Higher antibiotic doses to bigger people

Two doctors said in The Lancet Viewpoint, although drug treatments are tailored for individual patients, most dosing regimens, do not take patient's body size into consideration.

They argued that with increasing level of obesity worldwide, the standard dose of antibiotics for all adults is outdated because it may not be strong enough to clear the infection in taller and larger adults and resistance may be developed. Likewise, smaller patients may get too much drug, and suffer greater side-effects as a result.

They said that a patient's bodyweight should be taken into account when calculating their dose of antibiotics to achieve effectivenesss and safety.

Critics say that this review is based on authors' views and experience and is a valuable discussion. Changes to current prescribing would be costly and complicated, therfore further research and follow-up of previous study data would be needed.

Source:
"Adjustment of dosing of antimicrobial agents for bodyweight in adults". The Lancet, 375(9710):248-251

Editorial: "Prescribing medicines: size matters". The Lancet 2010; 375(9710): 172

CT scans raise cancer risk

A research article published in this week's NEJM raised serious concerns about the cancer risks associated with CT scans due to its widespread use in America.

CT sacns are increasingly used in America to diagnose medical problems in children as well as adults, they are needlessly exposed to dangerous radiation that raises the risk of cancer.

The authors said that "too many CT studies are being performed in US" and suggested ways to reduce overall radiation dose from CT including reducing dose in individual patients, using other options and reducing the number of prescribed CT studies.

Source : "Computed Tomography — An Increasing Source of Radiation Exposure" NEJM, Volume 357(22):2277-2284 ( free full text)