Police: Census worker Bill Sparkman staged his suicide | csmonitor.com
Bill Sparkman, the Kentucky census worker found hanged and wrapped in duct tape with the word “FED” scrawled on his chest, concocted the entire scenario as an elaborate ruse to commit insurance fraud, Kentucky police said Tuesday.
Conclusion: Strong evidence indicates that CRP is associated with CHD events. Moderate, consistent evidence suggests that adding CRP to risk prediction models among initially intermediate-risk persons improves risk stratification. However, sufficient evidence that reducing CRP levels prevents CHD events is lacking.
The prevalence of diabetes among Mexican Americans aged ≥75 years has nearly doubled between 1993–1994 and 2004–2005 from 20.3 to 37.2%, respectively (P < 0.001).
A decrease of 5 grams of salt a day (about one teaspoon) was associated with a 23% lower stroke rate and up to 17% less total cardiovascular disease, reported Pasquale Strazzullo, MD, of the “Federico II” University of Naples, Italy, and colleagues online in BMJ.
In this study, the overall lifetime risk among 40-year-olds was 12.3% for men and 4.2% for women.
Life is not fair.
During a mean follow-up of 30 years, 56.5% of the participants died. About a third of the deaths (32.1%) were attributed to cardiac causes. Of those, 40.4% were from sudden arrhythmia.
As in individuals with a J-point elevation of at least 0.1 mV, those with an elevation of greater than 0.2 mV in the inferior leads had an increased risk of death from cardiac causes (RR 2.98, 95% CI 1.85 to 4.92) and from sudden arrhythmia (RR 2.92, 95% CI 1.45 to 5.89).
Nearly half of those with an elevation of more than 0.2 mV (47.2%) died from cardiac causes, compared with 17.2% among those who did not have the early repolarization pattern (P<0.001).
Preliminary analysis of data from a placebo-controlled study of sibutramine (Meridia) suggested an excess risk of cardiovascular events including myocardial infarction and cardiac death among patients taking the diet drug, according to the FDA.
Ziprasidone comes with a long list of precautions and contraindications:
* It should not be used in patients with a known history of QT prolongation, recent acute myocardial infarction, or uncompensated heart failure, and should not be used with other QT-prolonging drugs.
* It should also be avoided in elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis, as studies have shown that ziprasidone increases the risk of death in such patients.
* Discontinuation should be considered in patients showing signs of tardive dyskinesia.
* Treatment should be stopped immediately in patients with symptoms of neuroleptic malignant syndrome, which include hyperpyrexia, muscle rigidity, diaphoresis, tachycardia, irregular pulse or blood pressure, cardiac dysrhythmia, and altered mental status.
* Patients and clinicians should be alert for hyperglycemia, rash, seizures, and orthostatic hypotension with ziprasidone.
More than 30% of people ages 65 years and older experience a fall annually. Falls are associated with more than 40% of nursing home admissions, so research into risk factors “is urgently needed,” according the the researchers.
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