Endocrinology
The abrupt withdrawal of morphine-like analgesics - opioids - can
As part of its research commitment on bisphenol A (BPA), Health Canada released yesterday the results of studies investigating BPA exposure levels in baby food in glass jars with metal lids, powdered infant formula, and bottled water. The results from these three government studies provide definitive confirmation that baby food products packaged in glass jars with metal lids, powdered infant formula, and bottled water do not pose a health risk. Researchers found that all levels of BPA found in tested products were exceedingly low and all are well below the level established as safe for consumers by the Canadian government. The North American Metal Packaging Alliance, Inc. (NAMPA) welcomes the latest Canadian study, noting that these findings confirm industry"s own research that shows BPA levels in food containers are negligible.
GE Healthcare, a division of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) announced that Beloit Memorial Hospital, Beloit, Wis., has selected an Optima® XR640 digital radiographic system for its expanded emergency department.
Two new specialist teams will be set up to improve diagnosis, care and support for people with eating disorders in Wales, Health Minister Edwina Hart officially announced.
safefood today launched a new advertising campaign to highlight common and widespread poor food hygiene practices in the home as new research (1) revealed that 84% of people did not thoroughly wash their hands after handling raw chicken. The campaign titled "Don"t Take Risks" focuses on key messages of proper hand washing, proper cleaning of cooking utensils and thorough cooking, steps all of which can help minimise the risks of food poisoning in the home. The research also revealed that 72% failed to properly wash a knife used in preparing raw chicken before its reuse on salad vegetables, and 56% did not check if the chicken was cooked properly.
Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX) announced CE Mark for its LATITUDE® Patient Management system. The LATITUDE system remotely monitors patients with implantable cardiac devices, gathering information on both the device and a patient"s heart health status. The system can also detect clinical events between scheduled physician visits and send relevant data directly to a patient"s physician. It will be launched in Europe in a phased approach beginning this week.
Governor Jon S. Corzine and Health and Senior Services Commissioner Heather Howard applauded the Obama administration for allocating $10 million to New Jersey to enhance the state"s efforts to be as prepared as possible to deal with the fall 2009 H1N1 Influenza season.
Caesarean sections -- which are performed in 31% of births, up from 4.5% in 1965 -- often are considered an unnecessary risk and "an example of how the intensive and expensive U.S. brand of medicine has failed to deliver better results and may, in fact, be doing more harm than good," the Los Angeles Times reports. According to the Times, c-sections can increase a woman"s risk of complications, such as infection, blood clots and premature delivery. Even without complication, c-sections typically result in longer hospital stays and increased costs. Expenses related to c-section births account for 45% of the more than $79 billion in annual hospital charges that childbirth incurs in the U.S. annually. The average uncomplicated c-section costs about $4,500, which is about twice the cost for vaginal births. C-sections cost about $13,000 for privately insured patients. According to a 2008 report by Childbirth Connection, "The financial toll of maternity care on private (insurers)/employers and Medicaid/taxpayers is especially large." It also said, "Maternity care thus plays a considerable role in escalating health care costs, which increasingly threaten the financial stability of families, employers, and federal and state budgets." Addressing the Increase
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the blood-thinning drug Effient tablets (prasugrel) to reduce the risk of blood clots from forming in patients who undergo angioplasty, a common procedure to unblock a clogged coronary artery.
Menstrual cramps, also known as dysmenorrhea or period pains, are painful sensations felt in the lower abdomen that can occur both before and during a woman"s menstrual period. The pain ranges from dull and annoying to severe and extreme. Menstrual cramps tend to begin after an egg is released from the ovaries and travels down the fallopian tube (ovulation).
Results from a study published by the University of Michigan have shown that as many as 15% of women in the study group determined to be negative for the presence of human papillomavirus (HPV) in the cervix, via the most commonly used test for HPV DNA, may actually be infected with the virus at clinically relevant viral loads. PCR-MS detected the presence of high-risk HPV in nearly half (46.7%) of women who tested negative by the Hybrid Capture 2 (HC2) test, which is standard of care in many countries. Approximately 9,000 American women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year despite regular cervical screening. The study, titled, Development and Evaluation of a PCR and Mass Spectroscopy-based (PCR-MS) Method for Quantitative, Type-specific Detection of Human Papillomavirus, will be published in the September 2009 edition of Journal of Virological Methods. The assay used in this study is exclusively licensed by SEQUENOM (Nasdaq: SQNM).
Nonin Medical, Inc., a leading innovator of noninvasive physiological monitoring solutions, announced FDA clearance for its Model 7600 Regional Oximetry System. Introduced in June 2009 at the European Society of Anaesthesiology (ESA) conference in Milan, Italy, the innovative Model 7600 offers real-time monitoring of cerebral oxygenation for patients at risk of ischemia.
