Towards Evaluating and Enhancing the Reach of Online Health Forums for Smoking Cessation.

Online pro-health social networks facilitating smoking cessation through web-assisted interventions have flourished in the past decade. In order to properly evaluate and increase the impact of this form of treatment on society, one needs to understand and be able to quantify its reach, as defined within the widely-adopted RE-AIM framework. In the online communication context, user engagement is an integral component of reach.

Administration of pamidronate helps prevent immediate postparathyroidectomy hungry bone syndrome.

Background: Despite the use of vitamin D analogues and oral calcium supplements, hypocalcaemia following surgical parathyroidectomy is a common problem, because of the so-called hungry bone syndrome.

Methods: The aim of this audit was to determine whether the change in clinical practice by the administration of pamidronate before parathyroidectomy, in addition to standard perioperative management, could prevent severe postoperative hypocalcaemia.

Results: The postoperative course of 37 end-stage renal failure patients on regular dialysis referred for total parathyroidectomy were reviewed.

Parathyroid carcinoma: a report of two cases and a concise review and update of the literature.

Parathyroid carcinoma is very rare and when diagnosed can be difficult to treat as more than 50 per cent have persistent or recurrent disease. Patients generally present with profound symptoms of hypercalcaemia and a palpable neck mass. We describe a case of parathyroid carcinoma in primary hyperparathyroidism and a case in tertiary hyperparathyroidism in a renal dialysis patient.