What's Hot In Medicine> 2010
Year: 2010
The Top Ten lists in Medicine feature papers published during the last two years (excluding review articles) that were most cited in current journal articles indexed by Clarivate during a recent two-month period. Papers are ranked according to the latest bimonthly citation count. The articles below are accompanied by expert discussion and analysis (including comments from the papers’ authors) written by one of four veteran scientist-journalists and longtime ScienceWatch.com contributors.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010
Bypass and Stenting Vie For Hearts and Minds
by David W. Sharp
Faced with the necessity of myocardial
revascularizaton, clinicians typically have two choices:
coronary-artery bypass grafting (CABG), or less-invasive
percutaneous procedures that usually involve stents. A recent study
has compared these two methods and concluded that CABG should remain
the standard of care, given the decreased likelihood of major
cardiac or cerebrovascular events, although the reduced invasiveness
of percutaneous methods appears to have accounted for their wider
use.
View Article
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2010
Role of Soluble Amyloid-ß Examined in Alzheimer’s
by David W. Sharp
Recent research in Alzheimer’s disease has shifted
from emphasis on plaques and tangles of beta-amyloid protein in the
brains of Alzheimer’s patients to smaller, soluble forms of
beta-amyloid. Soluble forms of human beta-amyloid have been observed
to interfere with the memory of learned behavior in rats. Soluble
beta-amyloid also correlates well with dementia in human patients.
These findings open a promising area for further Alzheimer’s
research.View Article
JULY/AUGUST 2010
Genetic Determinants of Platelet-Inhibitor Response
by David W. Sharp
Identifying the genetic determinants of how efficacious
a drug will be—research that has already been applied to the
anti-cancer agent cetuximab—has also been explored in connection
with the anti-platelet compound clopidogrel. In examining why cardiac
patients given the drug respond so differently, researchers have
pinpointed genetic differences, such as variant alleles of the gene
CYP2C19.View Article
MAY/JUNE 2010
Disquieting Details on the 2009 Swine Flu Outbreak
by David W. Sharp
Early reports on the H1N1 influenza outbreak in
humans during 2009 already rank among the most-cited recent papers in
medicine. Three such papers, based on an international collaborative
effort, report on the emergence and characteristics of the outbreak,
including characterization of the novel virus, cataloguing of patients
and their symptoms, and assessments of transmission rates.View Article
MARCH/APRIL 2010
Coronary-Artery Calcium: A Risk for Heart Disease?
by David W. Sharp
Among recent medical reports attracting numerous
citations are studies addressing some of society’s most
prevalent health problems: type 2 diabetes, obesity, and coronary
heart disease. The elements under study include the control of
blood glucose in diabetes, examinations of increase in the
incidence of obesity among various segments of the population, and
the monitoring of coronary-artery calcium as a means for
predicting heart disease.View Article
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010
Prostate Debate: Does PSA Screening Affect Mortality?
by David W. Sharp
Testing men for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) as a
screening for prostate cancer continues to provoke investigation
and debate in the healthcare community. A definitive improvement
in mortality rate has yet to be demonstrated, and the tests carry
the potential drawbacks of false-positive results and unnecessary
overtreatment. Studies reported in two recent Hot Papers in
Medicine consider data related to these matters.View Article
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