Simulating medical scenarios helps medical students learn and retain vital information, according to a new study done by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
The average time patients in Boston wait for an appointment to see a specialist has increased over the last five years to an average of 50 days and can be up to one year, despite the fact that the city has an "abundance" of specialists, according to a recent study, the Boston Globe reports. For the study, Merritt, Hawkins & Associates, a Texas-based consulting and physician recruiting firm, surveyed 1,162 physician offices in 15 metropolitan areas to try to re-create the situation of a new patient seeking a nonurgent appointment in five specialty areas -- cardiology, dermatology, family medicine, obstetrics-gynecology and orthopedic surgery. The average wait time in Boston is more than three weeks longer than any other city included in the study. The study determined that while Boston patients had the longest wait times for appointments to see dermatologists, ob-gyns and family practitioners, Dallas had the longest wait times to see orthopedic surgeons, followed by Boston. Miami, Minneapolis and San Diego all had longer wait times to see cardiologists than Boston.According to the study, while Boston patients have long faced delays, the problem may have been exacerbated by an increase in patients seeking care following the implementation of the 2006 Massachusetts health insurance law. While the study did not pinpoint a cause for longer wait times in Boston, the study"s authors wrote that the city"s experience "may signal what could happen nationally in the event that access to health care is expanded through health care reform."Brian Rossman, research director for Health Care for All, said the reason for long wait times also is because many specialists in Boston work for academic medical centers and do not see patients full time (Kowalczyk, Boston Globe, 5/15).
People with Parkinson"s disease have significantly higher blood levels of a particular pesticide than healthy people or those with Alzheimer"s disease, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
FDA approved Teva Pharmaceuticals" Plan B One-Step -- a single-pill version of the two-pill dose emergency contraceptive product Plan B -- and lowered the limit for over-the-counter purchase of the drug to age 17, the company announced on Monday, the AP/Yahoo! Finance reports (AP/Yahoo! Finance, 7/13). Individuals ages 16 and younger will be required to obtain prescriptions to purchase Plan B, which reduces the chance of pregnancy when taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse (Teva Pharmaceuticals release, 7/13). Teva said the one-pill version will be available at retail pharmacies in August (AP/Yahoo! Finance, 7/13). Kelli Conlin, president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health, said, "Health care providers and women"s advocates have been eager for a one-pill emergency contraceptive for years and are happy to see it finally come to fruition" (Teva Pharmaceuticals release, 7/13).The expanded access to the medication comes several months after a federal court lifted restrictions put in place under former President George W. Bush that limited OTC sales to women ages 18 and older (AP/Yahoo! Finance, 7/13).
Rural Americans are hopeful that health reform includes funding for clinics and health care services in their communities, where the cost of care is often high, CNN reports.
The American Society of Hematology (ASH), the world"s largest professional society of blood specialists, will honor six scientists who have made significant contributions to the understanding of hematologic diseases. These awards, including the newly created Ernest Beutler Lecture and Prize, will be presented at the 51st ASH Annual Meeting taking place December 5-8 in New Orleans.
One approach being developed as a way to improve heart function following heart attack is the injection of heart stem/progenitor cells directly into the heart. Now, a team of researchers, at Tokyo Women"s Medical University, Japan, and Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan, has found that transplanting sheets of clonally expanded heart cells expressing the protein Sca-1 (cells that are heart stem/progenitor cells and that the authors term CPCs) improves heart function after a heart attack in mice.
When cells experiencing DNA damage fail to repair themselves, they send a signal to their neighbors letting them know they"re in trouble. The discovery, which shows that a process dubbed the DDR (DNA Damage Response) also controls communication from cell to cell, has implications for both cancer and aging. The findings appear in the July 13 online edition of the Nature Cell Biology.
In response to the publication of the story of heart transplant patient Hannah Clark in the Lancet , Professor Peter Weissberg, Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation (BHF), described the operation as "an exciting and important event".
Undocumented people live in a shadowy world of high fear and stress -- fear of deportation and stress brought on lack of economic, linguistic and educational res.
Previous studies have found that postmenopausal women who have taken a combined estrogen and progestin hormone replacement therapy have increased their risk of developing progestin-accelerated breast tumors. Now, University of Missouri researchers have found that curcumin, a popular Indian spice derived from the turmeric root, could reduce the cancer risk for women after exposure to hormone replacement therapy.
