JAMA Clinical Reviews

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is becoming more frequent as the population becomes more obese. This is not a benign problem, and NASH can ultimately lead to cirrhosis and liver failure. It is thought that NASH will ultimately become the most common cause for liver transplant. NASH is usually diagnosed as an incidental finding, but once found requires careful monitoring and patient counseling....

Emerging information about how SARS-CoV-2 virus infects cells has led to speculation that NSAIDs and ACE inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) may worsen clinical disease. Infectious disease physician Carlos del Rio, MD, of Emory University explains the concerns and their clinical implications.

This podcast explains the Pritikin diet to patients. Nathan Pritikin was a college dropout who became an entrepreneur. While doing research for the government during World War II, he observed that populations that had extremely limited food availability because of the war had substantially reduced mortality from cardiovascular disease—something unexpected at a time when cardiovascular disease was...

Nathan Pritikin was a college dropout who became an entrepreneur. While doing research for the government during World War II, he observed that populations that had extremely limited food availability because of the war had substantially reduced mortality from cardiovascular disease—something unexpected at a time when cardiovascular disease was thought to be due to stress. After the war when food...

Seattle was one of the first US cities to have a COVID-19 outbreak, with a cluster of nursing home-related deaths. However, many people who tested positive for the novel coronavirus never became ill, and in some the clinical illness was indistinguishable from influenza. John Lynch, MD, MPH, an infectious disease physician and medical director for infection prevention and control at the Harborview...

Seattle has been a focal point for the US in the coronavirus pandemic. Doug Paauw, MD, professor of medicine at the University of Washington, in Seattle, describes the UW primary care clinic experience as this pandemic evolved. Major lessons learned included accommodating for significant numbers of staff not available to work in the clinic because of school closures, change in workflow because of...

Coronovirus (the virus SARS-CoV-2) continues to spread throughout the world. In recent weeks, there has been an increasing number of cases and deaths in the US. As concern about the virus increases, there is an increasing need for accurate information about the disease and how much concern we should have. Anthony Fauci, MD, is the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disea...

Physicians who act out cause all sorts of problems. Fortunately, only a few clinicians have behavior problems and in the modern era, bad behaviors are not tolerated. Bad behaviors get reported these days and actions are taken against these sorts of clinicians. Clinicians who act out frequently say they are doing so to protect their patients. But are they? William Cooper, MD, MPH, and Gerald B. Hic...

Great strides have been made in treating HIV, as Anthony Fauci, MD, discusses in this podcast episode. But even substantial viral suppression leaves some virus behind, causing chronic inflammation. Many chronic diseases, including atherosclerotic coronary vascular disease, are worsened by this chronic inflammatory state. Because HIV patients are now living very long lives, they are also developing...

Although coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) dominates the news in early 2020, it affects few people in the US. In contrast, at the same time the US is experiencing a severe influenza epidemic, which has caused an estimated 250 000 hospitalizations and 14 000 deaths. Timothy Uyeki, MD, lead for the CDC's 2019 novel coronavirus response team and Chief Medical Officer of CDC's influenza division, di...

Breast cancer is a leading cause of death in women. Some women have a cancer susceptibility gene known as BRCA , and women should be tested for BRCA under some circumstances. Carol Mangione, MD, division chief of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research at UCLA, discusses when testing is appropriate, and Ranjit Manchanda, MD, PhD, from Barts Cancer Institute in London, UK, discusses...

More than 6 million people worldwide have Parkinson disease. Even though it is classically associated with tremors, the disease has many manifestations and is very treatable for most patients. Michael S. Okun, MD, from the Department of Neurology at the University of Florida, Gainesville, discusses the pathophysiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of Parkinson disease. Related a...

Conjunctivitis and dry eye disease are some of the most common conditions patients present with. They are usually benign entities that respond well to conservative measures and usually don't require medications. However, if medications are necessary, clinicians can find a comprehensive assessment of these drugs recently published in the December 2, 2019, issue of The Medical Letter. An excerpt fro...

Controversy exists regarding how to best manage chronic stable angina. Intuitively, it seems that because it is usually caused by coronary artery lesions, addressing those lesions either via percutaneous coronary angiography or coronary artery bypass operations would be the best way to manage this problem. Several studies have suggested that this is not the case and that results of these intervent...

A new virus known as the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is rapidly spreading through China. The rapid spread and severity of this illness are worrisome and the possibility that it develops into a pandemic is very real. Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, provides an update on this new disease.

American football is a dangerous sport and is characterized by violent contact between people that often leads to repetitive head injury. A multitude of health effects may result from this sort of head injury, but a new finding reported in the December issue of JAMA Neurology maintains that football players are at risk for developing low testosterone levels and erectile dysfunction. Rachel Grashow...

The keto diet is very popular and involves eating very few carbohydrates, a fair amount of fat, and normal amounts of protein. It is one of many ways to lose weight. David Heber, MD, formerly the chair of Clinical Nutrition at UCLA, explains the keto diet. Related article: Ketogenic Diets  

There are many named diets that receive a great deal of attention. But what are they and do they work? David Heber, MD, PhD, from the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition explains these diets. Related articles: Ketogenic Diets (Patient Page) Interest in the Ketogenic Diet Grows for Weight Loss and Type 2 Diabetes Comparison of Weight Loss Among Named Diet Programs in Overweight and Obese Adults: A Meta...

e-Cigarettes are dangerous, but the public has been falsely led to believe that they are safe. Because of this misconception and the inherent dangers, the American Heart Association (AHA) has taken an aggressive stance to educate the public about e-cigarettes, especially their use by kids. Rose Marie Robertson, MD,deputy chief science and medical officer for the AHA, spoke to JAMA about e-cigarett...

Animal bites can be a cause of significant injury and on occasion, fatalities. In this episode, JAMA Fishbein Fellow Angel Desai, MD, MPH discusses the prevention, treatment, and epidemiological oddities of animal bites with Dr Sandra Nelson, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Massachusetts General, Dr Justin Hensley from Children's Hospital of San Antonio, and others. Desai also talks prevention...

The UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recently issued guidelines for how to manage heavy menstrual bleeding. Guidelines only provide guidance and they must be interpreted for an individual patient's clinical context. Andrew Kauntiz, MD, professor and associate chair in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, University of Florida College of Medicine in Jacksonville...

On March 15, 2019, a lone gunman walked into 2 mosques within minutes of each other in Christchurch, New Zealand, and opened fire with semiautomatic weapons, killing 51 and wounding many more. We spoke to Greg Robertson, MB ChB, the surgeon who coordinated the medical response to this mass casualty event. Robertson talks about what his hospital had to do to manage all these casualties and also how...

Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use, otherwise known as "vaping," has been increasing since 2010. This podcast reviews research on the epidemiology and possible adverse health effects of e-cigarette and nicotine use, and the pitfalls associated with using e-cigarettes as a method to stop smoking. These issues are discussed by Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, PhD, a professor with the Department of Psyc...

Barbra Streisand and Noel Bairey Merz, MD, director of the Streisand Women's Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, California, discuss the problem of cardiovascular disease in women and especially coronary microvascular disease, which causes an unusual presentation of cardiac ischemic disease in women.

Atrial fibrillation is a very common problem that is treated with a variety of medications and interventions. Sandip Mukherjee, MD, a contributing editor to The Medical Letter, is the Medical Director of Physician Liaison Services with the Office of the Chief Medical Officer at Yale New Haven Hospital, and an associate professor of medicine at Yale. He summarizes the latest information published i...