Prospective comparison of curbside versus formal consultations.

Background: Curbside consultations are commonly requested during the care of hospitalized patients, but physicians perceive that the recommendations provided may be based on inaccurate or incomplete information.

Objective: To compare the accuracy and completeness of the information received from providers requesting a curbside consultation of hospitalists with that obtained in a formal consultation on the same patients, and to examine whether the recommendations offered in the 2 consultations differed.

Design: Prospective cohort.

Aqueous extract of herba Scutellaria barbatae, a chinese herb used for ovarian cancer, induces apoptosis of ovarian cancer cell lines.

Objectives: Given the increasingly common use of complementary medicine in cancer patients, we tested the in vitro cytotoxicity of aqueous extracts of 15 traditional Chinese herbs with purported anticancer properties on ovarian and breast cancer cell lines.

Methods: Cell viability after treatment with herbal extract was measured by metabolism of a tetrazolium substrate. Apoptosis was measured by nuclear and DNA fragmentation and Annexin V binding.