HIV-positive people with opportunistic infections who receive earlier antiretroviral treatment lower their risk of death compared with people who delay treatment, according to a new study conducted by the Stanford University School of Medicine and published in PLoS One, the San Jose Mercury News reports. The findings could lead to changes in recommendations for antiretroviral treatment protocol, specifically for patients diagnosed with HIV at an advanced stage, the Mercury News reports. The study included 262 HIV-positive participants at 39 health care sites across the U.S., and 20 participants in South Africa. During the yearlong study, the researchers found that among the participants who were treated promptly after developing an opportunistic infection, 14% died or developed another infection. The researchers also found that 24% of participants who deferred treatment for an average of 45 days died or had a decrease in health outcomes. According to the Mercury News, the question of when to start HIV-positive people on antiretroviral treatment remains unclear because of issues such as the high cost of medicines, side effects, and drug interactions or resistance. Andrew Zolopa, head of Stanford University School of Medicine"s division of infectious diseases and lead investigator of the study, said that physicians often treat HIV-positive people for an "acute crisis, then follow up later with treatment for HIV." He continues, "But that answer is wrong. The study shows very clearly that there is no safety downside to doing this -- and the benefit is quite substantial, reducing death by 50%." "Even in San Francisco, one of the first epicenters of HIV in the United States, we still find that many people present late in the course of their illness with an opportunistic infection," Mitch Katz, director of San Francisco"s Department of Health who was not involved in the study, said. He added, "This study shows that it is lifesaving to treat those persons with antiretroviral drugs while they are still in the hospital." Katz said that the results could lead to changes in HIV/AIDS practices worldwide. The International AIDS Society, CDC and the British AIDS Society have developed guidelines recommending that early antiretroviral treatment be considered in patients with opportunistic infections, Zolopa said. In addition, NIH is considering an international study to examine earlier initiation of antiretroviral treatment involving more than 9,000 people from both developed and developing countries (Krieger, San Jose Mercury News, 5/15).
Changes in the brain measured with MRI and PET scans, combined with memory tests and detection of risk proteins in body fluids, may lead to earlier and more accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer"s, according to new research reported at the Alzheimer"s Association 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer"s Disease (ICAD 2009) in Vienna.
Anyone who has ever had cats knows how difficult it can be to get them to do anything they don"t already want to do. But it seems that the house cats themselves have had distinctly less trouble getting humans to do their bidding, according to a report published in the July 14th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication.
NovImmune, an immunology-focused biotech company
Elan Corporation, plc (NYSE: ELN) and Transition Therapeutics Inc. (TSX: TTH, NASDAQ: TTHI) today presented Phase 1 data demonstrating that treatment with ELND005 (scyllo-inositol formerly known as AZD-103), achieves desired concentrations in human brain tissue and cerebrospinal fluid when given orally. Preclinical data also were presented showing that ELND005 administration is associated with preservation of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), reflecting preservation of nerve cells that are critical to memory function in the brain. ELND005 is an orally-administered drug candidate in Phase 2 trials for the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer"s disease. These results were presented at the 2009 Alzheimer"s Association International Conference on Alzheimer"s Disease (ICAD 2009) in Vienna, Austria.
Many of the approximately one million Canadians(i) living with psoriasis may be faced with physical or emotional challenges as they struggle with public misperceptions and stigmas of this painful, chronic immune disorder that affects the skin. Now, a Leger Marketing survey of Canadians with psoriasis, pSoriasis Knowledge IN Canada (SKIN), reveals that the debilitating skin condition presents a substantial problem for them in their daily lives. The SKIN survey, which included questions about burden of illness, revealed that two-thirds (66 per cent) of SKIN respondents agreed with the statement that psoriasis ranks among the top two illnesses in terms of its impact on quality of life (QoL) out of ten of the worst diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes and arthritis.(1) Of those SKIN respondents who stated that their psoriasis "sometimes" or "very often" caused them problems in their personal or social relationships, and difficulties with normal daily activities when it was not in control, almost 60 per cent indicated that their disease was
The National Autistic Society, urged that new reforms should not be allowed further marginalise people with disabilities, including autism, in a bid to fulfil a black hole in social care funding.
Medtronic announced that Reclaim(R) Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) Therapy has received CE (Conformite Europeene) Mark approval for the treatment of chronic, severe treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This is the first time that a deep brain stimulation therapy has gained approval in Europe for the treatment of a psychiatric disorder.
RNs from the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) have filed an urgent plea with the state of California to step in and force Sutter Solano Hospital to provide nurses with proper safety equipment when they care for patients infected with the H1N1 "swine flu" virus. The nurses fear that the unsafe procedures at the hospital create a danger of infection for every patient at the facility, as well as for the surrounding community.
AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) President and CEO Darrell G. Kirch, M.D., issued the following statement on President Obama"s nomination of Regina Benjamin, M.D., M.B.A., as U.S. surgeon general:
New figures published show A&E departments in England have met the
A new federal rating system to track quality gives nursing homes mixed reviews. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) developed the Nursing Home Compare Web site, which compares the nation"s 15,600 homes. There were complaints that the old site was unmanageable.
Many mentally-ill illegal immigrants get only limited mental health care, if any, while they are in jail or prison, advocates for them say, according to The Dallas Morning News.
Passport Health of Massachusetts, specialists in vaccinations against dread diseases faced by international travelers, is concerned that eastern New England"s wettest spring and early summer in decades can be more deadly than usual.
"Saying the new H1N1 [swine flu] virus is "unstoppable", the WHO gave drug makers a full go-ahead to manufacture vaccines against the pandemic influenza strain on Monday and said healthcare workers should be the first to get one," Reuters reports (Fox, 7/14). This, as "Britain, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, the Philippines and Thailand all reported deaths on Monday, while Saudi Arabia shut an international school after 20 students were diagnosed with the A(H1N1) virus," AFP/Google.com reports (7/13). "As of last week, the WHO had reported nearly 95,000 laboratory-confirmed cases of pandemic flu and 429 deaths," the Los Angeles Times reports (Maugh, 7/14).
