Cardiovascular
Edema, is swelling caused by fluid retention - excess fluid is trapped in the body"s tissues. In the UK/Ireland/Australasia and some other countries the word is spelled oedema. Swelling caused by edema commonly occurs in the hands, arms, ankles, legs and feet. It is usually linked to the venous or lymphatic systems. Edema was formerly known as dropsy or hydropsy.
Healthcare Advocates Will Present Congressmembers with "Happy Birthday Medicare" Cakes-And a Plea to Improve and Expand the Beloved Program
A new study by researchers at the Georgetown"s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center finds a higher level of common household pesticides in the urine of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a cancer that develops most commonly between three and seven years of age. The findings are published in the August issue of the journal Therapeutic Drug Monitoring.
Abortion coverage could become the next "sticking point" in debates over health reform between the House leadership and conservative Democrats, the Los Angeles Times reports. During most of the battle over a health care overhaul, abortion-related issues have taken a "back seat" to clashes between House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats over the cost of the House bill (HR 3200). However, reproductive health issues are increasingly coming into play, with some other conservative Democrats threatening to withdraw support for the bill if coverage of abortion services is not explicitly excluded from receiving federal funding. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and 18 fellow Democrats in June wrote a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stating that they "cannot support any health care proposal unless it excludes abortion from the scope of any government-defined or subsidized health insurance plan." According to the Times, Stupak has "vowed" to press Waxman to include restrictions on abortion coverage in the Energy and Commerce Committee"s version of the House bill. Abortion-rights supporter Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), chair of the House Rules Committee, opposes Stupak"s proposal. Slaughter spokesperson Vincent Morris said, "The starting point for Rep. Slaughter of the health care debate was protecting abortion rights."The Hyde Amendment currently prevents the use of federal Medicaid funds for abortion services. The reach of current law restrictions "grows murkier" if the government forms its own health insurance plan to compete with private insurers or creates a new market that allows the public to choose between various private plans, the Times reports. Both options are under consideration in Congress, and abortion-rights opponents fear that abortion services would be covered unless the language of the bill explicitly forbids it.Abortion-rights supporters argue that the bill would maintain the status quo, as insurance companies already are able to choose whether to cover abortion services. New government restrictions could mean that women seeking abortion coverage would have to choose a more expensive private plan rather than a lower-cost, government-subsidized option, according to abortion-rights advocates. Another concern, they say, is that insurers who currently cover abortion would discontinue that coverage to take advantage of government incentives. In a recent statement, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America said, "Opponents of women"s health and health care reform are exploiting health care reform as a way to push for unprecedented prohibitions on abortion coverage in the private marketplace."The Obama administration is attempting to remain neutral on the issue, the Times reports. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs recently said that "a benefit package is better left to experts in the medical field to determine how best and what procedures to cover." The House bill currently establishes a Health Benefits Advisory Committee to recommend which "essential benefits" should be covered under any government-supported insurance plan. In an interview with CBS News last week, President Obama said that he believes it is "appropriate for us to figure out how to just deliver on the cost savings and not get distracted by the abortion debate."According to the Times, the Obama administration"s silence on the issue is "precisely what worries" antiabortion-rights advocates. Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) said that Obama is "actually making an affirmative statement in favor of" federal funding for abortion services by not taking a stand on the issue (Oliphant, Los Angeles Times, 7/28).
The following summarizes selected women"s health-related blog entries. ~ "Mainstream Media Reinforces Unexamined Arguments Against Public Funding for Abortion," Amanda Marcotte, RH Reality Check: It "seems that mainstream media s ... believe that abortion is an effective cudgel to beat health care reform to death," Marcotte writes. According to Marcotte, the "unvarnished truth" is that there is "no way that any kind of public health care plan will have elective abortion coverage. Nor is there any real chance of abortion becoming mandated coverage." However, "you wouldn"t know it to read the media coverage of this issue," she writes, continuing that "we"ve got the toxic mixture of pants-on-fire lying anti-choicers and cowardly media outlets that give the opponents of health care reform an opportunity to lie about the potential for taxpayer-funded abortions." Those who defend health care reform are "so busy trying to shut down the misinformation about abortion coverage that we"re not having the more interesting discussion about whether or not abortion should be covered," Marcotte says. She adds, "And by not having that discussion, we"re allowing the belief that some people"s moral objections to abortion should dictate federal policy lay unchallenged," she continues. She writes that she "suspect[s] that anti-choicers latched onto taxpayer-funded abortions because they can count on a lot of the public to imagine the government funding female licentiousness." Marcotte concludes that the "good news is that this contempt for female sexuality has receded enough that the media debate hasn"t -- yet -- turned to whether or not health care reform should cover contraception" (Marcotte, RH Reality Check, 7/28).