News Notes

Evidence-Based Coronary Artery Disease Prevention?

Physicians may be more conservative in prescribing antioxidants for their patients than for themselves, according to a recent survey of members of the American College of Cardiology. As might be expected, the cardiologists had less coronary artery disease (CAD) and fewer risk factors than the general population. Nevertheless, they treated themselves with antioxidants more aggressively than they treated their CAD patients.

Although 44% of the physicians reported regularly taking antioxidants, only 37% recommended them to their patients with CAD (Am J Cardiol. 1997; 79:1558-60). Vitamin E was the most common antioxidant (39%) used by physicians, followed by vitamin C (33%) and ß-carotene (19%); their prophylactic aspirin use was slightly lower (42%) than their antioxidant use. Twenty-eight percent of the physicians took both aspirin and antioxidants.

The author notes that although some benefits of aspirin and vitamin E in primary and secondary CAD prevention have been documented, use of vitamin C and ß-carotene cannot be supported by the reported data. The study was completed by student Jason Mehta, with the help of his father, Jawahar L. Mehta, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and physiology at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville.

Internet Information on Gastrointestinal Diseases May Be Questionable

Ten percent of Internet sites offering treatment advice for gastrointestinal diseases posted remedies that are of no proven benefit, according to a study presented at a November meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology in Chicago. The researchers explored 100 sites with information on pancreatic cancer, duodenal ulcer, hepatitis C, and the irritable bowel syndrome. In conditions for which there is satisfactory medical treatment-for example, duodenal ulcer-no sites included unproven therapies. But for functional gastrointestinal disorders, such as the irritable bowel syndrome, 23% of sites included unproven therapies. For hepatitis C and pancreatic cancer, 17.6% and 12.5% of sites, respectively, included unproven therapies.

The authors noted that Web sites sponsored by government agencies, universities, and medical organizations provided more reliable information than sites sponsored by commercial organizations or individuals.