Recommendations for Care of the Asymptomatic Patient

We present a set of reasonable guidelines for the care of healthy, asymptomatic individuals based upon recommendations prepared by an Internal Medicine review committee of Henry Ford Hospital. There recommendations have four goals: to prevent disease, to detect disease in an asymptomatic and potentially curable state, to enhance the patient\u27s quality of life, and to help physicians teach patients good health habits. Recommendations are made for infectious diseases, cancer, metabolic diseases, neurosensory conditions like visual and hearing loss, and general health habits. Some recommendations are at variance with those of well recognized authorities and should be viewed only as a suggested protocol for the care of the asymptomatic patient. Results of ongoing studies may alter our understanding of some areas of controversy and mandate revision of these guidelines periodically

Prevalence of human Herpesviridae in cerebrospinal fluid of patients with multiple sclerosis and noninfectious neurological disease in the Netherlands

Prevalence of eight human herpesviruses (HHV1-8) was determined by real-time PCR in cell-rich cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples, obtained early after disease symptoms, of Dutch patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and other noninfectious central nervous system diseases (NIND). Whereas HHV1-8 DNA was undetectable in CSF samples of MS patients, HHV6 DNA was detected in a plexus neuritis case and HHV7 DNA in an ependymoma and a Behccts' disease patient. However, intrathecal HHV infection was not detected. Data indicate that HHV1-8 are rarely detected in CSF of Dutch NIND patients and do not support the role of intrathecal HHV infection early after onset of disease symptoms in MS