~ "Privileging Opposition to Abortion," Jamison Foser, Media Matters for America: Some reporters "have skewed their reports in favor of those who oppose" coverage of abortion in federally subsidized insurance plans, according to Foser. For example, Foser writes that on a recent episode of MSNBC"s "Hardball," host Chris Matthews asked Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) "leading questions that encouraged them to state their opposition to insurance coverage of abortion" but never asked them "one simple question: Why shouldn"t abortion be covered, given that the procedure is legal?" Foser adds, "Nor has he asked if there are any other legal procedures that shouldn"t be covered." The "premise that taxpayers who oppose abortion shouldn"t have to pay for them with their tax money carries obvious implications the media ignores," Foser writes. He adds that the "idea that taxpayers shouldn"t pay for insurance that covers medical services they don"t support is fundamentally incompatible with the very concept of insurance." He continues, "If every interest group wields veto power over the medical care insurance can cover, insurance simply can"t work." However, this is not the "only logical inconsistency on the part of abortion foes that the media fail to examine" in their coverage of abortion issues in the health reform debate, he writes. "Many of those who are most adamant that the government not allow abortion to be paid for by health insurance plans are the same conservatives who argue against health care reform by warning of the prospect of a government bureaucrat getting between you and your doctor," according to Foser. He continues that the "same people who want a government ban on insurance coverage for a legal medical procedure turn around and demagogue about government bureaucrats making medical decisions," which is "a pretty obvious inconsistency, the kind any reporter should be able to spot easily." However, the "tension between those two positions has gone unexplored in news reports about the abortion controversy," Foser concludes (Foser, Media Matters for America, 7/24).~ "Obama Abortion Backtrack Shows He"s All Rhetoric, No Fight," Bonnie Erbe, U.S. News & World Report"s "Thomas Jefferson Street": "[O]ne thing we know will not be incl
In an open letter to Cambodia"s prime minister and health minister, more than 100 international HIV/AIDS advocates and human rights organizations "accused the Cambodian government of herding HIV-affected families into an "AIDS colony" outside the capital, Phnom Penh," the Guardian reports (McCurry, 7/28).
Uganda"s Health Ministry announced Monday it has ordered investigations into whether the deaths of 17 patients living with HIV in Northern Uganda were caused by their inability to get antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, the AP/mlive.com reports. According to Zainab Akol, manager of the ministry"s HIV/AIDS control program, the ministry is exploring "whether apart from the lack of ARVs, another disease like malaria or any epidemic could have contributed to the deaths," according to the news service.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the Appointments Commission are pleased to announce the re-appointment of the chairs to both the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM), and the Herbal Medicines Advisory Committee (HMAC).
The GMC has launched a series of challenging online tutorials that tackle tricky ethical scenarios.
Smokeless tobacco products, as used in Europe and North America, do not appear to increase cancer risk. A large meta-analysis, published in the open access journal BMC Medicine, has shown that snuff as used in Scandinavia has no discernible effect on the risk of various cancers. Products used in the past in the USA may have increased the risk, but any effect that exists now seems likely to be quite small.
The US-based PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Malaria Vaccine Development Program (MVDP), and Dutch biopharmaceutical company Crucell N.V. today announced a collaboration to accelerate development of a promising type of malaria vaccine. Through funding from the USAID MVDP, the partners will conduct studies to determine the effectiveness of Crucell"s novel prime-boost vaccine approach against the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. This approach uses Crucell"s proprietary recombinant adenoviruses (a type of virus associated with the common cold and other mild respiratory infections) to deliver a malaria antigen to the immune system.
Biotech firm Replikins Ltd. released its analysis of the June and July genomic data that predicts the rates of infectivity and lethality of the H1N1 (Swine Flu) virus. The quantitative analysis shows continued elevated levels in the Replikin Counts* of both Infectivity and Lethality genes, which indicate that the end of the current outbreak is not yet in sight.
Sanofi-aventis U.S. announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Sculptra(R)Aesthetic (injectable poly-L-lactic acid) for the correction of shallow to deep nasolabial fold (smile lines) contour deficiencies and other facial wrinkles which are treated with the appropriate injection technique in healthy patients. Sculptra(R)Aesthetic works gradually to offer natural-looking results that can last up to two years.
IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced that St. Elizabeth Healthcare is connecting hospitals, clinics and physicians offices in Northern Kentucky in the state"s largest roll-out of electronic medical records to improve patient care and lower costs.
Trusted health care s and continuity of care may help reduce the risk of prostate cancer deaths in African-American men, according to a study published in the current issue of the journal Cancer. James Mohler, MD, Chair of the Department of Urology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI), and William R. Carpenter, PhD, Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of North Carolina, are lead investigators.
Scott Roeder, the man charged with the May 31 shooting death of abortion provider George Tiller, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and aggravated assault at a Wichita, Kan., hearing on Tuesday, the AP/Boston Globe reports (AP/Boston Globe, 7/29). After witnesses described events surrounding the shooting, the judge presiding over the hearing concluded that there was sufficient evidence to try Roeder. Tiller was murdered in the foyer of his church, where he was serving as an usher. According to several church members who testified Tuesday, Roeder occasionally had come to the church in the months before the shooting.The trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 21 (Davey, New York Times, 7/28). At the hearing, Roeder made no public comments, and the not-guilty plea was entered by the public defender representing him in the case (AP/Boston Globe, 7/29).If convicted, Roeder likely will face life in prison, as the case does not meet state criteria for the death penalty. His lawyers declined to comment on their defense plans (New York Times, 7/28).
