Pressure on for eight EPL wannabes

All to play for ... Watford's manager Gianfranco Zola celebrates with Manuel Almunia. Source: Mike Egerton / AAP

An intriguing nPower Championship season comes to a thrilling conclusion on Saturday night from 9.45pm (EST).

Don't you just love a final day of the season when every game is played at the same time. And it makes it even better when your team is heavily involved.

1. Cardiff: 86 points

2. Hull City: 78

3. Watford: 77

4: Brighton & Hove Albion: 72

5. Crystal Palace: 69

6. Bolton: 67

7. Nottingham Forest: 67

8. Leicester City: 65

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17. Blackburn Rovers: 57

18. Huddersfield Town: 57

19. Millwall: 56

20. Sheffield Wednesday: 55

21. Peterborough United: 54

22. Barnsley: 54

23. Wolverhampton: 51

24: Bristol City: 41

Cardiff City may have already reached the promised land of the Barclays Premier League but the season is far from over for at least seven other teams in the hunt.

One of those is Nottingham Forest. It's been a dismal time for fans since the heady days of Brian Clough, so a possible outing in the play-offs is something to really cherish.

Forest aren't guaranteed qualification. Relying on results elsewhere is never a good thing, but when there is hope, there is always a red and white scarf ready to be paraded.

It's amazing that it has all come down to one game. Ninety bloody minutes.

In a season of 3960 minutes - plus added time - you couldn't script it any better.

Just ask poor old Brentford in League One last weekend.

The battle to join Cardiff without going through the play-off route has come down to two teams.

Hull City had a fleeting glimpse of the big time between 2008 and 2010. They thrilled for a while before ultimately finishing second from bottom.

Watford have been the perennial up-and-down team. They last appeared in the EPL in the 2006-2007 season.

Under the mercurial Italian Gianfranco Zola they have been among the top teams all season. 

But they must beat slumping Leeds United at Vicarage Road and then hope Hull, who entertain Cardiff, lose.

The loser of the race for an automatic promotion spot is guaranteed third place.

Fourth will be the surprising Brighton. The Seagulls have been totally transformed under Gus Poyet. It was only a matter of 16 years ago that they were facing possible extinction. 

Fifth is likely to be Mile Jedinak's Crystal Palace, but the south Londoners can take nothing for granted considering their dreadful recent form.

It's hard to believe at one stage in December they were top of the table. But one win in 12 games will do that to your chances.

They actually had a big chance to secure a play-off berth on Wednesday morning (EST) only to draw 0-0 with rivals Millwall.

Still, they are in the box seat, two points clear of Forest and Bolton Wanderers.

Sixth is the veritable free-for-all - with Bolton, Forest and Leicester City all in contetntion.

Bolton face mid-table Blackpool at home. A win will more than likely see them home. They are currently equal on points with Forest but have a slightly better goal difference.

In one of the tastiest finales, Forest face Leicester at the City Ground.

At the other end of the table, Wolverhampton Wanderers are staring at their second successive relegation and need a miracle to survive. Even if they beat Brighton, they have to rely on Barnsley and Peterborough losing. Barnsley travel to Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield while Peterborough face Crystal Palace in London.

But they aren't the only ones in danger of accompanying Bristol City to League One.

Millwall, Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield and even Blackburn Rovers are not completely safe.

It's all set up for an amazing final day. Bring it on!

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Fewer blood pressure screens may be more effective

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After analyzing five years' worth of data for more than 400 patients, researchers conclude that the current practice of screening at every visit to the doctor's office - up to several times a year - may result in more people mistakenly diagnosed and unnecessarily treated for high blood pressure than would simple yearly screening.

Blood pressure measurements are often taken without following proper procedure, according to lead study author Dr. Gregory Garrison, so the readings can be widely inaccurate and lead to some people being wrongly diagnosed with hypertension, while others who have the condition are written off as just "more false positives."

"One, it results in unnecessary patient anxiety, repeated clinic visits, and laboratory testing," Garrison, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, told Reuters Health by email. "Two, it often lulls physicians into writing off a positive result because so few are confirmed."

Garrison and his colleagues found that taking fewer readings, while still sometimes inaccurate, would weed out almost half of the false positives.

The researchers looked at Mayo Clinic records for 68 patients diagnosed with high blood pressure and 372 patients without high blood pressure. Based on the readings from every doctor's visit, all 68 high blood pressure cases were identified, but 110 people without high blood pressure would also potentially have been wrongly diagnosed because of a stray high measurement.

When the researchers analyzed the same data but only considered one measurement per patient per year, they identified 63 of the patients with high blood pressure - at or before the original date of their actual diagnosis - and got 67 false positives, according to the results published in the Annals of Family Medicine.

An office blood pressure measurement can be inaccurate if it is not performed with the patient seated, arm supported, after a five-minute period of rest. Otherwise, blood pressure can rise temporarily for a variety of reasons, including the mild stress of being tested by a doctor, known as the "white coat effect."

"Blood pressure technique is not good at all, and does overestimate a lot of the time," said Dr. William Cushman, chief of the Preventive Medicine section at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Memphis, Tennessee.

But he disagrees with the Mayo team's conclusion. Overestimation results in unnecessary expense and anxiety, but doesn't usually harm the patient, said Cushman, who was not involved in the new study.

If less frequent testing fails to identify a few positive cases, that could be a bigger problem, he told Reuters Health.

In the study, annual testing failed to identify five of the 68 cases of hypertension, or a little over seven percent, which was not statistically significant in that case. But it could become significant when applied to a larger population, according to Cushman.

"In populations, we don't want to miss ten percent of people," Cushman said.

High risk patients with high blood pressure can start to see the benefits of treatment after six months or a year, so waiting twelve months between tests could have consequences for some, he added.

