Citations

According to the Indian Health Service, substance abuse and Type 2 diabetes are serious problems among Native Americans. To assess substance use in a medical setting, valid screening tests are needed so the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), a simple brief screen for excessive drinking, and the CAGE-adapted to Include Drugs (CAGE-AID) for identifying primary care patients with alcohol and drug disorders were given 50 Northern Plains American Indians with diabetes. Both are short, easy to administer, have good sensitivity and specificity, and can be easily incorporated into a medical history protocol or intake procedure. Reliability coefficients were above .90 and appeared to have sufficient concurrent and divergent validity indicated by moderate correlations with the General Well-being Schedule ( rs = –.39 and –.36), the Family-Adaptation, Partnership, Growth, Affection, & Resolve ( r = –.47 and –.36), and the Beck Depression Inventory-II ( r = .36 and .29).

Conversion between anti-epilectic drugs (AEDs) is frequently necessary in epilepsy care, exposing patients to a risk of incurring adverse effects and reduced quality of life. Little practical guidance is available to practitioners to guide conversions between AED monotherapies, or in adding a new adjunctive AED into a polytherapy regimen. This article reviews the impact of adverse effects of AEDs on quality of life in epilepsy patients, then reviews several important patient-related factors such as age, gender, medical and psychiatric co-morbidities, and co-medications that must be considered when selecting AEDs and ensuring tolerable and safe AED conversions. Practical strategies for transitional polytherapy AED conversion are then considered in different commonly encountered clinical scenarios in newly diagnosed and refractory epilepsy care, including inadequate seizure control, intolerable adverse effects, or idiosyncratic safety hazards. Successful conversion between AEDs requires regular monitoring for patient-reported adverse effects and appropriately reactive adjustment of AED therapy to maximize patient quality of life.

Background— Infection is a serious complication of cardiovascular implantable electronic device (CIED) placement and requires device removal for attempted cure. Methods and Results— We studied the rate, risk factors, and outcomes of CIED infection in 74 consecutive patients with bacteremia caused by Gram-positive cocci (GPC) other than Staphylococcus aureus between 2001 and 2007. CIED infection was defined as the presence of signs of infection at the generator site, lead vegetations seen on echocardiography, or microbiological growth from device cultures. Twenty-two (30%) of 74 patients with non– S aureus GPC bacteremia had CIED infections. Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) accounted for 73% of CIED infections. The rate of CIED infection in patients with CoNS bacteremia was almost 2-fold that of non-CoNS GPC bacteremia (36% versus 20%, P =0.13). The number of leads, the presence of abandoned leads, and prior generator replacement were associated with CIED infection. Among 33 patients without identifiable CIED infection at initial evaluation who did not undergo device removal, 5 (15%) had relapsing bacteremia within 12 weeks of completing antibiotic therapy. CoNS accounted for all relapses, and none had evidence of CIED infection at relapse. Conclusions— Patients with a CIED and bacteremia caused by GPC other than S aureus frequently had evidence of underlying CIED infection on clinical evaluation that included transesophageal echocardiography. This was particularly true among those with CoNS bacteremia. No evidence of underlying CIED infections was identified in the subgroup of patients who did not have manifestations of CIED infection on initial evaluation but subsequently had relapsing bacteremia caused by CoNS.