"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday she is frustrated over the failure" to name a new head of the USAID, despite it being a priority for the administration, AFP/Google.com reports. "Clinton, addressing USAID staff who asked why there was no administrator and deputy six months into President Barack Obama"s administration, complained about what she called an increasingly burdensome vetting process," the news service writes (7/13).
The human brain can adapt to changing demands even in adulthood, but MIT neuroscientists have now found evidence of it changing with unsuspected speed. Their findings suggest that the brain has a network of silent connections that underlie its plasticity.
The interaction between a network of altered genes appears to play an important role in the development and progression of brain tumors, according to a study in the July 15 issue of JAMA.
Results of a survey published in the July issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons show that a large subset of surgical residents consider duty hour regulations (DHR) a significant barrier to their surgical education and express a desire for flexibility to work longer hours than current restrictions allow.
In the July 15th issue of Genes & Development, Dr. Roberto Kolter (Harvard Medical School) and colleagues make the unprecedented observation of paracrine signaling during Bacillus subtilis biofilm formation.
A reminder program aimed at screening for breast cancer when it is most treatable boosted mammography rates by more than 17 percentage points, according to a new study by Kaiser Permanente"s Center for Health Research in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The program used electronic health records to identify women who would soon be due for a mammogram and reached out to them via postcards, automated voice messages and personal phone calls.
Eating a "heart healthy" diet and maintaining or increasing participation in moderate physical activity may help preserve our memory and thinking abilities as we age, according to new research reported today at the Alzheimer"s Association 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer"s Disease (ICAD 2009) in Vienna.
The 2009 Interventional Radiology Coding Users" Guide, a comprehensive re for endovascular and interventional procedures and services, is now available in both book and CD formats. This unique reference is made available by the Society of Interventional Radiology, a national organization of physicians, scientists and allied health professionals dedicated to improving public health through disease management and minimally invasive, image-guided therapeutic interventions.
U.S. House of Representative Democrats unveiled their bill for health care reform - the America"s Affordable Health Care Choice of 2009. In response, National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) Executive Vice President and CEO Bruce T. Roberts, RPh, issued the following statement:
A team of researchers has discovered an unexpected concentration of a certain isotopic molecule in parts of the stratosphere that could have implications for understanding the carbon cycle and its response to climate change.
The following are helpful tips to pet owners offered by veterinarians at Colorado State University?s Veterinary Teaching Hospital. The paragraphs can be used alone as filler or in a group as a set of tips. If you need additional information, please contact Dell Rae Moellenberg at 970-491-6009 or DellRae.Moellenberg@colostate.edu. If you?d like to attribute the information, please attribute it to Colorado State University?s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE:STJ) announced Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) approval of its Libra® and LibraXP™ deep brain stimulation (DBS) systems for treating the symptoms of Parkinson"s disease, a neurological disorder that progressively diminishes a person"s control over his or her movements.
Schering-Plough Corporation (NYSE: SGP) announced that it has extended to stage two an ongoing Phase II clinical study with vicriviroc, its investigational CCR5 antagonist, for use in first-line therapy of adult treatment-naive HIV-infected patients with R5-type virus only. In this study, vicriviroc is being evaluated in a novel nucleoside-sparing regimen that is designed to provide additional options for treatment-naive patients in a once daily regimen, while preserving other drug classes for subsequent lines of treatment.
The American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (A.S.P.E.N.), whose mission is to improve patient care by advancing the science and practice of nutrition support therapy, is saddened by the recent death of an infant in Madrid, Spain, who died when formula was given to him through an IV catheter and not through a feeding tube in his stomach.
House Democratic leaders Tuesday unveiled their bill to reform America"s health care system - and insure an additional 37 million Americans over the next 10 years - to the tune of more than $1 trillion, funded mostly through an up-to-5.4 percent surtax on income for the wealthiest Americans, The Washington Post reports.
One day after President Obama told lawmakers to speed up their pace, three key Finance Committee senators expressed doubts about meeting the President"s August deadline for passing a reform proposal, Politico reports. Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said he doesn"t "see how" his colleagues can confirm the new Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, and pass a health bill in the time left before the August recess.
The CFO for Johnson & Johnson"s said President Obama"s deal with hospitals to cut Medicare costs will reduce the sales of medical devices, Bloomberg reports: "Hospitals buy medical devices, including J&J"s artificial hips and stents to prop open clogged arteries, directly from the manufacturer, (Johnson and Johnson CFO Dominic) Caruso said today in an interview with Bloomberg News. The hospitals are reimbursed by government-run health plans for the cost of a procedure regardless of the price of the equipment, pressuring hospitals to cut purchases of the latest technologies, he said. ò€¦ "The deal that the hospital industry struck will obviously have an impact on the medical-device business," Caruso said. "Medicare reimburses the hospital for a basket of costs related to a procedure, of which medical devices are included"" (Randall, 7/14).