For most people, hypertension is a slow moving disease, and a diagnosis delayed by a few months or a year is unlikely to have noticeable negative consequences, according to Garrison.

"However, we have a number of patients, perhaps as many as 30 percent, who have hypertension for years without diagnosis and proper treatment," Garrison said. "This can result in heart disease, kidney disease, and many other complications."

These people can have elevated readings for years that go unnoticed or undiagnosed because they are written off as false positives and attributed to pain, infection or some other cause, he explains.

Measuring blood pressure less often and taking each reading more seriously could help catch some of those undiagnosed cases, Garrison believes.

The United States Preventive Services Task Force, a government-backed advisory body, recommends blood pressure screening once every two years for people at low risk for the condition and once yearly for those at high risk.

Doctors continue to test at every visit partly because patients expect it, Cushman said, and partly because there are generally no organized efforts to ensure patients and doctors remember to screen every year or two.

Before doctors can start screening less, that kind of system of reminders needs to be in place to ensure no patient falls through the cracks, Cushman said.

Getting blood pressure taken is very important," he added. "If an adult has not had their blood pressure taken in a year, or they don't know what it was, then they should get it taken fairly soon, or ask for it," he said.

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Pressure on Iran: Kerry Demands 'Immediate' Release of Jailed Pastor

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Secretary of State John Kerry, in a first-ever statement from his office on the case of imprisoned Iranian-American Saeed Abedini, called Friday for Abedini to be “immediately released” and said he is “disturbed” by reports that he’s suffered physical and psychological abuse at the Iranian prison where he’s being held.

The statement was released by Kerry late Friday afternoon, and it came after the attorneys representing Abedini’s family released a letter the Christian pastor sent to his wife describing how he was beaten and denied medical treatment because he was seen as "unclean" because of his faith.

Kerry's call for the pastor’s release marks the first such formal statement on the case. The full statement from Kerry read as follows:

“I am deeply concerned about the fate of U.S. citizen Saeed Abedini, who has been detained for nearly six months and was sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran on charges related to his religious beliefs. I am disturbed by reports that Mr. Abedini has suffered physical and psychological abuse in prison, and that his condition has become increasingly dire. Such mistreatment violates international norms as well as Iran's own laws.  

“I am also troubled by the lack of due process in Mr. Abedini's case and Iran's continued refusal to allow consular access by Swiss authorities, the U.S. protecting power in Iran.  I welcome reports that Mr. Abedini was examined by a physician and expect Iranian authorities to honor their commitment to allow Mr. Abedini to receive treatment for these injuries from a specialist outside the prison. The best outcome for Mr. Abedini is that he be immediately released.”

Attorneys for Abedini's wife, Naghmeh Abedini, as well as lawmakers who have rallied on the prisoner’s behalf, have been urging Kerry to get directly involved. Republican lawmakers expressed dismay last Friday when the State Department did not provide a witness for a hearing at which Naghmeh Abedini testified.

Since that hearing, and the attention it received, the Obama administration has taken additional actions. State Department representatives met with Naghmeh Abedini last week, and the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday directly called for Abedini's release during a meeting in Geneva. An attorney for the family called that the "first pro-active statement by ... our administration" in the case.

State Department and White House officials have previously addressed Abedini’s case in public before, but only when questioned about it by reporters and others.

The Kerry statement late Friday marks a new level of escalation in the administration’s statements.

Hours earlier, a letter was released which was received by Saeed Abedini's family this week, though it may have been written weeks ago.

The letter from Saeed Abedini to his wife described in detail how he's been mistreated at Iran's notorious Evin Prison. He described how he saw his face for the first time in the mirror of an elevator.

"I said hi to the person staring back at me because I did not recognize myself," Abedini wrote. "My hair was shaven, under my eyes were swollen three times what they should have been, my face was swollen, and my beard had grown."

The pastor explained how, despite his situation, he is trying to focus on "forgiveness." He said he forgave the "interrogator who beat me" as well as the doctor who "did not give me the medication that I needed."

Abedini wrote that a nurse would not provide him with treatment because she said "in our religion we are not suppose to touch you, you are unclean." He wrote that he could not fall to sleep one night because of the pain, as he listened to the sound of "dirty sewer rats with their loud noises and screeches."

Attorney Jordan Sekulow, though, told Fox News on Friday that he has since received a medical review. Sekulow said Abedini was promised he'd be moved to a hospital outside the prison, though cautioned that the family would have to see that happen to believe it.

Sekulow, meanwhile, drew attention to a statement delivered Thursday in Geneva by Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, the U.S. representative on the U.N. Human Rights Council.

She said: "Iranian officials continue to restrict these communities' freedom to practice their religious beliefs free from harassment, threat or intimidation. Christian pastor Saeed Abedini's continuing harsh treatment at the hands of Iranian authorities exemplifies this trend.

"We repeat our call for the government of Iran to release Mr. Abedini, and others who are unjustly imprisoned, and to cease immediately its persecution of all religious minority communities. The United States also repeats its call for the government of Iran to provide without delay the urgent medical attention Mr. Abedini needs."

Donahoe came under criticism for neglecting to specifically address the case at a recent meeting in Geneva on Iran's human rights record. Donahoe instead broadly criticized "the Iranian government's ceaseless campaign of abuse" against those who dissent.

Abedini has been held in Iran's Evin Prison since September of last year and was sentenced to eight years in prison in January -- accused of evangelizing and threatening national security.

Naghmeh Abedini met Saeed in 2002 and they married two years later. Both had converted from Islam to Christianity -- Saeed became a U.S. citizen in 2010.

The Iranian government does not recognize his American citizenship, though it had enabled him to travel freely between both countries until this past summer, when he was pulled off a bus and placed under house arrest, according to his supporters.

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