10/31/2010

Barbershops a cut above for BP checks in African American men

HYPERTENSION

Barbershops a cut above for BP checks in African American men

OCTOBER 28, 2010 | Steve Stiles

Chicago, IL - In the Texas of 150 years ago, the town barber was probably also the guy who pulled an aching tooth. A cadre of barbers in today's Texas were true to their healthcare-provider heritage by participating in a hypertension-screening outreach experiment that helped many of their customers with hypertension to get their blood pressures under control.

In a unique randomized trial [1], African American men who were patrons of black-owned barbershops in Dallas County, where they had their BP regularly measured and were encouraged to contact a physician when it was elevated, showed a mean 7.8-mm-Hg drop in systolic pressure over 10 months.

That was only 2.5-mm-Hg more of a drop (p=0.08) than seen in a comparator group of men who had received standard educational pamphlets on high BP in African Americans, but no BP checks or other encouragement to assess blood pressure, at the barbershops.

"That doesn't sound like much of a blood-pressure fall for any one person, but at the population level it's a very large effect," lead author Dr Ronald G Victor (Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, Los Angeles, CA) observed for heartwire.

read more here

10/25/2010

LIST OF MUSLIM FOOD OUTLET IN HONG KONG

ISLAMIC CENTRE CANTEEN
5th floor Masjid Ammar and Osman Ramju
Sadick Islamic Centre
40 Oi Kwan Road
Wan Chai Hong Kong

EBENEEZER'S KEBAB
Shop No G04
Wan Chai Central Building
89 Lockhart Road
Wan Chai Hong Kong

EBENEEZER'S KEBAB
Ground floor
52 Lockhart Road
Wan Chai Hong Kong

EBENEEZER'S KEBAB
Ground Floor
California Place
25 D'Aguilar Streeet
Lan Kwai Fong
Central Hong Kong

EBENEEZER'S KEBAB
G01C
Astoria Building
32 Ashley Road
Tsim Sha Tsui
Kowloon

EBENEEZER'S KEBAB
Shop No 2,3 & 5
Ground Floor
Multifield Plaza
5-7A Prat Avenue
Tsim Sha Tsui
Kowloon

EBENEEZER'S KEBAB
Shop 11 & 12
Ground Floor
Hong Kong Gold Coast
No 1 Castle Peak Road
Tuen Mun
New Terrritories

EBENEEZER'S KEBAB
Shop G03A
Discovery Bay Plaza
Discovery Bay
Lantau Island

ISTANBUL KEBAB
Shop F-1
Ground Floor
Rose Mansion
1 Hart Avenue
Tsim Sha Tsui
Kowloon

ISTANBUL KEBAB
Ground floor
34A Lock Road
Tsim Sha Tsui
Kowloon

MUGHAL CLUB
Room 211 2nd Floor
Hai Phong Mansion
53-55 Hai Phong Road
Tsim Sha Tsui
Kowloon

THE GREAT INDIAN KEBAB FACTORY
Shop 8
Level 2
Miramar Shopping Centre
132 Nathan Road
Tsim Sha Tsui
Kowloon

SPICE RESTAURANT
2nd Floor
Prosperous Centre
No 1 Knutsford Terrace
Tsim Sha Tsui
Kowloon

ZIAFAT RESTAURANT
6th Floor
Harilela Mansion
81 Nathan Road
Tsim Sha Tsui
Kowloon

THE NEW SANGEET INDIAN RESTAURANT
Shop UG06 - 08
Upper Ground Floor
Toyo Mall
Intercontinental Plaza
94 Granville Road
Tsim Sha Tsui
Kowloon

JOJO INDIAN CUISINE
2nd Floor
David House
37 - 39 Lockhart Road
Wan Chai Hong Kong

RANG MAHAL
Flat B 1st Floor
Percival House
83 Percival Street
Causeway Bay (near Times Square)
Hong Kong

JANSHAN CELEBRATING INDIAN CUISINE
1st floor
Amber Lodge
23 Hollywood Road
Central
Hong Kong

SHAFFI'S INDIAN RESTAURANT
Shop 7
Ground Floor
Fau Tsui Street
Yuen Long
New Territories

POPEYE'S CHICKENS AND BISCUITS
7T103 & 7E161
Level 7
Passenger Terminal 1
Hong Kong International Airport
Lantau Island

HABIBI RESTAURANT
1st Floor
Grand Progress Building
15 - 16 Lan Kwai Fong
Central
Hong Kong

HABIBI CAFE
112 - 114
Wellington Streeet
Central
Hong Kong

WARUNG MALANG
Flat B2
2nd Floor
Dragon Rise Building
9-11 Pennington Streeet
Causeway Bay
Hong Kong

BLITAR CAFE
201 Causeway Bay Centre
19 - 23 Sugar Street
Causeway Bay
Hong Kong

10/14/2010

NAIL IN COFFIN FOR TRANSMYOCARDIAL LASER SURGERY

I remember few months back there was a great "ho ha" about a certain tertiary teaching hospital buying "state of the art" transmyocardial laser surgery.
A lot of my patients were asking me whether he / she should be referred for it. Below is an article from medscape. It is really a nail in coffin for this therapy.. Furthermore, what a waste of public funding..

Lasers Vaporised from NICE Guideline Recommendations for Refractory Angina


Christine Wright

Posted: 10/04/2010; Br J Cardiol. 2010;17(4):159-160

Introduction

As from May 2009 the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) have removed transmyocardial laser revascularisation (TMLR) from the list of treatments for refractory angina.[1] From their analysis of efficacy they found no evidence of improved myocardial perfusion, ejection fraction or prognosis. There was also no evidence for improvement in exercise tolerance or Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) class when compared with other treatments. Furthermore, looking at the data on safety, randomised controlled trials showed evidence of increased myocardial infarction in the TMLR-treated patient group, as well as evidence of left ventricular perforation.

There have been reservations regarding this technique for many years and it would seem to be a valid decision on behalf of the specialist advisers. It seems appropriate, therefore, to look at how to best treat this complex group of patients.