The American Hospital Association (AHA) has elected seven new members to its Board of Trustees for terms beginning January 1, 2010. The Board of Trustees is the policy-making body of the AHA and has ultimate authority for the governance and management of its direction and finances.
On Tuesday, President Obama pitched Democrats" health reform plans to senior citizens and assured them that Medicare benefits would not be cut to pay for covering the uninsured, the New York Times reports. Meanwhile, members of Congress said they were "deluged" with constituent calls expressing concern over the future of their Medicare coverage.
The Congressional Budget Office has so far "failed to attribute any savings to increased efforts to provide preventive efforts like stop-smoking programs," challenging the notion that preventive care saves money for the health care system, NPR reports. "Former CBO health analyst Joe Antos, now at the American Enterprise Institute, says preventive services often cost more than they save. In screening people for cancer, for example, he says, "you screen literally millions of people, sometimes at fairly high cost per screen. You"ll pick up some true positives, people who really have the disease. You"ll pick up some false positives." Then all those people have to be followed up by the medical system, which costs even more money."
High blood pressure is also known as hypertension. Blood pressure is the amount of force exerted against the walls of the arteries as blood flows through them - if a person has high blood pressure it means that the walls of the arteries are receiving too much pressure repeatedly - the pressure needs to be chronically elevated for a diagnosis of hypertension to be confirmed. In medicine chronic means for a sustained period; persistent.
Responding to the publication of the Public Accounts Committee"s report Reducing Alcohol Harm: Health services in England for alcohol misuse, Professor Ian Gilmore, President of the Royal College of Physicians said [of the report]:
The US-based PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Malaria Vaccine Development Program (MVDP), and Dutch biopharmaceutical company Crucell N.V. (Euronext, Nasdaq: CRXL; Swiss Exchange: CRX) today announced a collaboration to accelerate development of a promising type of malaria vaccine. Through funding from the USAID MVDP, the partners will conduct studies to determine the effectiveness of Crucell"s novel prime-boost vaccine approach against the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. This approach uses Crucell"s proprietary recombinant adenoviruses (a type of virus associated with the common cold and other mild respiratory infections) to deliver a malaria antigen to the immune system.
Although Hispanic women tend to develop breast cancer less than Caucasian women, it is usually more aggressive and advanced when it does develop.
People without health insurance will have another avenue for medical care beginning Aug. 1 when student volunteers at the Indiana University School of Medicine open the IU Student Outreach Clinic in a near eastside Indianapolis neighborhood.
The American Nurses Association (ANA) joins with the entire nursing community in mourning the passing of American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) interim Executive Director John Garde, CRNA, MS, FAAN. John Garde passed away last week from complications related to pancreatic cancer.
Recycling is a critical component in the process of transmitting information from one neuron to the next, and a large protein called Tweek plays a critical role, said an international consortium of researchers led by Baylor College of Medicine in a report in the current issue of the journal Neuron.
In response to the publication of Demonstrating Quality: The Sixth National Adult Cardiac Surgical Database Report (1) which examined outcomes for adult cardiac patients British Heart Foundation (BHF) Associate Medical Director Dr Mike Knapton said:
A research article in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. This research led by Professor Kim and his colleagues in Pusan National University, South Korea. They evaluated the EUS features of gastric GISTs in comparison with gastric leiomyomas, and tried to determine the EUS features that could predict the malignant potential of gastric GISTs according to the histological risk classification.
John Spence, a physicist at Arizona State University, is a longtime user of the Advanced Light at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he has contributed to major advances in lensless imaging. It"s a particularly apt propensity for someone who works with x-rays, since they can"t be focused with ordinary lenses.
Informa Healthcare - one of the world"s leading medical and scientific publishers- has announced that the new interactive http://www.informahealthcare.com site is now live and delivers online content from more than 180 peer-reviewed journals.
[Association between 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and cognitive performance in middle-aged and older European men
Older adults who have less strength, poor physical function and low muscle density are at higher risk of being hospitalized compared to adults with more strength and better function. That"s the finding of a new study in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society.
Smokefree Innotec, Inc. (Pink Sheets: SFIO) issued a statement referring to articles in USA Today and The New York Times of Wednesday, July 22, and Thursday, July 23rd, regarding the FDA taking aim at electronic cigarettes. The national dailies stated that tests show that certain e-cigarettes contain "known carcinogens and toxic chemicals," including diethylene-glycol (an ingredient used in antifreeze, printing ink, brake fluid and glue) and nitrosamine (which is used in rubber products, the tobacco industry, and - less concentrated - in beer and fish-products).
Wiley-Blackwell, the scientific, technical, medical and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, Inc (NYSE: JWa), (NYSE: JWb), has announced that it will be publishing a new diabetes journal titled Journal of Diabetes Investigation from 2010.
Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ANDS) announced finalization of the protocol for the Company"s Phase II trial of ANA598 in combination with pegylated interferon-alpha and ribavirin in hepatitis C patients. Allowance of the protocol has been received from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and patient dosing is expected to commence within the next several weeks.
Doing something unusual, like knocking on wood or patting yourself on the head, while taking a daily dose of medicine may be an effective strategy to help seniors remember whether they"ve already taken their daily medications, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.