A California device maker settles a Medicare fraud case while a New Jersey doctor and his office manager are accused in a Medicare fraud scheme.
"Rising unemployment and spiking Medicaid and welfare caseloads have put [New Hampshire"s] most recent budget to the test just two weeks after its adoption," New Hampshire Public Radio reports. The state"s Medicaid caseload is just 39 enrollees away from putting the "state"s Medicaid budget in the red."
Eduardo Davila, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Microbiology, and Immunology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Medicine and Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center, has been awarded a $1.3 million grant over five years by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health to develop new immunotherapies, including a vaccine, for cancer. Two years of the research will be supported by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program® is pleased to announce the selection of 29 young physicians who will learn to conduct innovative research and work with communities, organizations, practitioners and policy-makers on issues important to the health and well-being of all Americans. They will begin their prestigious two-year fellowships in July 2010.
In a commentary to be published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, doctors reveal the numbers of women travelling abroad for Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) treatment and examine their motivations for doing so.
A student team in the Virginia Tech College of Engineering is providing the blind with an opportunity many never thought possible: The opportunity to drive.
Social cognition - the ability to think about the minds and mental states of others - is essential for human beings. In the last decade, a group of regions has been discovered in the human brain that are specifically used for social cognition. A new study in the July/August 2009 issue of the journal Child Development investigates these brain regions for the first time in human children. The study has implications for children with autism.
The capacity to figure out what others are thinking and what they mean is an ability unique to people that"s central to our lives. A new study on the neural mechanisms that govern these abilities sheds light on the relation between how people and groups interact, on the one hand, and how the brain develops and functions, on the other.
Research by a group of Montreal scientists calls into question one of the most basic assumptions of human genetics: that when it comes to DNA, every cell in the body is essentially identical to every other cell. Their results appear in the July issue of the journal Human Mutation.
For the first time UK scientists have shown what the food poisoning bug Salmonella feeds on to survive as it causes infection: glucose.
Four major US national laboratories have worked together to develop a computer model to help airport authorities screen passengers for pandemic influenza. The tool can help estimate false negatives, people with influenza who slip through the screening process, and so assess the risk of infected passengers unknowingly spreading disease across the nation.
Just like a conductor cueing musicians in an orchestra, Fgf10, a member of the fibroblast growth factor (Ffg) family of morphogens, lets brain stem cells know that the moment to get to work has arrived, ensuring that they hit their first developmental milestone on time, report scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in the July 16, 2009, edition of the journal Neuron.
Obesity -- that never-ending "battle of the bulge"-- dates back to the Stone Age and yet is emerging today as a modern health epidemic. While its root cause is as simple as calories consumed versus calories burned, it"s cure is knotted somewhere in a complex web of biology, psychology and culture.
The California Institute of Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) has joined with the City of San Francisco and FibroGen Inc to launch the QB3 Mission Bay Incubator Network, to spur growth in the bioscience industry.
Senator Sam Aanestad (R-Grass Valley) and Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod (D-Chino) are teaming up in an act of bi-partisan cooperation to serve as joint authors for legislation designed to improve patient safety in California by reforming Medical Peer Review. This is the process where a committee of physicians examines the work of a peer and determines whether the physician under review has met accepted standards of care in rendering medical services.
Advanced Therapeutics & Co. (ADVTX) announced that Fibrinoplate-S™ has shown efficacy in reducing the bleeding in animals exposed to extreme doses of radiation. Survivors of a nuclear event or a dirty bomb explosion will have similar damage from the ionizing radiation of such bombs.
Chinese researchers have unlocked the mechanism of an emerging mind-body technique that produces measurable changes in attention and stress reduction in just five days of practice.
The Institute for OneWorld Health, the US-based non-profit pharmaceutical company that develops drugs for people with neglected infectious diseases in the developing world, today announced that it has launched a collaboration with global pharmaceutical leader Novartis to discover and develop a novel therapy for secretory diarrhea, a deadly disease that kills more than 1.6 million children in the developing world each year.
Dr. Zsuzsanna Nagy of the University of Birmingham presented data from a clinical study, funded by Cytox Limited, demonstrating that a simple blood-based biomarker discriminated between patients with Alzheimer"s disease (AD) and control subjects. The findings were statistically highly significant, and the test discriminated between the two groups with 80% sensitivity and 80% specificity. The results also showed that 40% of the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients tested had the same test results as AD patients. Follow up study of MCI patients enrolled in an earlier study found that the test allowed early identification of those MCI patients who later developed dementia. The results were presented at the 2009 Alzheimer"s Association International Conference on Alzheimer"s Disease (ICAD 2009), held in Vienna, Austria.
The cost of health care reform has emerged as a key battle in overhaul efforts. Attention is being paid to how costs will affect specific groups including the middle class and businesses.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has awarded AIDS Services of Austin a five-year, $1.6 million grant to fund a program targeting black residents who were recently incarcerated, the Austin Business Journal reports. The grant will be used to create Project Fresh Start, a substance abuse and HIV prevention program aimed at black adults in Travis County who were released from prison or jail in the last two years. The program is set to launch in September. "An estimated 9,000 people will be served during the lifetime of the project," according to the Business Journal (7/15).
