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Food scare number 4 this week - chicken breast meat

In yet another food scare in the United States a nationwide recall of 52,650 pounds of Oscar Mayer ready to eat chicken breast strips is suspected to be contaminated.

19 Feb 2007

Everyday plastics and pesticides may influence obesity

Obesity is generally discussed in terms of caloric intake (how much a person eats) and energy output (how much a person exercises).

18 Feb 2007

Winter colds, over-wrapping increase risk of SIDS

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) - the leading cause of death in infants under 1 year of age can happen at any time. But parents and caregivers should be extra careful during the cold winter months, when the flu and other infections and the urge to bundle up babies extra warmly increase the risk of SIDS, say experts from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

18 Feb 2007

Dipeptidyl peptidase I critical for early growth of abdominal aortic aneurysms

Surgery is the only treatment for an abdominal aortic aneurysm, a weak spot in the body's main artery that dilates dangerously over time.

13 Feb 2007

After age 40 pregnant mums have three times the risk of stillbirth

According to researchers at Yale School of Medicine in the United States, women who have a baby when they are aged 40 or over are three times more likely to experience a stillbirth.

12 Feb 2007

High-dose progesterone treatment helps at-risk pregnant women avoid premature delivery

In this study, 45 women who experienced premature labor (before 37 weeks gestation) were randomly divided into treatment and observation groups. The treatment group received twice-weekly 341-mg doses of progesterone until week 36.

11 Feb 2007

Back regions of the brain, which control vision, grow significantly faster than prefrontal region in newborns

The regions of the brain that control vision and other sensory information grow dramatically in the first few months following birth, while the area that controls abstract thought experiences very little growth during the same period, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers have found.

11 Feb 2007

New diagnostic technology for routine prenatal genetic testing

Research studies demonstrating the viability of an approach to routinely detect the presence of fetal DNA in a mother's blood to accurately diagnose or rule out genetic defects -- as early as the first trimester -- was presented today at the 27th Annual Meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine being held in San Francisco.

11 Feb 2007

Current arguments for reform of UK Abortion Act

The 40th anniversary in October this year of the passing of the UK Abortion Act is certain to be marked by attempts to reopen the debate about lowering the upper limit for legal terminations. In a special report in this week's British Medical Journal, journalist Jonathan Gornall examines current arguments for reform.

11 Feb 2007

Spring births increase likelihood of preterm birth

Women who become pregnant in spring are more vulnerable to preterm birth than those who conceive in other seasons, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh.

5 Feb 2007

Can non-medical use of ultrasound be justified?

Expectant parent' desire to see images of their unborn children has given rise to commercial companies offering keepsake ultrasound scans without medical supervision, often referred to as "boutique ultrasonography."

5 Feb 2007

Natural fibre may help overweight achieve a healthy body weight

It sounds almost too good to be true, but Dr. Raylene Reimer, a researcher at the University of Calgary, Faculty of Kinesiology, believes she may have found an important weapon in the war against obesity.

31 Jan 2007

One in four normal births cause brain hemorrhages in babies

Researchers in the United States have found that many babies who were delivered vaginally, experience bleeding in and around the brain shortly after birth.

30 Jan 2007

Giving birth to a child naturally increases risk of hemorrhage in newborns

The first researchers to use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study the brains of a large group of babies soon after birth found a small amount of bleeding in and around the brains of one in four babies who were delivered vaginally.

30 Jan 2007

Sequenom and Lenetix to develop Rhesus D prenatal diagnostic

Sequenom, Inc. and Lenetix Medical Screening Laboratory, Inc., a provider of rapid genetic screening and diagnostic testing for clinicians worldwide, today announced that they have entered into a collaboration and license agreement to develop and commercialize a proprietary non-invasive prenatal Rhesus D (RhD) incompatibility test based on Sequenom patent rights and RT PCR methodology.

29 Jan 2007

Medicare, social security obligations could harm future U.S. economy

Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke on Thursday at a Senate Budget Committee hearing said that if "early and meaningful action is not taken" by Congress to address the rising costs of retirement and medical services for baby boomers, "the U.S. economy could be seriously weakened, with future generations bearing much of the cost," the AP/Bergen Record reports.

23 Jan 2007

Seniors turn to credit cards to pay medical bills

An increased number of seniors have "turned to credit cards and home equity to pay medical bills" at a time when "more employers are cutting back on retiree medical and pension benefits," USA Today reports.

23 Jan 2007

Effect of vitamin supplementation on neonatal morbidity and mortality

Undernourished women who take a vitamin and mineral supplement while pregnant may be less likely than women taking only iron and folic acid supplements to have babies weighing less than 2,500 grams, and their newborns may be less likely to have morbidity in the first seven days of life.

2 Jan 2007