Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhea and Clostridium difficile Ronnie Pimental, Anuja Choure DEFINITION The first report of antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) was found in the Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital of 1893, where…

Principles of Screening Raul J. Seballos Preventive medicine encompasses primary, secondary, and tertiary preventive measures such as screening, counseling, immunization, and prophylaxis. The goal of primary prevention is to prevent…

Syncope Fetnat Fouad-Tarazi, Laura Shoemaker, Ken Mayuga, Fred Jaeger DEFINITION Syncope is an abrupt loss of consciousness with a concomitant loss of postural tone. Presyncope, also called near syncope, is…

Obesity Stacy Brethauer, Sangeeta Kashyap, Philip Schauer DEFINITION AND ETIOLOGY Obesity has become an important public health problem in industrialized countries throughout the world. The body mass index (BMI =…

Kidney Function Assessment by Creatinine-Based Estimation Equations Martin E. Lascano, Emilio D. Poggio Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been recognized as a common health care problem, and therefore the National…

Takayasu’s Arteritis José Hernández-Rodríguez, Kathleen Maksimowicz-McKinnon, Gary S. Hoffman DEFINITION AND ETIOLOGY Takayasu’s arteritis (TA) is a large-vessel vasculitis of unknown etiology that has a predilection for the aorta and…

Diabetic Nephropathy Saud Butt, Phillip Hall, Saul Nurko DEFINITION AND CAUSES Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is typically defined by macroalbuminuria—that is, a urinary albumin excretion of more than 300 mg in a…

Perioperative Evaluation Christopher M. Whinney Operative treatment of disease has a tremendous yet unrecognized impact on modern medical systems. An estimated 26 million patients underwent surgery in the United States…

Clostridium difficile Thomas G. Fraser, James F. Swiencicki DEFINITION AND CAUSES Clostridium difficile is an obligate anaerobic, spore-producing, gram-positive rod that was first described in 1935. Its link with pseudomembranous…

Sleep-Disordered Breathing Marie M. Budev, Joseph A. Golish Humans spend almost 30% of their lives sleeping. Since the 1970s, physicians have begun to recognize many of the detrimental consequences of…