30th September, 2018, Dr Chee L Khoo
There is no question that screening mammograms have led to a decline in late stage breast cancers. There have been a gradual decrease in breast cancer mortality, at least partly, due to the introduction of screening mammograms over the last 25 years. But screening mammograms are not perfect. In women with dense breast tissue, the sensitivity of mammogram decreases.…
30th September 2018, Dr Chee L Khoo
10-40% of patients with psoriasis have joint manifestations as part of a multi-system inflammatory disease (1). There is a strong association between psoriasis and elements of metabolic syndrome. Recent evidence suggests that patients with psoriasis have increased cardio-metabolic morbidity and mortality. Like other auto-immune collagen diseases, psoriatic arthropathy (PsA) often necessitate a referral to the specialists to manage the systemic and joint disease.…
30th September 2018, Dr Chee L Khoo
Sulfonylurea (SU) is still one of the most commonly prescribed anti-diabetic agent for type 2 diabetes (T2D)1. These patients may have put on a few kilograms of weight over the years but then they are overweight anyway. Weight gain when one gets older is pretty much expected anyway. They may have a few cardiovascular events here and there but then patients with T2D are known to have a higher risk of CV events.…
15th September, 2018, Dr Chee L Khoo
There is definitely a role for aspirin in preventing cardiovascular (CV) events in patients who already had a CV event (secondary prevention). There is always a risk of gastrointestinal and intracranial bleeding. Because the risk of another event after the first is often significantly higher, when one works out the risk benefit ratio, the benefits of aspirin use usually wins.…
15th September, 2018, Dr Chee L Khoo
Nausea and vomiting affects up to 80% of pregnancies but severe nausea and vomiting in early pregnancy or hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) can affect up to 1% of pregnancy. As GPs, we are often the first port of call for these women. We know how debilitating it is to those women. There is also an significant economic impact not just because of many of these women ended up in hospital on more than one occasion before 20 weeks of gestation but many (and often their partners) can’t go to work during this period.…
15th September 2018, Dr Chee L Khoo
Glomerular Hyperfiltration
Although the physiological factors that cause early diabetic renal injury remain incompletely understood, glomerular hyperfiltration (GH) has been associated with the development of diabetic nephropathy (DN). GH leads to renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) activation which in turn leads to systemic vascular and endothelial abnormalities. DN not only lead to dialysis and ultimately, renal transplantation in some, it is a leading cause of mortality in patients with diabetes.…
15th September 2018, Dr Chee L Khoo
Noxious family members?
When phagocytes engulf microorganisms, intracellular phagasome bound NADPH oxidase catalysed the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) like superoxide and hydrogen perixoide which kills the microorganism. NADPH oxidase is also expressed on membranes of many other non-phagocytic cells. ROS play a pivotal role in many physiological processes including host defence, hormone biosynthesis, fertilisation and cellular signalling.…
1st September 2018, Dr Chee L Khoo
After acute otitis media, the middle ear effusion usually resolves within days although it may take up to 3 months in some children. However, in up to 8% of kids, the effusion persist beyond the 3 months and it becomes chronic otitis media with effusion (COME). Why these 8% is the key research question.…
1st August, 2018, Dr Chee L Khoo
When a diagnosis is idiopathic, it often means we don’t know its pathogenesis well. Often, a mixed bag of conditions is thrown in there because we are rather imprecise in defining them. Fibrosis is the final common pathway of lung injury and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis used to have a mixture of fibrotic conditions lumped together under the umbrella diagnosis.…
1st September, 2018, Dr Chee L Khoo
It would seem to me that just about every doctor who graduated from Australian medical schools know about Morton’s neuroma. It’s part of the long list of differential diagnoses of forefoot pain but either I have missed many or it’s not that common. I’m also not sure what else to do once diagnosed apart from referring to an orthopaedic surgeon.…
15th August, 2018, Dr Chee L Khoo
“Trust me, I’m a doctor” is so universally accepted that we don’t even have to say it. Patients know that they can trust us implicitly. What are we asking patients to trust us with though? The current debate or argument about the pros and cons of opt-in or opt-out with MyHealthRecord may endanger the trust patients have in their doctors.…
15th August 2018, Dr Chee L Khoo
Diabetes can be diagnosed using a myriad of criteria – fasting glucose >7.0mmol/L, 2-hour post prandial >11.0 mmol/L or HbA1c > 6.5%. There are limitations to each of those tests and it is not one size fits all. The myriad of diagnostic tests allows clinicians to choose the most appropriate test for our patients based on their individual characteristics.…