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Management of hospital-onset seizures lacks standards

Seizures in patients admitted to hospital for nonseizure reasons – hospital-onset seizures – largely affect those without any history of seizures, often recur, and are linked to a high mortality, according to a study in JAMA Neurology.

21 Jan 2013

Parental depression linked to TMD pain in young adults

A mother’s depression during pregnancy is not a risk factor for temporomandibular disorders in her child, a 31-year follow-up study indicates.

21 Jan 2013

Concern over privacy in neonatal intensive care units

Researchers say that privacy is a problem for breastfeeding mothers of newborns in the neonatal intensive care unit.

21 Jan 2013

Albumin may prove a predictor for pneumonia outcomes

Researchers say that assessing serum albumin levels within 24 hours of admission could be a good prognostic marker of community-acquired pneumonia.

21 Jan 2013

Early treatment during primary HIV infection shows promise

Two papers in The New England Journal of Medicine suggest that starting antiretroviral treatment early after HIV infection is diagnosed may improve patients’ immune response, boosting the initial recovery of the immune system and delaying progression of the disease.

21 Jan 2013

Scientists identify a possible lead in treatment of two childhood leukemia subtypes

Research led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists has identified a possible lead in treatment of two childhood leukemia subtypes known for their dramatic loss of chromosomes and poor treatment outcomes.

21 Jan 2013

Paying medical expenses, raising hopes, triggering fears ...

USA Today and Marketplace report on ways in which the cost of health care, especially regarding a serious illness, causes patient anxieties, challenges for the health system and new approaches within the marketplace.

21 Jan 2013

Study refocuses on how neuroblastoma tumors evolve in response to medicine and other factors

An extensive genomic study of the childhood cancer neuroblastoma reinforces the challenges in treating the most aggressive forms of this disease. Contrary to expectations, the scientists found relatively few recurrent gene mutations—mutations that would suggest new targets for neuroblastoma treatment. Instead, say the researchers, they have now refocused on how neuroblastoma tumors evolve in response to medicine and other factors.

21 Jan 2013

Federal gov't. awards health exchange grants to some states

The federal health department announced $1.5 billion in new grants Thursday for states to continue building their insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act. California, Delaware, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Oregon and Vermont received funding - either one-or multi-year awards based on their progress in creating the marketplaces.

20 Jan 2013

Study shows first empirical evidence of exposure to conflict-of-interest policies

Psychiatrists who are exposed to conflict-of-interest (COI) policies during their residency are less likely to prescribe brand-name antidepressants after graduation than those who trained in residency programs without such policies, according to a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

19 Jan 2013

Low blood flow to the premature brain disrupts cells' ability to fully mature

Physician-scientists at Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher Children's Hospital are challenging the way pediatric neurologists think about brain injury in the pre-term infant. In a study published online in the Jan. 16 issue of Science Translational Medicine, the OHSU Doernbecher researchers report for the first time that low blood and oxygen flow to the developing brain does not, as previously thought, cause an irreversible loss of brain cells, but rather disrupts the cells' ability to fully mature.

19 Jan 2013

Having 2 attending physicians during spinal surgeries can benefit patients in multiple ways

Two heads are better than one, as the saying goes - and a new study by a duo at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) demonstrates how having two attending surgeons in the operating room during spinal surgeries can benefit patients in multiple ways.

19 Jan 2013

Checklists can help surgical teams perform better during emergencies

When doctors, nurses and other hospital operating room staff follow a written safety checklist to respond when a patient experiences cardiac arrest, severe allergic reaction, bleeding followed by an irregular heart beat or other crisis during surgery, they are nearly 75 percent less likely to miss a critical clinical step, according to a new study funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

19 Jan 2013

State highlights: Trying to save care for poor with Medicaid budget deals

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley asked legislators in her third State of the State address Wednesday to overhaul how public schools are funded, improve crumbling roads, and make prisons a safer place for those who guard the most violent offenders. She pledged to work to improve residents' health, especially in rural areas, without expanding Medicaid. For example, she said, next year the state's Medicaid agency will begin fully reimbursing rural hospitals for uncompensated care.

19 Jan 2013

Study finds decline in spermatozoid concentration in young Spanish men

The first comparative study on the evolution of sperm quality in young Spanish men over ten years, headed by researchers at the University of Murcia, reveals that spermatozoid concentration in men between 18 and 23 years in the regions of Murcia and Almeria has dropped by an annual average of 2%.

19 Jan 2013

Va. lawmakers block abortion ultrasound repeal; Other state abortion news

Lawmakers in Virginia blocked a repeal of a state law that requires women to have an ultrasound before an abortion as well as a law that requires stricter regulation of abortion clinics. In the meantime, however, a state Senate committee there killed a proposal that would have forbidden public money from being used for abortions where the fetus is likely to be deformed and unlikely to survive.

19 Jan 2013

Intestinal bacteria can produce biochemicals and hormones that stop development of diabetes

All humans have enormous numbers of bacteria and other micro-organisms (10 to 14) in the lower intestine. In fact our bodies contain about ten times more bacteria than our own cells and these tiny passengers are extremely important for our health. They help us digest our food and provide us with energy and vitamins.

19 Jan 2013

Greenway earns ONC HIT certificate for PrimeSUITE 2014

Greenway Medical Technologies, Inc., announced today that Greenway PrimeSUITE 2014 (17.0) is compliant with the ONC 2014 Edition criteria and was certified as an EHR Module on Jan. 15, 2013 by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), an ONC-ACB, in accordance with the applicable eligible provider certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

19 Jan 2013

New method may help predict response to chemotherapy for bowel cancer

Scientists at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and Beaumont Hospital have developed a new method of predicting which patients with bowel (colorectal) cancer will respond effectively to chemotherapy. The results of this study are published in the current issue of the prestigious Cancer Research journal.

19 Jan 2013

New model of tau pathology spread

Brain diseases associated with the misformed protein tau, including Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration with tau pathologies, are characterized by neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) comprised of pathological tau filaments.

19 Jan 2013