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About Annals
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FOR THE PRESS
5 December
2000 Annals of Internal Medicine Tip Sheet
Annals of Internal Medicine is published by the American
College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine
(ACP-ASIM), an organization of more than 115,000 internal medicine
physicians and medical students. The following highlights are not
intended to substitute for articles as sources of information. For
an embargoed fax of an article, call 1-800-523-1546, ext. 2656 or
215-351-2656. Full content of the issue is available on the
Internet at
http://www.annals.org on December 5, 2000.
Procedure Effective in Treating Heart Rhythm Problem
Radiofrequency ablation, a cardiac procedure, improves the quality
of life for patients with frequent supraventricular tachycardia
attacks, a cost-effectiveness study finds (Article, p. 864).
Radiofrequency ablation destroys a small section of heart tissue
that causes the irregular heartbeat, or supraventricular
tachycardia. The procedure reduces the number of attacks requiring
emergency hospital or physician visits per year and, though
expensive, is cost-effective in comparison to managing the
condition with long-term drug therapy or treating the episodes as
they occur.
Alternative Cancer Therapy Apparently Caused Death of One
Patient
A cancer patient who refused traditional treatment and took
hydrazine sulfate, a chemical compound he obtained through the
Internet, died from liver and kidney failure, according to a case
report (Brief Communication, p. 877). The authors surmise that the
hydrazine sulfate, a chemical used in jet fuel, caused the death.
Some studies have shown that hydrazine sulfate prevents severe
weight loss suffered by some cancer patients. The compound is
advertised on the Internet as having "virtually no significant
untoward side effects." The authors stress the importance of
reporting adverse events of both prescription and non-prescription
therapies. An editorial says that, while existing studies show
"little evidence to support its ability to shrink tumors or cure
cancer," hydrazine sulfate has had relatively few reported serious
side effects prior to this case report (Editorial, p. 911). Still,
the editorial says, "there seems to be little justification for the
drug's easy availability and unsupervised use."
Protein Erythropoietin Reduces Need for Transfusion After Hip
Surgery
(Article, p. 845)
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