The RICU

Drugs Have Better Vision than Surgeons?

Stronger or weaker diabetes management? Novel pain management effective or stick with the traditional? Who is the real lipid villain?

Join us as Yis interviews Dr. Courgi, an Endocrinologist from St. Catherine's of Sienna Hospital, on managing diabetes. 

We all know that time when we were kids and we had to have that yucky medicine for what seemed like months but was really only 7-10 days. Is all of that trauma really necessary to put on kids? Can a lower dose and a less amount of days achieve the same outcome? How many days of exercise do the parents really need by chasing the kid around for an hour and then coaxing them for an hour to take the antibiotics?   Find out on The RICU! Thanks for listening and we hope you enjoy it!

Achieving ROSC in a Heartbeat: Improving Outcomes in In-Hospital Cardiac Arrests We all know that feeling-that shiver running down our spine, that skipped heartbeat we notice not on the patient monitor but coming from within our own selves, when that dreaded, yet all-to-frequent Code-Blue rings overhead.  For as long as any of us can remember, ACLS guidelines for cardiac arrest include the same-old flow chart: begin CPR, attach pads, administer epi and amio, etc.  But have you ever stopped and wondered how effective this age-old protocol actually is? Are we reviving enough of these patients to accept this protocol as adequate? Or perhaps there are other drugs we can utilize during a cardiac arrest event? In this week's episode, we discuss an amazing clinical trial that questions these very notions and explores the efficacy of steroids and pressors in achieving ROSC (‘return of spontaneous circulation). Tune in as we discuss the VAM-IHCA Trial and the implications this research will have on improving ROSC outcomes in cardiac arrest events in the hospital setting.  As always, thank you for joining us on the RICU podcast where we keep you up to date on all the latest research in clinical medicine.

When it comes to PANDAS, your first thought probably wanders to cuddly black and white creatures munching on bamboo. And we don't blame you. Who wants to think about neuropsychiatric complications of strep infections in kids? But hey, that's why they send us to school for 12 years.. to think of these weird things.  We hope you'll enjoy this week's episode where a pediatrician, Dr. Kaplovitz, discusses the wild range of treatment options from NSAIDs to antibiotics, and even IVIG, and how clinicians are diagnosing and treating PANDAS.   

The Use of IVIG to treat PANDAS or PANS.

An Attack on the Plaque: Fighting Alzheimer's Disease using a monoclonal antibody against Beta-Amyloid plaque build-up.  A cure for Alzheimer's Disease remains frustratingly elusive to scientists and clinicians. The characteristic build-up of beta-amyloid protein and hyper-phosphorylated Tau protein causes irreversible damage to cognitive function and memory. In this week's episode, we'll dive into a fascinating discussion on a breakthrough monoclonal antibody that reduces the build-up of plaque in the brain. It's like fluoride for the brain! (Although not yet recommended by 9/10 neurologists).  The implications of this journal article are astounding. We hope you enjoy this episode! 

Until now, schizophrenia and other psychotic diseases were consistently treated with heavy duty, anti-dopaminergic, anti-psychotic medications. These drugs- both first and second generation- carry serious and sometimes irreversible adverse effects (think: EPS, NMS, etc.) In today's episode, we'll discuss a groundbreaking phase-2 clinical trial exploring the use of a muscarinic agonist in the treatment of schizophrenia. Worried about DUMBBELLS? So were we! But these researchers have designed a truly elegant cholinergic/anti-cholinergic duet. This is an exciting article you don't want to miss out on!

Dermatological lesions can sometimes feel confusing to diagnose. Skin lesions can often be benign, but you never want to miss a precancerous one. In today's discussion, we'll help you nail down a diagnosis of actinic keratosis and what to prescribe based on the latest evidence-based research.

A Follicular Rescue Mission: Letrozole as first line treatment for infertility in PCOS. The patient suffering from Polcystic Ovarian Syndrome isn't hard to spot. Typically obese, male-pattern hair growth, irregular periods, unsuccessful attempts at fertility and the characteristic overgrowth of ovarian cysts on Ultrasound. We all know it.  But how do we help our patients suffering from this painful disease? Can we actually resolve their infertility? Tune in to this weeks podcast as we discuss the somewhat confusing pathophysiology of PCOS and what the research has shown to be life changing treatment for these women. 

A (Very) Clean Break from Smoking: Utilizing a Pharmacolgic Approach” We don't need to be reminded of the myriad of detrimental effects tobacco smoking has on our patients health. Why don't we have more powerful strategies to help our patients quit smoking? Today's article explores the pharmacological approach to smoking cessation and provides a definitive and perhaps game changing solution. It's up to us, as physicians and providers, to take a stronger stance against failed smoking cessation attempts. We hope that you will walk away with the information from this clinical research article with a more determined strategy to help your patients definitively quit smoking utilizing a combined behavioral and pharmacological approach.

What medication does one give after a patient has a stroke?