Chinese state media on Thursday reported that women in the country have about 13 million abortions annually, the AP/Houston Chronicle reports. According to the China Daily newspaper, the actual number likely is much higher because the 13 million includes abortions performed in hospitals but not unreported procedures performed in rural clinics. Most of the abortions were among single young women who experts say know little about contraception. The paper also said that about 10 million pills for medical abortion are sold annually in the country. China imposed strict population controls in the 1970s that prohibit most couples from having more than one child. For married women, sterilization and the use of intrauterine devices are widely promoted and subsidized. However, Chinese policies typically do not address the needs of unmarried women, even as national attitudes have become more accepting of sex outside of marriage, the AP/Chronicle reports. According to the newspaper, about 62% of the abortions were among unmarried women ages 20 to 29. The Chinese report called the number of abortions "an unfortunate situation" but did not indicate whether the procedures are increasing or decreasing from year to year. National Population and Family Planning Commission official Wu Shangchun is quoted in the report as saying that almost half of the women seeking abortion had used no form of contraception. Wu also said that reducing abortions is a national challenge that requires significant effort. Peking University professor Li Ying said that sex education in China must be improved at the university level and that Chinese parents must do more to teach children about sex (AP/Houston Chronicle, 7/30).
One of the "most lethal forms of sex discrimination" is the "systematic inattention to reproductive health care, from family planning to childbirth" in developing countries, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof writes. According to Kristof, a woman dies every minute somewhere in the world from pregnancy or childbirth complications, and 20 times that number suffer childbirth injuries. Providers of foreign aid, including the U.S., "have never shown much interest in maternal mortality, and impoverished women are typically the most voiceless, neglected people in their own countries -- so they die at astonishing rates," Kristof writes.Kristof highlights the childbirth experience of a 19-year-old Pakistani woman named Shazia Allahdita whose infant died in childbirth after her relatives refused to take her to the hospital because they did not want to pay for the taxi fare. Kristof writes that "[i]f men had uteruses, "paternity wards" would get res, ambulances would transport pregnant men to hospitals free of charge, deliveries would be free, and the Group of Eight industrialized nations would make paternal mortality a top priority." Kristof notes that there is "the dawn of a global movement against maternal mortality," with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon working with the U.S. and other countries to plan a "landmark global health session" on Sept. 23. The session will focus, in part, on maternal health, which Kristof terms a "milestone." He concludes, "My dream is that Barack and Michelle Obama will leap forward and adopt this cause -- and transform the prospects for so many young women like Shazia" (Kristof, New York Times, 7/29).
South Africa"s Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor on Tuesday announced a government-sponsored research initiative that "aims to combat HIV and AIDS through scientific and technological research, the development of new drugs, diagnostic tests and vaccines," SAPA/IOL reports (7/28). "[K]ey focus areas" of the South Africa HIV/AIDS Research and Innovation Platform (SHARP) will be prevention and therapeutics, according to BuaNews (7/28).
Columnist Sees "Dawn Of A Global Movement Against Maternal Mortality"
An annual report by the Health Council of East Central Florida released on Wednesday said that nearly 800 new cases of HIV were reported in Central Florida in 2008 and blacks and Hispanics remain disproportionately affected, the Orlando Sentinel reports. The report was presented to the Ryan White Planning Council, according to the Sentinel. The report said that there are now more than 4,000 people living with HIV in the area, and another 4,400 living with AIDS. In addition, a majority of the new cases of HIV were among blacks and Hispanics, according to the report (Maza, 7/29). In an interview with the Sentinel, Debbie Tucci, the Orange County Health Department"s HIV/AIDS program coordinator, discussed the findings. She said, "HIV/AIDS is not in the forefront the way it used to be. We"ve been talking about this for a long time, and people just don"t think it"s going to happen to them." She added, "The disease doesn"t care what your race or ethnicity is. Now we target minorities more, and what"s happened is that they"re getting tested more. Prevention strategies are absolutely working. There"s always room for improvement, but we"ve come a long way - especially among minorities" (Maza, 7/30).
Certainly there is strength in numbers, but only if those numbers can effectively communicate with one another. Now, a new study finds that administration of a novel small molecule which effectively disrupts a key bacterial communication process protects an animal host from infection. The research, published by Cell Press in the July 31st issue of the journal Molecular Cell, may lead to more effective treatments for bacterial infection that won"t encourage growth of treatment resistant bacteria.
A study of almost 25,000 coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patients has shown that receiving blood from another person is associated with a two-fold increase in post-operative infection rates. The research, published in the open access journal BMC Medicine, also found considerable hospital variation in transfusion practices.
The effects of amphetamines on gene expression in zebrafish have been uncovered. This new study, published in BioMed Central"s open access journal Genome Biology, provides clues to the genetics that underlie susceptibility to addiction by describing the nad zebrafish mutant, which does not feel the rewarding effects of the drugs.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has warned companies in Lancashire to ensure they carry out regular, simple checks to protect employees from Legionnaires" disease.
Richard Chapman, from Selsdon, near Croydon, stood on Trafalgar Square"s Fourth Plinth yesterday from 9pm to 10pm to raise funds and awareness for Diabetes UK.