A daily dose of sodium bicarbonate - baking soda, already used for baking, cleaning, acid indigestion, sunburn, and more - slows the decline of kidney function in some patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD), reports an upcoming study in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). "This cheap and simple strategy also improves patients" nutritional status, and has the potential of translating into significant economic, quality of life, and clinical outcome benefits," comments Magdi Yaqoob, MD (Royal London Hospital).
Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) have a high risk of psychiatric problems, particularly attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder, or both. Often children with FASD are initially diagnosed with ADHD. A new study is the first to examine a range of cognitive factors and social behavior in children with FASD and ADHD, finding that those with FASD have significantly weaker social cognition and facial emotion-processing abilities.
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) announces the debut of the Ernest Beutler Lecture and Prize, to be awarded at ASH"s annual meeting in December. The inaugural recipients are Thomas Maniatis, PhD, of Harvard University, and Yuet Wai Kan, MD, of the University of California - San Francisco.
Sirona Biochem Corp. (TSX-V: SBM) announced it is now ready to begin testing its novel new compounds to fight diabetes and obesity.
A research team led by the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology has identified the specific gene which triggers the body to produce disease-fighting antibodies -- a seminal finding that clarifies the exact molecular steps taken by the body to mount an antibody defense against viruses and other pathogens. The finding, published online today in the prestigious journal Science, has major implications for the development of new and more effective vaccines. The La Jolla Institute"s Shane Crotty, Ph.D., was the lead scientist on the team, which also included researchers from Yale University.
Consumers may be able to eat longer-lasting, potentially healthier fish fillets if research at Oregon State University makes its way to the supermarket.
The NPHS influenza surveillance scheme, which records reports of diagnoses of flufrom more than 300 GP practices across Wales, shows low but increasing levels of influenza activity across Wales. Further detail can be found on the NPHS website.
According to the latest thinking, eating healthily and taking more exercise are not enough by themselves to combat the nation"s rising obesity levels. Instead we need a better understanding of the issues underpinning compulsive eating so that psychological help can be successfully targeted.
Impulsive boys with inadequate supervision, poor families and deviant friends are more likely to commit criminal acts that land them in juvenile court, according to a new study published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. The most surprising finding from the 20-year study, conducted by researchers from the Universitç© de Montrç©al and University of Genoa, was how help provided by the juvenile justice system substantially increased the risk of the boys engaging in criminal activities during early adulthood.
Gliomas are among the most common and most malignant brain tumors. These tumors infiltrate normal brain tissue and grow very rapidly. As a result, surgery can never completely remove the tumor. Now, the neurosurgeons Dr. Darko S. Markovic (Helios Klinikum Berlin-Buch) and Dr. Michael Synowitz (Charit̩) as well as Dr. Rainer Glass and Professor Helmut Kettenmann (both Max Delbr̿ck Center for Molecular Medicine, MDC, Berlin-Buch), have been able to show that glioma cells exploit microglia, the immune cells of the brain, for their expansion (PNAS Early Edition)*.
The latest rise in the indirect taxation on tobacco and alcohol took place in June. The most popular brand of cigarettes went up in price from 3.10 euros to 3.30 euros per packet. Are these taxes a form of dissuasion or a way of compensating the rest of society for the harm generated by those who smoke? A study by the Polytechnic University of Cartagena has looked into the most significant questions concerning the tobacco economy.
Gene therapy has emerged as a novel approach to combat HCV infection in the last few years. However, one of the most important obstacles to overcome is "targeting": the appropriate genes must be delivered and expressed in HCV infected hepatocytes without harming normal tissues.
Prognosis of pancreatic cancer is poor. Recently, it has been discovered that the grade of tumor angiogenesis is a useful prognostic marker in human cancer, including pancreatic cancer. To establish the grade of tumor angiogenesis by non-invasive imaging may be important clinically. However, there are only a few such reports on pancreatic cancer.
To suggest a feasible economic strategy for second primary colorectal cancer screening of cancer survivors in Korea, A research group constructed a decision-analytic model, compared cost-effectiveness results of cancer screening in male cancer survivors. All non-dominant strategies were those using colonoscopy in both cancer survivors and the general population, and more strict and frequent recommendation of colonoscopy, colonoscopy every 5 years and every 3 years, could be considered as economic strategies for male cancer survivors.
Universal Sensors Ltd (Cambridge, UK), Nottingham Trent University (Nottingham, UK) and Cambridge Design Partnership (Cambridge, UK) have entered into a strategic alliance to develop a hand-held system to detect the hospital superbugs, C.difficile and MRSA. The collaboration is funded through the new Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), in contracts that were awarded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under its Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme, the results of which were announced on 15th May 2009.
Every 30 seconds a person somewhere in the world loses a lower limb to amputation due to diabetic foot disease.
