Author: SupremeCmdr
Good News Chart of the Day – 5/1/2010
Calculated Risk: Restaurant Index shows Expansion in March
This is the first time in 29 months that the index is showing expansion.
A Stands for…?
One Volcano, 4 Friends, and Many Career Ideas | paulacaligiuri.com
Opportunities, even those that change your plans in unexpected ways, may be exactly the ones that will help move your career – and your life – in a wonderful direction.
Attitude. And I’ll keep posting about this so that it sinks in and sticks.
Koilonychia
Koilonychia are spoon shaped nails.
How Much is Snoopy Worth?
Anticonvulsant Meds and Suicide Risk
Results: The study identified 26 completed suicides, 801 attempted suicides, and 41 violent deaths in 297 620 new episodes of treatment with an anticonvulsant (overall median follow-up, 60 days). The incidence of the composite outcomes of completed suicides, attempted suicides, and violent deaths for anticonvulsants used in at least 100 treatment episodes ranged from 6.2 per 1000 person-years for primidone to 34.3 per 1000 person-years for oxcarbazepine. The risk of suicidal acts was increased for gabapentin (hazard ratio [HR], 1.42; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.11-1.80), lamotrigine (HR, 1.84; 95% CI, 1.43-2.37), oxcarbazepine (HR, 2.07; 95% CI, 1.52-2.80), tiagabine (HR, 2.41; 95% CI, 1.65-3.52), and valproate (HR, 1.65; 95% CI, 1.25-2.19), compared with topiramate. The analyses including violent death produced similar results. Gabapentin users had increased risk in subgroups of younger and older patients, patients with mood disorders, and patients with epilepsy or seizure when compared with carbamazepine.
Conclusion: This exploratory analysis suggests that the use of gabapentin, lamotrigine, oxcarbazepine, and tiagabine, compared with the use of topiramate, may be associated with an increased risk of suicidal acts or violent deaths.
CACS Improves Risk Classification
Conclusion: In this multi-ethnic cohort, addition of CACS to a prediction model based on traditional risk factors significantly improved the classification of risk and placed more individuals in the most extreme risk categories.
Lifestyle Underwriting – Update 4/27/10
The effect of combined health behaviors was strongest for other deaths and weakest for cancer mortality. Those with 4 compared with those with no poor health behaviors had an all-cause mortality risk equivalent to being 12 years older.
FDA Turtle Warning
Combination Therapy for Crohn’s
Better Treatment Found for Crohn’s Disease – BusinessWeek
The international trial included 508 people with Crohn’s disease who had never been treated with immunosuppressive drugs. One-third were given infliximab alone, one-third received only azathioprine and one-third were treated with both. The trial was funded by Centocor Ortho Biotech, which markets infliximab, and Schering-Plough.
After 26 weeks, 56.8 percent of those getting combination therapy had complete remission of symptoms, compared to 44.4 percent of those getting only infliximab and 30 percent of those getting only azathioprine.
lifeunderwriter.net 
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