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India’s TB treatment inadequate raising risk of drug resistance

India suffers from inadequate government-run tuberculosis (TB) treatment programs and a lack of regulation of the sale of drugs against TB. This has led to the rise in number of drug-resistant cases that are difficult to treat, health activists said Friday.

26 Mar 2012

Gene fault linked to flu risk for hospitalization: Study finds

Researchers have found a genetic flaw that may explain why some people get more ill with flu than others. The study was reported in the journal Nature this Sunday, where researchers said the variant of the IFITM3 gene was much more common in people hospitalized for flu than in the general population. It controls a malformed protein, which makes cells more susceptible to viral infection. Experts said those with the flaw could be given the flu jab, like other at-risk groups.

26 Mar 2012

Pregnancy raises risk of heart attacks

According to a new study pregnancy and related hormonal changes that continue 12 weeks after giving birth increase a woman's risk of heart attack. Although the likelihood of having a heart attack during pregnancy is very low - just 1 in every 16,000 deliveries - it is still 3 to 4 times higher than non-pregnant women of the same age.

26 Mar 2012

Dick Cheney’s heart transplant success at 71

Former vice president Dick Cheney, at 71, who has survived five heart attacks and years of heart failure, is recuperating in intensive care at a Northern Virginia hospital after undergoing a heart transplant Saturday. He had been on the waiting list for 20 months.

26 Mar 2012

Zotec Partners to manage billing operations for TRA Medical Imaging

Zotec Partners, an industry leading provider of specialized medical billing and practice management services for the hospital-based specialty market, announces today that it will manage all billing operations for TRA Medical Imaging, out of Tacoma, Wash.

26 Mar 2012

Lower BMI increases risk during insertion of ICDs

Patients who are underweight or small in stature are twice as likely to experience complications or die during insertion of an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) compared to obese and normal-weight patients, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 61st Annual Scientific Session.

26 Mar 2012

Novel device for measuring pelvic floor muscle strength

It is estimated that urine loss affects 30% of women at some point in their lives. Despite this high incidence rate, up until now clinical evaluation of patients suffering from this problem has been based on tactile examination, a subjective procedure that is not carried out in a consistent way by different medical professionals.

26 Mar 2012

Medica Foundation awards $2.5 million in grants to 104 recipients

The Medica Foundation in 2011 awarded $2.5 million in grants to 104 recipients across five funding priority areas. The awards include $1 million in longitudinal grants to five Minnesota organizations. Those grant amounts range from $100,000 to $300,000 each and are designed to provide funding to the recipients over a three-year period.

26 Mar 2012

Stem cells from own bone marrow improve heart function

A research network led by a Mayo Clinic physician found that stem cells derived from heart failure patients' own bone marrow and injected into their hearts improved the function of the left ventricle, the heart's pumping chamber. Researchers also found that certain types of the stem cells were associated with the largest improvement and warrant further study.

26 Mar 2012

CCTA identifies more patients with coronary artery disease

Coronary CT angiography (CCTA) scans allow doctors to determine safely and more quickly which patients at low-to intermediate-risk for a heart attack can be discharged from hospital emergency departments (EDs) than traditional methods, according to the results of a large, multicenter American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN) trial published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

26 Mar 2012

Theracurmin shows positive impact on human diastolic functions

The research group led by Dr. Koji Hasegawa, Director of the Translational Research Division at the National Hospital Organization Kyoto Medical Center and Dr. Tatsuya Morimoto, Professor at the Molecular Medicine School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Shizuoka, announced today based on the recent human clinical trials, that Theracurmin has continuously shown positive impact on human diastolic functions.

26 Mar 2012

Population-wide community and clinical prevention program reduces cardiovascular risk profile

A population-wide community and clinical prevention program involving 10,000 adults meaningfully reduced the cardiovascular (CV) risk profile among a substantial portion of the population as indicated by those participating in screenings. Findings also indicate the level of improvements differ by gender for specific cardiovascular risk factors.

26 Mar 2012

Commensal bacteria may play an important role in influencing and controlling allergic inflammation

When poet Walt Whitman wrote that we "contain multitudes," he was speaking metaphorically, but he was correct in the literal sense. Every human being carries over 100 trillion individual bacterial cells within the intestine -- ten times more cells than comprise the body itself.

26 Mar 2012

PCI may be an excellent option for STEMI patients 90 years and older

Selected patients 90 years and older who experience an acute heart attack, or ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), have reasonable outcomes with coronary stenting, and should be considered for reperfusion therapy, based on a scientific poster being presented at the 61st annual American College of Cardiology (ACC) scientific session.

26 Mar 2012

Multifaceted intervention improves use of evidence-based medicines

Among patients with acute coronary syndromes (such as heart attack or unstable angina) treated at public hospitals in Brazil, implementation of a multifaceted intervention that included educational materials, checklists and reminders resulted in improvement in the use of evidence-based medicines during the first 24 hours of hospitalization, according to a study appearing in JAMA.

26 Mar 2012

Blockages in right coronary artery are most common places for coronary dissection

Researchers from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital discovered that blockages in the right coronary artery and those in bending areas of the coronary artery are the most common places for coronary dissection, a tear in the artery that can occur during balloon angioplasty of the coronary arteries.

26 Mar 2012

Toshiba's Infinix-i cardiovascular X-ray system highlighted at ACC 2012

The design of Toshiba's Infinix-i cardiovascular X-ray system improves patient access in the cath lab during transradial and transcatheter aortic-valve replacement (TAVR) intervention, resulting in better patient care and outcomes.

26 Mar 2012

First Edition: March 26, 2012

Today marks the beginning of the Supreme Court's three days of oral arguments regarding the health law. Headlines break down the key points of those arguments, as well as the political and historical context in which they will be advanced.

26 Mar 2012

Doctors may be driven out of practice by tests

Your doctor, after a decade of rigorous training and 20 years of experience, may be driven out of practice by a $300 million industry that sells tests.

26 Mar 2012

Benvenue's Blazer Vertebral Augmentation System now available in the U.S.

Today Benvenue Medical, Inc., a developer of minimally invasive solutions for spine repair, launched the Blazer Vertebral Augmentation System for vertebral compression fractures (VCF) in the U.S. at the 2012 Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) annual meeting.

26 Mar 2012