Specialized Pain Clinics in Primary Care: Common Diagnoses, Referral Patterns and Clinical Outcomes - Novel Pain Management Model.

An estimated 19% of the adult population in western countries lives with chronic pain. Pain management lies mainly within the primary care and community setting. We evaluated the outcome of a new model of secondary care clinics, conducted by primary care physicians with specialized training in pain medicine.

Type 2 diabetes among Circassians in Israel.

Background: The Muslim Circassians in Israel represent a unique ethnic community, distinct from Jews and Arabs. This endogamous group has a limited genetic variability that allows studying risk factors associated with type 2 diabetes.

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of type 2 diabetes among Israeli Circassians and its correlation to obesity and genetic susceptibility.

Coronary heart disease among Circassians in Israel is not associated with mutations in thrombophilia genes.

The Muslim Circassian community in Israel represents a unique ethnic community that has never been genetically and medically studied. One hundred and fifty-three randomly selected individuals (91 men and 62 women, ages 35 and older), both healthy or with a history of cardiovascular disease (14 men and 7 women), were studied in a cross-sectional descriptive study for mutations in three genes known to be associated with hypercoagulation. Their medical records were reviewed for risk factors and history of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and thromboembolic events.

Cryptorchidism: incidence and sperm quality in infertile men.

In a population of 8500 men attending the andrology outpatient clinic, 200 men (2.35%) were recorded as having some disturbances with the descent of the testes into the scrotum. Medical history of the patients revealed that 51 underwent unilateral orchidopexy; 40 bilateral orchidopexy; and 24 were treated with human chorionic gonadotropin in order to induce descent of their testes.

Fertility of men following inguinal hernia repair.

Among 8500 patients attending the fertility clinic due to infertility, 565 men (6.65%) reported an incidence of inguinal hernioplasty with or without subsequent atrophy of the testis. Semen quality (sperm concentrations, motility, and morphology) of these patients was markedly reduced in comparison to that of fertile men.