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AHRA and Toshiba partner on putting patients first program

Patient safety and quality care continue to be important issues for hospitals and imaging centers. To help these facilities start new or build upon existing programs, AHRA: The Association for Medical Imaging Management announces the second year of its Putting Patients First grant program.

10 Aug 2009

Noninvasive MRI helps diabetes diagnosis and treatment

Noninvasive imaging (MRI) may aid physicians in the early diagnosis, staging and treatment of diabetes, according to a study performed at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. This is the first study of its kind to apply noninvasive imaging techniques to diabetes research.

6 Aug 2009

Regional nerve block anesthesia improve recovery, outcomes

When planning for surgery, patients too often don't consider the kind of anesthesia they will receive. In fact, the choice of anesthesia can improve recovery, even outcomes.

4 Aug 2009

Women and minorities under-represented in trials

Enrollment demographics published in many U.S. vascular surgery randomized control trials (RCTs) under-represent women as well as race or ethnic minorities, according to a new study published in the Society for Vascular Surgery’s August 2009 issue of the Journal of Vascular Surgery.

4 Aug 2009

Elevated cholesterol levels in midlife raises risk of late-life dementia

Elevated cholesterol levels in midlife - even levels considered only borderline elevated - significantly increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia later in life, according to a new study by researchers at Kaiser Permanente's Division of Research and the University of Kuopio in Finland. The study appears in the journal Dementia & Geriatric Cognitive Disorders.

4 Aug 2009

Long-term brain damage after bypass surgery - more evidence puts blame on heart disease

Brain scientists and cardiac surgeons at Johns Hopkins have evidence from 227 heart bypass surgery patients that long-term memory losses and cognitive problems they experience are due to the underlying coronary artery disease itself and not ill after-effects from having used a heart-lung machine.

3 Aug 2009

FDA approves Avastin plus interferon-alfa for people with metastatic renal cell carcinoma

Genentech, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Avastin (bevacizumab) plus interferon-alfa for people with metastatic renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, kidney cancer is the eighth most commonly diagnosed cancer in the United States. In 2009, approximately 13,000 Americans will die from the disease.

3 Aug 2009

Anti-growth factor drugs raise hope and concern for treatment of children's eye diseases

A new class of antibody drugs may provide a powerful new tool for the treatment of eye diseases in children, but specialists need to be alert for the possibility of serious side effects, according to an editorial in the August Journal of AAPOS (American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus), published by Elsevier.

3 Aug 2009

Protein level may predict severe osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA), the most common joint disorder throughout the world and a leading cause of disability, is characterized by pain, impaired joint mobility, reduction of muscular strength and loss of joint function. Unlike most other common diseases, little is known about its origins, and factors predicting a severe disease course have not been identified.

30 Jul 2009

New drug promises to reduce damage from a heart attack

Research into a new drug by Australian heart experts has found that it can dramatically reduce heart muscle damage after a heart attack.

28 Jul 2009

Hypertension may lead to ‘silent’ strokes

"Silent" strokes, which are strokes that don't result in any noticeable symptoms but cause brain damage, are common in people over 60, and especially in those with high blood pressure, according to a study published in the July 28, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

28 Jul 2009

Study of pulmonary hypertension treatment in sickle cell patients stopped by NHLBI

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health has stopped a clinical trial testing a drug treatment for pulmonary hypertension in adults with sickle cell disease nearly one year early due to safety concerns.

28 Jul 2009

Deferoxamine could help diabetics heal wounds

A drug used to remove iron from the body could help doctors fight one of diabetes' cruelest complications: poor wound healing, which can lead to amputation of patients' toes, feet and even legs.

28 Jul 2009

Enzyme implicated in blood flow in Alzheimer’s, disease progression

Researchers have discovered that the enzyme, endothelin converting enzyme-2 (ECE-2), may cause the decrease in blood flow in the brain seen in Alzheimer's disease and contribute to progression of the disease.

27 Jul 2009

Some blood pressure drugs may help protect against dementia, study shows

A particular class of medication used to treat high blood pressure could protect older adults against memory decline and other impairments in cognitive function, according to a newly published study from Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

23 Jul 2009

New drug may reduce heart attack damage

A novel drug that targets a master disease-causing gene can dramatically reduce heart muscle damage after a heart attack and may lead to significantly improved patient outcomes, researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have shown.

22 Jul 2009

Researchers say decreases likelihood of chronic diseases

Research undertaken by the Universities of Reading, Cardiff and Bristol has found that drinking milk can lessen the chances of dying from illnesses such as coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke by up to 15-20 %.

22 Jul 2009

Research reveals major genetic differences between blood and tissue cells

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.

15 Jul 2009

Flu mortality formula is potentially misleading, say scientists

A standard calculation used in forecasting potential numbers of deaths during the swine flu pandemic risks misleading healthcare planners by being open to both over- and under-estimation of the true figures, say the authors of new research published today in the British Medical Journal.

15 Jul 2009

New Medicare data compare hospitals based on readmissions

New data regarding hospital readmission rates have emerged "amid a national debate over how to reduce" these numbers, "which cost the federal government billions of dollars a year in Medicare reimbursements," the New York Times reports.

12 Jul 2009