The care and feeding of evidence based medicine.

Wide interest in evidence based medicine (EBM) and its value in patient care, insurance payment decisions, and public health planning has triggered intense medical journal and media coverage that merits review, explanation, and comment. Published EBM data vary in quality for reasons that have been the subject of many perceptive literature reviews. Study design can be faulted, and conflicts of interest, personal and economic, can potentially bias study results and their publication.

Koch's postulates, carnivorous cows, and tuberculosis today.

With Koch's announcement in 1882 of his work with the tubercle bacillus, his famous postulates launched the rational world of infectious disease and an abrupt social change--strict patient isolation. The postulates, so successful at their inception, soon began to show some problems, particularly with cholera, which clearly violated some of Koch's requirements. Subsequent studies of other diseases and the discovery of entirely new ones have so altered and expanded the original postulates that they now are little but a precious touch of history.

Human injury from atomic particles and photon exposure: fears, myths, risks, and mortality.

Energy absorbtion from particles and photons moving at relativistic speeds has been a fundamental part of life on earth and wherever else life might exist. Heat and visible light have deeply influenced the course of human evolution, affecting habitat and nutrition. The photons of ionizing radiation that over time can possibly affect evolution, contribute to the more immediate problem of morbidity and mortality of cancer This review addresses our radiative energy absorbtion, from both natural and manmade sources, and its relationship with disease and death.

Reproducibility of ultrasound scan in the assessment of volume flow in the veins of the lower extremities.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was the identification of the optimal settings of ultrasound scan flow measurement in the veins and the determination of whether the standardization of these settings can provide acceptable reproducibility of the venous flow measurements in individual segments of the lower extremity veins.

Methods: The venous cross-sectional area, the time average mean velocity, and the venous volume flow of 25 healthy volunteers were examined with duplex ultrasound scanning. Reproducibility was examined with different measurement settings.