Clinical skills

The Intravenous contrast page has been updated with information about the rare hypersensitivity reaction called iododerma.

The table of the relative usefulness of the the various echocardiographic views on the Echocardiography page has been updated.

The Echocardiography page has been updated with information about the suprasternal view.

Hungry bone syndrome has been added to the Hypocalcaemia page as a cause of hypocalcaemia, hypophosphataemia, hypomagnesaemia and hyperkalaemia

The Aging page has been updated with additional information about the epidemiology and assessment of falls, including the timed up and go test. Vieira, ER, Palmer, RC, Chaves, PH. Prevention of falls in older people living in the community. BMJ 2016;353:i1419.  

The Obesity page has been updated with information about the BMI associated with the lowest risk of all cause mortality.

The Drug dosing & administration page has been updated with additional information about S4 restricted drugs.

The Clinical skills page has been updated with a segment on how to avoid claims of impropriety during physical examination.

The Echocardiography page has been updated with a reminder to interpret ‘normal’ echocardiographic measurements considering the body habitus and activity level of the patient. Many athletes have increased IVC, LV wall and aortic root diameter measurements.

The Media interactions page has been extensively revised and added to. As a result of un unpleasant personal experience with flies during a live TV interview, the recommendation to apply personal insect repellent in preparation has been made!

A significant segment on how to make a referral has been added to the Clinical skills page.

A short segment on patiromer, the K-Ca exchange resin newly approved in the USA has been added to the Hyperkalaemia page.

The Hyperkalaemia page has been updated with some additional causes following the recent BMJ article: McDonald, TJ, Oram, RA, Vaidya, B. Investigating hyperkalaemia in adults. BMJ 2015;351 http://www.bmj.com/bmj/351/bmj.h4762.full.pdf.

A small segment on the QT nomogram (and an image) has been added to the Electrocardiography page.

A short segment on contrast injection has been added to the Intravenous contrast page.

Details of how to take a detailed history of pain, using the LOTRADIOP or SOCRATES approach, have been added to the Clinical skills page.

Some information about the S4 and S8 schedules has been added to the Drug dosing and administration page.

A small section on the ImmunoXpert inflammatory biomarker system that may aid in differentiating viral from bacterial infections has been added to the Serum proteins page.