Laboratory studies at Kansas State University and the work of a K-State researcher are making headway in the effort to control the pandemic H1N1 virus.
The least-fit segment of the population has twice the mortality risk of even those who are just a bit more in shape, according to a study published in the official journal of the American College of Sports Medicine.
Johns Hopkins experts in applied physics, computer engineering, infectious diseases, emergency medicine, microbiology, pathology and surgery have unveiled a 7-foot-tall, $10,000 shower-cubicle-shaped device that automatically sanitizes in 30 minutes all sorts of hard-to-clean equipment in the highly trafficked hospital emergency department. The novel device can sanitize and disinfect equipment of all shapes and sizes, from intravenous line poles and blood pressure cuffs, to pulse oximeter wires and electrocardiogram (EKG) wires, to computer keyboards and cellphones.
Physicians at Nationwide Children"s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio are turning to a device typically used in adults with heart problems to help children with severe stomach conditions.
Allergan, Inc. (NYSE: AGN) announced that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved ACUVAIL(TM) (ketorolac tromethamine ophthalmic solution) 0.45%, an advanced, preservative-free formulation of ketorolac, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) indicated for the treatment of pain and inflammation following cataract surgery. Cataracts are a leading cause of blindness among older adults and cataract surgery is the most frequently performed surgical procedure in the United States, with more than 3 million procedures performed each year.1
Shire plc (LSE: SHP, NASDAQ: SHPGY), the global specialty biopharmaceutical company, announces that it has received a Complete Response letter for INTUNIV TM (guanfacine) Extended Release from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This decision comes following labeling discussions with the FDA that did not result in agreement in time to meet the PDUFA date.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA), UK, issued a report last week claiming that there is no evidence of any significant benefits to human health from consuming organic foods. It is surprising that such a claim could be made from a public health agency after what could best be described as rather limited research - according to much of the British press.
The world"s top lung cancer specialists, medical professionals and researchers are convening this week in San Francisco, CA for the 13th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC), organized by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). According to a series of studies presented today at the WCLC, targeted therapies, as first-line treatment, have the potential to slow cancer growth and improve patient outcomes. Unlike traditional chemotherapy-based treatments, which destroy cancerous and non-cancerous cells alike, targeted therapies are designed to inhibit only cancer cell replication and tumor growth and are generally well tolerated by patients.
Parkinson"s disease is well-known for impairing movement and causing tremors, but many patients also develop other serious problems, including sleep disturbances and significant losses in cognitive function known as dementia.
Blog Examines State Of USAID, Potential Farmer Appointment
The intake of added sugars in the United States is excessive, estimated by the US Department of Agriculture in 1999-2002 as 17% of calories a day. Consuming foods with added sugars displaces nutrient-dense foods in the diet. Reducing or limiting intake of added sugars is an important objective in providing overall dietary guidance. In a study of nearly 30,000 Americans published in the August 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, researchers report that race/ethnicity, family income and educational status are independently associated with intake of added sugars. Groups with low income and education are particularly vulnerable to eating diets with high added sugars.
A study, "Longitudinal Evaluation of Sleep-Disordered Breathing and Sleep Symptoms with Change in Quality of Life: The Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS)," in the Aug. 1 issue of the journal Sleep indicates that self-reported worsening in initiating and maintaining sleep over a five-year period was significantly associated with poorer mental quality of life, and increasing daytime sleepiness symptoms were associated with both poorer physical and mental quality of life.
UroToday.com - Ureaplasma urealyticum and Mycoplasma Hominis are members of a unique group of microorganisms commonly identified in the genital tract of women. With the onset of sexual intercourse the prevalence of Mycoplasma increases dramatically an isolation is strongly dependent on the number of sexual partners. Convincing evidence of an infection caused by genital Mycoplasma is not easy, because they usually are not isolated in pure culture, making the evaluation even more difficult.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today that prevention and partnership will guide their departments" efforts to safeguard the food Americans eat every day. Both Secretaries announced new strategies that focus on prevention and depend on working closely with growers, food processors and consumers to achieve their goals.
To meet the needs of its diverse clinician and patient constituency, EmblemHealth announced on Friday publication of what is believed to be the first comprehensive guide to help physicians and medical professionals address the needs of patients whose health care decisions are influenced by their religious and cultural beliefs. The Medical Manual for Religio-Cultural Competency is sponsored by EmblemHealth and created by the Tanenbaum Center For Interreligious Understanding, a global leader in training health care providers to offer religiously and culturally competent care for patients of all ages and backgrounds.
Major depression and coronary artery disease are only modestly related throughout an individual"s lifetime, but studying how the two interact over time and in twin pairs paints a more complex picture of the associations between the conditions, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. For example, the association between coronary artery disease onset and major depression risk is much stronger over time than vice versa.
Vertebral and hip fractures are associated with an increased risk of death, found a new study of 7753 people in Canada aged 50 years and older published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). According to the results, approximately 25% of people (both men and women) living in the community who develop a hip fracture and 16% who develop a spine fracture will die over a 5 year period.