New perspectives in the treatment of disease
The following summarizes selected women"s health-related blog entries.~ "Judge Sotomayor Provides Important Testimony on the Constitutional Right to Privacy and Its Application to Reproductive Rights," Marcia Greenberger, Womenstake: "One major line of questions, asked repeatedly throughout the hearings" for President Obama"s Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was her "views on the constitutional right to privacy," Greenberger writes, adding, "Given that this right is central to women"s lives, protecting" such "decisions involving whether to bear children ... and having consensual adult sexual relations, it is important to analyze Judge Sotomayor"s answers carefully." According to Greenberger, because Sotomayor "had not ruled directly on the right to privacy as a federal judge, her testimony in this area warrants particular attention." Following questions from senators such as Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Sotomayor portrayed a "clear agreement with the right to privacy and strong description of the court"s current precedents regarding Roe and women"s health," which "lend[s] further support to the view from her legal record that she would not undermine Roe v. Wade if confirmed to the Supreme Court" (Greenberger, Womenstake, 7/16). ~ "Major Steps Forward for Health Care Reform," Thao Nguyen, Womenstake: Nguyen, outreach manager for the National Women"s Law Center, reports that the health care reform legislation passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is "particularly important for women because of the critical headway it makes towards women"s ability to secure access to quality, affordable health care throughout their lives." The bill "works towards confronting many of the particular obstacles faced by women in our current health care system," such as banning the "discriminatory" practice of basing insurance premiums on gender, even when maternity benefits are excluded, Nguyen writes. The bill also bans insurance companies from rejecting patients based on medical history, which has prevented many domestic violence survivors and women who have had caesarean sections from obtaining coverage. Nguyen concludes that "the momentum for health care reform could not have come at a more needed time" because women and their families "need quality, affordable and comprehensive health more than ever" (Nguyen, Womenstake, 7/15).~ "Democrats for Life of America Ousts Member Who Supports Contraception," Feministing: Feministing reports that Democrats for Life of America removed Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) from its advisory board because he supports efforts to improve access to contraception. According to Ryan, he was dismissed from the board after four years after attempting to persuade the group to support contraceptive use as a way to avoid unintended pregnancies. According to the blog, "This is why we call anti-choicers "anti-choice": because they"re not just about making abortion illegal." It adds, "They don"t want women to have access to contraception either -- something that 98% of American women will use at some point in their lives" (Feministing, 7/15). ~ "Umpires, Perspective and the Supreme Court," Jim Wallis, Sojourners" "God"s Politics": "During his opening remarks for his own confirmation hearing in 2005, Chief Justice [John] Roberts made" an analogy between judges and umpires "that has gotten a lot of play in the media and has already been used quite a few times during" Sotomayor"s confirmation hearing, Wallis writes. He adds that "nothing in the world would frustrate me more than an umpire who would call the game differently based upon the color of the jersey that" players were wearing. "But I haven"t seen that happen," Wallis writes, adding, "In fact, the biggest problem we face isn"t an umpire that has favored one team over the other, but umpires who make mistakes in their rulings and judgment because of their lack of perspective." He adds that Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and "others w
The Obama administration ramps up efforts to promote health care reform and reacts to a sobering announcement by the Congressional Budget Office about the scoring of a health care bill.
Hospitals across Canada are seeking ways to free up beds. University of Alberta researcher Donna Wilson has a suggestion: people should be encouraged to die at home rather than in hospital.
As life expectancy continues to increase, millions are living well into their eighties and nineties. With the aging of the baby boomers, the population of senior citizens will swell dramatically in the coming decades. These statistics will inevitably draw more attention to the aging process. What should middle-aged people expect as they grow older? What should caregivers of the elderly know about normal aging? How can we all stay healthy despite the limitations of age? "The Real Truth About Aging: A Survival Guider For Older Adults and Caregivers" (ISBN 978-1-59102-719-5 Prometheus Books) answers crucial questions about aging - from the basics of preventative medicine to the most difficult end-of-life issues.
The June cover of the Journal of Virology features a photograph of the unusual effects on a cell infected by a virus. Montana State University researchers were the first to view the virus, which they collected from a boiling, acidic spring in Yellowstone.
Today, Human Genome Sciences (HGS) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced positive results from a year-long clinical trial of BENLYSTA for treating lupus. When the 52-week study concluded, the lupus patients who were treated with BENLYSTA had improvement in overall disease activity without clinically significant flare-ups in one or more isolated organs when compared to patients who received the placebo (inactive agent). The patients receiving BENLYSTA also were able to reduce their intake of steroid medications. The study is the largest ever to be completed for lupus and the first Phase III (late stage) trial of a new biologic immune therapy for lupus to succeed in meeting its primary endpoint and most of its secondary endpoints.
Medical practitioners should be required to participate in a new national medical labour force survey as part of their registration obligations, to assist workforce planning, according to an article published in this year"s General Practice edition of the Medical Journal of Australia.
Many California hospitals would face substantial net losses if there were a large scale shift of individuals with private coverage to a government-run plan that reimburses providers at Medicare rates or Medicare rates plus 10 percent, according to a new hospital-by-hospital analysis released today by America"s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), based on data from California"s Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD).
