A varied week - of particular clinical interest is the phase III randomised trial from Swiss investigators concluding that ultrasound of the leg is not necessary when multi-slice CT (or MSCT as it is called), is used. This article is also the main focus of this week’s Lancet podcast.

Look out for the public-health implications of Kenya’s recent troubles in a Comment by Charles O Obonyo.

Back on the clinical front, research suggesting that a new treatment for psoriasis is safe and effective. Authors of an Article found there is an almost linear relationship between drug dose and response, suggesting that patients can be more accurately dosed to achieve a clinical response while minimizing side-effects. …..

In World Report a fascinating Article: ‘Health crisis amid the Maoist insurgency in India’, by Kristin Elisabeth Solberg.

Chronic cough series: two papers in this week’s issue explore the extremely common chronic cough, which occurs in up to a third of the population in Europe and America, including children. It is often associated with smoking and is one of the most frequent reasons for consultation with a physician. While chronic cough can be associated with various acute and chronic diseases, the authors say that failure to recognise idiopathic cough (i.e., cough without a clear cause) is hindering both research into abnormally heightened cough reflex, and development of new treatments.

The worldwide campaign to eradicate poliomyelitis is nearing its 20th anniversary, and is 8 years over its original target date of the year 2000. During the past decade, the programme has encountered a number of unanticipated obstacles, writes Ellie Ehrenfeld in a Viewpoint.

And an intriguing Comment highlighting how the limited and recycled vocabulary of dead languages used in medical terminology is confusing and has the potential to cause serious consequences for patients. The Comment looks at easily confusable terms such as the prefixes hypo- and hyper-, both used frequently in medical emergencies.

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 10:35 am and is filed under The Lancet Digest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackback from your own site.