If you"ve ever felt doomed to repeat your mistakes, researchers at MIT"s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory may have explained why: brain cells may only learn from experience when we do something right and not when we fail.
Four simple questions on well-being asked at the start of each session of ongoing couples therapy can greatly increase chances for reconciliation and improved relationships, according to a newly published study. The largest clinical trial with couples to date, it shows that divorce and separation rates for couples that used this feedback technique were 46.2 percent less than that of couples who received therapy as usual. The findings, published in the August 3, 2009, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, are the results of a 2-year study conducted at the Vestfold Family Counseling Center in Norway by a U.S.-Norwegian team of researchers.
Sinovac Biotech Ltd. (NYSE AMEX: SVA), a leading provider of vaccines in China, announced today that the clinical trial of its A/H1N1 influenza vaccine is proceeding well. All of the volunteers have received their first shot of the vaccine and, during the three-day observation of safety, the preliminary tests on the A/H1N1 influenza vaccine have indicated that the vaccine is safe and reliable in humans.
As people age, the potential exists for those years to be the most rewarding and fulfilling time of their lives. However, major illness, retirement, the death of a spouse, and a shrinking circle of friends all may, in some cases, contribute to increased levels of stress and depression in the elderly. For that reason the chief of geropsychiatry for the Los Angeles Jewish Home - the largest single- provider of senior residential housing in the western United States - is offering seniors and their loved ones 10 warning signs that may trigger the need for assistance with mental health issues.
Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter have synthesized a new molecule which releases hydrogen sulfide (H2S) = the gas that gives rotten eggs their characteristic smell and which has recently been found to be produced naturally in the body - and discovered that it could in time lead to a range of new, safer and effective anti-inflammatory drugs for human use.
Seven out of ten U.S. children have low levels of vitamin D, raising their risk of bone and heart disease, according to a study by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. The striking findings suggest that vitamin D deficiency could place millions of children at risk for high blood pressure and other risk factors for heart disease.
New sequencing and analysis of six strains of Chlamydia will result in improved diagnosis of the sexually transmitted infection. This study provides remarkable insights into a new strain of Chlamydia that was identified in Sweden in 2006 after spreading rapidly across the country by evading most established diagnostic tests.
To mark the International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) on 17 May, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth group in Telford and Shropshire is calling for local people to be aware that "Being gay is only part of who you are". The group chose this slogan to put across the message that LGBT people should not be defined by their sexuality alone, but by who they are as individuals. The I-mix group, run by HIV and sexual health charity Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), will be distributing posters and flyers across the region to encourage LGBT young people interested in joining to get in touch.
California"s experience with insurance exchanges could prove a valuable lesson for the nation"s flirtation with such pools for covering large numbers of people, The Wall Street Journal reports.
A Wilmington News Journal editorial discussed the potential lifting of the ban on using federal funding for needle exchange programs. The editorial notes recent Congressional action and the restrictions in a House bill that prohibit needle exchanges to operate "within a 1,000 feet of day care centers, schools, parks, playgrounds, pools and youth centers." According to the News Journal, "This rule wipes out much of the flexibility many cities need in their fight to prevent the spread of HIV among intravenous drug users. The nation"s capital, where the rates of HIV and AIDS cases are considered epidemic, would be hit the hardest because no part of the District of Columbia would be eligible for the funding according to AIDS Action." The editorial adds, "Vans patrolling near vulnerable populations - specifically young, impressionable children - are an issue that must be addressed. But well-intentioned limits should not be allowed to hold up the rest of the program," according to the News Journal (8/1).
Survivors of the childhood cancer neuroblastoma are eight times more likely to have chronic health conditions, less likely to be married, and more likely to have lower incomes than their siblings, according to a study published online July 31 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Assisted dying laws do not mean that fewer people use palliative care, according to a study published on bmj.com today.
For the first time, a combination of aspirin and the anti-platelet drug dipyridamole has been shown to significantly reduce blockages and extend the useful life of new artery-vein access grafts used for hemodialysis, according to a study by the Dialysis Access Consortium (DAC). The study, supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health, will be published in the May 21, 2009, New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota and National Institutes of Health have identified a new function for the protein missing in people with the most common and ultimately lethal form of childhood muscular dystrophy.
Nurses who make home visits to children with asthma can help prevent half of those children from having to receive more serious treatment for their condition, suggests research published ahead of print in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement tonight on the vote by the House Energy and Commerce Committee to pass the America"s Affordable Health Choices Act, the third House committee to pass the bill this month. The House Ways and Means Committee and Education and Labor Committee approved the bill earlier this month:
A member of a new class of antiretroviral drugs is safe and effective for patients beginning treatment against HIV, according to researchers who have completed a two-year multisite phase III clinical trial comparing it with standard antiretroviral drugs.
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute scientists have found that a population of breast cells called luminal progenitor cells are likely to be responsible for breast cancers that develop in women carrying mutations in the gene BRCA1.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have learned that some healthy people naturally developed an immune response against a protein that is made in excess levels in many cancers, including breast, lung, and head and neck cancers. The finding suggests that a vaccine against the protein might prevent malignancies in high-risk individuals.
