we do is episodic in nature. Today, an elderly man presented with a bleeding varicose vein. While JRH has seen this occur in advanced cases, he suspected the...

    Conference Highlights

    Conference Highlights

    Matthew Neff

    (13th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry) Results of three prospective studies demonstrated significant benefits from treatment with rivastigmine tartrate, a cholinesterase inhibitor, in patients with Alzheimer's disease who were also at high...

    Family Practice International

    Family Practice International

    Anne D. Walling

    (Australia—Australian Family Physician, March 2000, p. 243.) Acute compression of the heart between the sternum and spine during a motor vehicle crash or following a blow to the chest wall may damage the coronary arteries. While the left descending artery is most vulnerable,...

    Practice Guidelines

    ACOG Issues Recommendations for the Management of Endometriosis

    Toni Lapp

    Up to one half of pre-menopausal women will have endometriosis, in which endometrial-like glands and stroma grow in an extrauterine site. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has updated its guidelines on the treatment of endometriosis.

    Clinical Briefs

    Clinical Briefs

    Monica Preboth

    The Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has issued a policy statement on the role of the physician in childhood bereavement. The AAP policy statement appears in the February 2000 issue of Pediatrics.

    Letters to the Editor

    Dermatofibrosarcoma Protuberans: Early Recognition and Treatment

    SEAN J. MURPHY

    Possible Ticlopidine-Induced Cholestatic Jaundice

    DOV WENGROWER

    Tips from Other Journals

    Triple-Drug Capsule for Eradicating H. pylori Infection

    KARL E. MILLER

    Effectiveness of Hysterectomy in Relieving Symptoms

    ANNE D. WALLING

    Using ALA and Red Light Irradiation for Wart Removal

    ANNE D. WALLING

    Antimicrobial Therapy and Acute Pyelonephritis

    GRACE BROOKE HUFFMAN

    Step-Oblique Mammography in Evaluating Breast Densities

    KARL E. MILLER

    Anticoagulation in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation

    ANNE D. WALLING

    Impact of Weight Loss on Improvement of Asthma

    ANNE D. WALLING

    Diagnosing Biliary Colic and Acute Cholecystitis

    ANNE D. WALLING

    Which Oral Antibiotics Do Children Find Most Palatable?

    JEFFREY T. KIRCHNER

    Determining Results with Pap Smear and Speculoscopy

    ANNE D. WALLING

    Methods for Removing a Nondeflating Foley Catheter

    JEFFREY T. KIRCHNER

    Diagnosis and Management of Spontaneous Pneumothorax

    JEFFREY T. KIRCHNER

    Controlled-Release Oxycodone for Osteoarthritis-Related Pain

    BARBARA APGAR

    Common Myths About Pubertal Development

    RICHARD SADOVSKY

    Safety of Home Monitoring After Acetaminophen Ingestion

    RICHARD SADOVSKY

    Information from Your Family Doctor

    Bipolar Disorder

    Bipolar disorder is an illness that causes extreme mood swings. This condition is also called manic-depressive illness. It may be caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain.

    Using Tobacco: Why You Need to Quit

    Cigarettes are the leading cause of preventable deaths in this country. Tobacco is toxic to your body. The nicotine in cigarettes and smokeless tobacco (snuff or chewing tobacco) makes your body release adrenaline. Adrenaline causes your blood vessels to constrict and your...

    The Nicotine Patch

    Congratulations on your decision to quit using tobacco. The nicotine patch your doctor has recommended will help make it easier to quit smoking or using smokeless tobacco. The instructions in this handout will help you use the patch the right way. Be sure to stop using...

    Smokeless Tobacco: Tips on How to Stop

    Compared with cigarettes, smokeless tobacco (snuff or chewing tobacco) puts more nicotine into your bloodstream. For this and other reasons, people who chew or dip tobacco regularly say that quitting smokeless tobacco is even harder than quitting cigarette smoking. But many...

    Corrections

    Correction



    Disclosure

    All editors in a position to control content for this activity, AFP journal, are required to disclose any relevant financial relationships. View disclosures.


    Tag Legend

    Legend

    CME Continuing Medical Education Credit
    POC Point-of-Care Resource
    FREE Free Access
    Alg Algorithm
    DDx Differential Diagnosis
    PtEd Patient Education