The misuse of prescription medications by adolescents is surpassed only by illicit use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana. A study to be published in the August 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP) shows that how an adolescent obtains these prescription drugs may signal the likelihood that an adolescent will be concurrently abusing another substance and the severity of substance abuse and prescription misuse.
An initiative to boost cancer prevention, treatment and care throughout Europe by improving communications within the cancer community kicks off today (Monday 20 July) with the launch of a new website: http://www.eurocancercoms.eu. The project will involve all those with an interest in cancer, from researchers and doctors to patients.
Jeff Kepner, the nation"s first bilateral hand transplant recipient, spoke at a news conference today about his surgery and showed the progress he has made since the May 4 procedure. Mr. Kepner, who lost both hands and feet following a bacterial infection in 1999, is the second patient to be treated with the "Pittsburgh Protocol," a new immune modulation therapy that aims to reduce the risk associated with toxic anti-rejection drugs.
Wales, along with the other devolved nations, will not be part of the National Pandemic Flu Service (NPFS) when it is launched next week in England, Health Minister Edwina Hart said today.
Experts from the Institute of Psychiatry will tell attendees of a unique conference on the 25th July in Reading that health professionals often fail to correctly identify when someone suffers from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). As a consequence, the burden of this very disabling and distressing condition tends to fall on family members.
An international team of scientists has tracked how and when HIV has made its way around Europe. They found that tourists, travellers and
The Northern California Cancer Center (NCCC) recently found that lower socioeconomic status is "significantly associated with substantially poorer survival" of follicular lymphoma in California.
Labopharm Inc. (TSX: DDS; NASDAQ: DDSS) today announced it has received a complete response letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the new drug application (NDA) submission of its novel formulation of the antidepressant trazodone.
Transoral (through-the-mouth) laser surgery to remove cancer at the base of the tongue is as effective as more invasive open surgery and may improve quality of life according to a new study by Rush University Medical Center. The study is published in the July issue of the scientific journal Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery.
In a proof-of-concept study, Mayo Clinic investigators have demonstrated that induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can be used to treat heart disease. iPS cells are stem cells converted from adult cells. In this study, the researchers reprogrammed ordinary fibroblasts, cells that contribute to scars such as those resulting from a heart attack, converting them into stem cells that fix heart damage caused by infarction. The findings appear in the current online issue of the journal Circulation.
Many countries worldwide are digitizing patients" medical records. In the
Whether it"s getting a cold during exam time or feeling run-down after a big meeting, we"ve all experienced feeling sick following a particularly stressful time at work or school. Is this merely coincidence, or is it possible that stress can actually make us sick? In a new report in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychologist Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser from the Ohio State University College of Medicine reviews research investigating how stress can wreak havoc on our bodies and provides some suggestions to further our understanding of this connection.
WHAT: Johns Hopkins Medicine is co-sponsoring the 2009 World Stem Cell Summit to be held in Baltimore this September. http://www.worldstemcellsummit.com/index.html
In an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag said that he is "not prepared to say explicitly" whether health care reform legislation would prohibit the use of federal tax revenue to fund abortion coverage, the New York Times reports. Orszag"s statement came in reply to a question asking whether he was prepared to say that "no taxpayer money will go to pay for abortions." Orszag said, "It"s obviously a controversial issue, and it"s one of the questions that is playing out in the debate" (Pear/Liptak, New York Times, 7/20).Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who also appeared on "Fox News Sunday," said, "No matter what your views are on abortion, you shouldn"t ask people to use their tax dollars if they think that abortion is taking a life." Gregg added, "I would hate to see the health care debate go down over that issue. We do really need health care reform, and it has to be substantive. ... So hopefully we won"t get ourselves wrapped around the wheel of abortion in this debate" (FoxNews.com, 7/19). According to the Times, there is an ongoing behind-the-scenes debate over handling abortion coverage in health overhaul legislation. The debate affects both the public insurance plan the legislation would create and private insurers, who would receive tens of billions of dollars in federal subsidies to expand coverage for low- and moderate-income U.S. residents. A provision in the House health reform bill (HR 3200) calls for a federal advisory committee to advise the HHS secretary on an "essential benefits package" that most insurers would be required to provide. Abortion-rights opponents want abortion coverage excluded from the package, while abortion-rights advocates say the decision should be left to medical professionals. House committees working on health reform legislation have rejected Republican amendments that would have restricted abortion coverage. The Hyde Amendment, first enacted in 1976, prohibits the use of federal Medicaid money for abortion services. However, abortion-rights opponents argue that federally subsidized coverage of the uninsured would not be subject to the existing restrictions. The National Right to Life Committee issued an analysis of the House bill, stating, "There is no doubt that coverage of abortion will be mandated, unless Congress explicitly excludes abortion from the scope of federal authority to define "essential benefits."" According to the group, even if the HHS secretary did not require abortion coverage, "federal courts would interpret the broadly worded mandatory categories of coverage to include abortion" (New York Times, 7/20).