Of the 600,000-800,000 people trafficked across international borders each year, 50 percent are under 17. It is estimated that by 2010, human trafficking will be the No. 1 crime worldwide.
BioTrends Research Group, Inc. released TreatmentTrends(R): US Nephrology, a syndicated report analyzing treatment practices, attitudes and perceptions based on online survey results from over 200 US Nephrologists. The survey was fielded in late May and focuses on trends in treatment patterns for renal anemia, secondary hyperparathyroidism and hyperphosphatemia.
Eiger BioPharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company developing antiviral therapies, announced today that it has licensed the exclusive worldwide rights to novel Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) technology from Stanford University. This technology, discovered in the lab of Stanford scientist and Eiger founder Dr. Jeffrey Glenn, M.D., Ph.D., is focused on a variety of novel targets, including key features of NS4B, a non-structural protein in the HCV genome, which binds to HCV-RNA and is required for viral replication.
Following a recent World Health Organization (WHO) report that over 1,000 of 1,154 people who have died worldwide from the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic were in the Americas, schools in the US brace themselves for a "nasty" flu season.
A compound initially isolated from a soft coral (Capnella imbricata) collected at Green Island off Taiwan, could lead scientists to develop a new set of treatments for neuropathic pain - chronic pain that sometimes follows damage to the nervous system. Currently this form of pain is very poorly controlled by the usual analgesics (aspirin like drugs (NSAIDS) or even opioids like morphine) and novel treatments are urgently required. The conclusion of a paper published in the British Journal of Pharmacology is that this new compound could be a candidate.
Over the weekend, a series of protests at Democratic events meant to promote health reform "organized by loose-knit coalition of conservative voters and advocacy groups, were a raucous start to what is expected to be weeks of political and ideological clashes over the health care overhaul," the New York Times reports. "Republicans said that the protests were just the beginning of spontaneous opposition to the health care proposals and that they would only gain momentum as Americans learn more about the legislation." But Democrats said they were only an effort to block discourse, and were anything but a grass-roots campaign. "This is a very coordinated effort," said one Democratic Congressman who was confronted by protestors at a grocery store (Herszenhorn and Stolberg, 8/3).
The Associated Press reports on lobbying around biotechnology legislation. A letter urging the protection of biotech drug makers from generics from "the private National Health Council, sent to House leaders drafting health overhaul legislation, said the plea was on behalf of "the more than 133 million Americans living with chronic diseases and disabilities and their family caregivers." It urged lawmakers to protect the makers of high-technology biological medicines against early competition from lower-cost generic copycats. The letter did not mention that nearly $1.2 million of the council"s $2.3 million budget in 2007 came from the pharmaceutical industry"s chief trade group and 16 companies that sell or are developing the brand-name biotech drugs."
In an essay in The Washington Post, an infectious disease specialist writes that "the unspoken truth among doctors is that we objectively or subjectively ration care, and often don"t tell patients or their families." Organs, for example, "are a precious commodity, their donation strictly regulated by national guidelines. ò€¦ Because donors are scarce, it seems appropriate to ration their organs on the basis of need and other ethical and medical considerations." Medical care is also rationed through long wait times to see physicians (ranging from 11 to 50 days in major cities, according to a 2009 survey by Merritt Hawkins & Associates) or shortages of beds in a hospital.
The Guardian examines British Prime Minister Gordon Brown"s offer "to help some of the world"s poorest countries to make healthcare free - starting with pregnant women and children - in a push to widen access to doctors across Africa and Asia." According to the newspaper, the "Department for International Development (DfID) is among the largest donors to many developing countries, and has pledged to spend 6 billion pounds [about $10.2 billion] on health by 2015. Brown hopes to use an expanding aid budget to influence the way public services are delivered on the ground."
Nearly 75 percent of Americans suffer from some form of periodontal disease, the major cause of adult tooth loss. In addition, cardiovascular disease, the leading killer of men and women in the United States, is a major public health issue contributing to 2,400 deaths each day. And while these two conditions are seemingly unrelated, research suggests that managing one disease may reduce the risk for the other.
The way people with autism see and process the body language of others could be preventing them from gauging people"s feelings, according to new research.
The Mount Sinai Medical Center has a new re center for prostate cancer treatment. Led by David B. Samadi, M.D., Chief of the Division of Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery in the Department of Urology, the new state-of-the-art facility at 625 Madison Avenue in New York City specializes in pre- and post-surgery care for patients who undergo a robotic prostatectomy at Mount Sinai"s main campus. It also provides expertise in the treatment of other urologic cancers, including bladder and kidney. A multilingual staff offers assistance with patient travel arrangements, accommodations, and translation services when required.
A widely publicized analysis of social network size, which reported dramatically increasing social isolation when it was published in 2006, has sparked an academic debate in the August issue of the American Sociological Review (ASR), the flagship journal of the American Sociological Association.
Over 100 certified breastfeeding peer counselors, lactation consultants, nurses, physicians, dietitians and community health workers are expected to gather at Rush University Medical Center on Thursday, August 6 from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. in Room 500 at 1725 W. Harrison Street, Chicago, to attend the Griffin Inaugural Conference on Breastfeeding: The Primary Foundation for Health.
