What happens if you become frail?
14th July 2025, A/Prof Chee L Khoo It’s amazing how we have learnt to accept declining muscle function and increasing frailty as part of our patients getting older. At GPVoice, we have explored muscle health and sarcopenia many times over the couple of years. We know that declining muscle health is associated not only with […]
The new ADIPS recommendations for GDM – how did we get here?
30th June 2025, A/Prof Chee L Khoo You would have no doubt noticed headlines everywhere about the new criteria for GDM diagnosis that was just released a few days ago. Why is there such a buzz? Why is everyone seemingly that excited? We have covered many of the issues covered by ADIPS over the years […]
Who should not go vegan?
30th June 2025, A/Prof Chee L Khoo There are many reasons why some of our patients go vegetarian. A primarily plant-based diet with less meat is supposed to lower the morbidity of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers [1]. Some patients may choose to reduce their food-related ecological footprint. A […]
Atrial fibrillation – paradigm changes in management
11th June 2025, A/Prof Chee L Khoo Atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with 1.5 – 2-X risk of death (1,2), 2.4-X risk of stroke (2), 5-X risk of heart failure (HF) (2), 1.5-X risk of myocardial infarction (MI) (3), 2-X risk of sudden cardiac death (4), 1.6-X risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) (2), 1.5-X risk of cognitive impairment […]
New Acute Coronary Syndrome guidelines – is it relevant to GPs?
24th May 2025, A/Prof Chee L Khoo One of the problems keeping up to date in primary care is not being aware of new guidelines that has been released. Well, the joint National Heart Foundation and Cardiac Society of ANZ released the new Australian clinical guideline for diagnosing and managing acute coronary syndromes (ACS) just […]
Understanding coronary artery calcium (CAC) scoring
14th May 2025, NIA Diagnostic Imaging Coronary artery calcium (CAC) scoring is a well-established, non-invasive imaging technique for assessing cardiovascular risk by identifying and quantifying calcified plaque in the coronary arteries. The CAC score, a direct marker of subclinical atherosclerosis, highly predicts future cardiovascular events, making it an essential tool for clinicians in assessing risk, […]
Prescribing exercise in T2D – when is a good time?
13th April 2025, A/Prof Chee L Khoo Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) was first shown to be beneficial in the management of patients with type 1 diabetes. Later on, patients with type 2 diabetes on insulin also found CGM beneficial in more ways than one. Of course, patients with T2D not on insulin also found CGM […]
Do anti-depressants hasten cognitive decline in dementia?
28th February 2025, A/Prof Chee L Khoo Every so often you come across a study where the initial and immediate impression is that there must be more to the conclusion. The latest study which connects the use of anti-depressants with further cognitive decline in patients with dementia is just one of those studies. Now, many […]
DEXA – the key to osteoporosis diagnosis
14th January 2025, NIA Diagnostic Imaging It is usually not difficult to diagnose osteoporosis once a patient has fractured a bone or two. The key in primary care is to try to diagnose those at risk of osteoporosis and prevent a fracture, especially neck of femur fracture. The consequence of a neck of femur fracture […]
Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Rx – is CPAP all we have?
8th January 2025, A/Prof Chee L Khoo Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) often (but not always) lead to daytime sleepiness and suboptimal daytime performance (including driving performance). It can also have a major effect on the quality of life (QOL) of the patient and the family. OSA is associated with a number important metabolic and cardiovascular […]
Serum magnesium – what is normal and why the fuss?
23rd December 2024, A/Prof Chee L Khoo The reference values for serum magnesium (Mg2+) have been proposed to be somewhere between ~0.6 and ~1.2 mmol/L in healthy humans. That is a pretty wide range. Have you noticed that every second person discharged from hospital is recommended to take some Mg2+ supplement. Serum Mg2+ is often […]
BNP for heart failure now Medicare funded – who needs them?
27th October 2024, A/Prof Chee L Khoo Patients with heart failure have high mortality and morbidity. Each time they are admitted into hospital with an exacerbation, their cardiac function deteriorate and usually do not return to pre hospital level when they are better. Many of these patients have other co-morbidities which can mask their symptoms […]