Inovio Biomedical Corporation (NYSE Amex: INO), a leader in DNA vaccine design, development and delivery, announced today new data representing what Inovio believes to be the first demonstration of a significantly increased and persistent level of antibody response generated by a DNA vaccine delivered using electroporation.
People who inject drugs may be less likely to inject buprenorphine-naloxone than other opioid substitutes, according to the results of a recent study published in the Medical Journal of Australia.
GeoVax Labs, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: GOVX), an Atlanta-based HIV/AIDS vaccine development company announced updates on its ongoing and planned human clinical trials.
A new study led by Mayo Clinic researchers has found that relief of pain from vertebral compression fractures, as well as improvement in pain-related dysfunction, were similar in patients treated with vertebroplasty and those treated with simulated vertebroplasty without cement injections. The article, "A Randomized Controlled Trial of Vertebroplasty for Osteoporotic Spine Fractures," was released today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has cut short its annual health ministers meeting because of influenza A (H1N1) preparations and has postponed discussions about Chagas disease. Much needed progress in diagnosing and treating people for this neglected disease must not be further delayed, warned the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Mç©decins Sans Frontiç¨res (MSF) today.
UroToday.com - Microdissection testicular sperm extraction is a procedure used to extract sperm from patients with irreversible non-obstructive azospermia. Sperm extracted are then used for in vitro fertilization (IVF). While this technique has improved the sperm retrieval rate compared to other biopsy techniques, sperm are still often not retrieved. The purpose of our research was to develop a technique for identifying small foci of sperm for retrieval for use in IVF.
UroToday.com - Vitamin D needs, especially in the northern latitudes where direct sunlight is unavailable for much of the year, are currently under scrutiny by members of both the scientific and medical communities. Vitamin D primarily plays a role in regulating calcium absorption in the gastrointestinal tract. However, epidemiologic and laboratory studies support the notion that vitamin D might play a role in chemoprevention - particularly of cancers of the colon, breast, ovarian, and prostate (Garland et al., Am J Public Health 2006;96:252-61) - immune modulation and prevention of certain autoimmune disorders (Cantorna et al., Exp Biol Med 2004;229:1136-1142), promoting bone integrity and preserving muscle mass (Montero-Odasso et al., Mol Aspects Med 2005;26:203-19), cardiovascular disease prevention (Wang et al., Circulation 2008;117:503-11), and prevention of all-cause mortality (Melamed et al., Arch Intern Med 2008;168:1629-37).
Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have isolated a unique protein that appears to have a dual function and could lead to a "boon in medicine." The findings are published in the August issue of the Journal of Cell Biology.
President Obama and his Administration launched "a coordinated effort Tuesday to combat what it calls a "viral whisper campaign" against health reform, Politico reports. The effort "continued through the day with press secretary Robert Gibbs and Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse both saying a series of confrontational town hall meetings were manufactured by Republicans, conservative groups and lobbyists who are paid to drum up opposition."
"As they work to overhaul the nation"s healthcare system, President Obama and his congressional allies have pledged to help small-business owners such as Rhonda Ealy and Kelli Glasser," The Los Angeles Times reports. "Both businesswomen desperately want help. But they have strongly divergent views about what Washington should do, reflecting a broader debate about how to relieve the burden on the nation"s roughly 6 million small businesses." Ealy owns a coffee roasting company in Bend, Ore. with 13 employees, she says she "loves a Democratic proposal to create a government-run insurance plan, which she hopes will allow her to get her employees better coverage for less." Glasser, who "makes museum and trade-show exhibits" and has 87 employees, "hates a separate provision in the legislation that would place a new requirement on many businesses to cover their employees."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday in Kenya "re-affirmed the new U.S. administration"s commitment towards expanding its partnership with African countries, expressing optimism in the continent"s long-term potential for growth and development," VOA News reports. Speaking at the African Growth and Opportunity Act Forum in Nairobi, which marked the start of her 11-day trip to Africa, Clinton "also stressed to the delegates that economic progress is tied directly to good governance (Boswell, 8/5). Clinton"s message was that the "new American policy for Africa would be trade not aid," according to the New York Times. She told the forum, "We want to be your partner, not your patron" (Gettleman, 8/5).
Summaries of two opinion pieces and an editorial related to the ban on the use of federal funding for needle exchange and recent congressional action appear below.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) have today published their
Altair Therapeutics, Inc., a privately-held, biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics for respiratory diseases, reported results from its phase I study evaluating the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of its lead product, once-weekly inhaled AIR645, in healthy volunteers. AIR645 is a non-steroidal dual inhibitor of cellular responses to interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-13, cytokines that play a critical role in development and progression of asthma, rhinitis and other allergic disorders. Results presented today at the 2009 International Conference of the American Thoracic Society (ATS) within the Mini-Symposium "New Treatment Approaches for Asthma and Allergy" showed that inhaled AIR645 was safe, well tolerated and had dose-dependent exposure in the airways. These results demonstrate the potential of AIR645 as a convenient once-weekly treatment for asthma and other respiratory disorders. Later this year, Altair plans to initiate a phase II efficacy study in patients with asthma.