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Don’t skip chest CT in the ER just because X-ray checks out okay, warns study

Chest X-rays may miss 40% of clinically significant thoracic injuries in multiple trauma patients that can be caught by chest CT, say researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

18 May 2005

Medical robots to cover ward rounds

Remote Presence (RP6) Robots allow a medical expert to visually examine and communicate with a patient from anywhere in the world, via the machine, using wireless technology. The robots (nicknamed by staff Sister Mary and Dr Robbie) can also be used for surgical teaching and even videoconferencing.

18 May 2005

Chronic stress can be harmful - to your health and also to your brain

Chronic stress can be harmful - to your health and also to your brain, according to researchers at the Douglas Hospital Research Center. Their findings, published in a recent issue of Psychoneuroendocrinology, show increased stress hormones lead to memory impairment in the elderly and learning difficulties in young adults.

17 May 2005

Tumor vasculature has become an attractive target in the treatment of cancer.

Treatment with a protein fused to an antibody in tumor-bearing mice led to coagulation of the blood within the tumor blood vessels, tumor tissue death, and tumor growth delay, according to a new study in the May 18 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

17 May 2005

Smoking may have a devastating effect on gastrointestinal health

Smoking may have a devastating effect on gastrointestinal health and increase a person's risk of developing pancreatic and liver cancer, according to new research presented today at Digestive Disease Week 2005 (DDW). Furthermore, data from the Nurses' Health Study shows that meat intake and smoking play a part in significantly increasing a woman's risk of colorectal cancer.

17 May 2005

Grapefruit have strong antioxidant properties that can have healing effects on stomach ulcers

Extracts of the popular diet item grapefruit have strong antioxidant properties that can have healing effects on stomach ulcers, according to a new study presented today at Digestive Disease Week 2005 (DDW).

17 May 2005

Mathematical way to identify babies at risk for epilepsy

Confusion and speech problems are frequent signs of seizures, but babies offer few such clues as to what ails them.

17 May 2005

Pills made from the plant kudzu may help binge drinkers lose the urge

Researchers have found that drinkers seemed to lose the urge to binge-drink when they took pills made from the plant kudzu. Experts say the groundbreaking discovery may lead to a way to attack the rising binge-drinking problem which is especially prevalent among young people.

17 May 2005

Hospital managers could face criminal charges if patients catch superbugs

Ms Hewitt has promised a "much stronger" legal framework in the National Health Service (NHS) to help hospitals reduce the rate of antibiotic-resistant MRSA and other hospital acquired infections.

17 May 2005

Lower doses of chemo just as effective in childhood cancers

In the latest research into treating a common childhood cancer, paediatric oncologist Allen Chauvenet, is optimistic that the long-term side effects that survivors experience as they grow into adulthood can be reduced.

17 May 2005

Sensor warns of gastrointestinal problems

Dutch researcher Sebastiaan Herber has developed a sensor which can detect poor blood circulation in the stomach. A high level of carbon dioxide in the stomach is a characteristic of this so-called gastrointestinal ischaemia. By measuring this concentration the sensor can indicate how good or bad the circulation in the stomach wall is.

17 May 2005

New drug combination prevents breast cancer growth pre-surgery

A new type of drug originally developed for lung cancer can reduce the size of breast cancer tumours when taken in combination with other drugs.

17 May 2005

Gefitinib (Iressa) could reduce the size of breast cancer tumours

Giving women with early breast cancer a drug called gefitinib (Iressa) before surgery could reduce the size of their tumours, suggests a randomised trial published online today by The Lancet Oncology.

17 May 2005

The brain damage wrought by a minor stroke can alter the way artists paint

The study reports on two professional painters, both of whom had a stroke, located in the left occipital lobe of the brain and limbic thalamus, respectively.

17 May 2005

Using a mobile phone in rural areas seems to pose a greater risk of developing brain tumours than it does in urban areas

The findings are based on a sample of over 1400 adults aged between 20 and 80, living in the centre of Sweden. All of them had been diagnosed with a malignant or benign brain tumour between January 1997 and June 2000.

17 May 2005

Rifaximin is effective in preventing attacks of diarrhea

An antibiotic can be safely used to prevent attacks of diarrhea that plague millions of globe-trotting vacationers and business travelers, a Houston research team reports this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

17 May 2005

Routinely reformatting computed tomography (CT) scans to view organs from several different directions may help radiologists improve diagnosis

"You can see things in one view that you might miss in another," said Craig Barnes, M.D., section head of pediatric radiology at Wake Forest Baptist's Brenner Children's Hospital. "It costs no more as relates to scan time or radiation exposure, and we believe it provides added value in diagnosis."

17 May 2005

Use of a common type of antidepressant may increase gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding

In fact, the study suggests that the increase is similar to that associated with the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs, known as pain relievers). DDW is the largest international gathering of physicians, academics and researchers in the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy and gastrointestinal surgery.

17 May 2005

SU11248 drug show promise against neuroendocrine tumors-stubborn cancers that respond poorly to chemotherapy

A unique, targeted anti-cancer drug appears to show promise against neuroendocrine tumors-stubborn cancers that have traditionally responded poorly to chemotherapy, according to research findings announced at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

17 May 2005

Patients with suspicious axillary lymph nodes in their breasts should first undergo ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration to avoid unnecessary surgery

Currently, breast cancer patients undergo axillary lymph node dissection for accurate staging and control of the cancer. In many cases, this major procedure can be replaced by sentinel lymph node biopsy, which is a more simple and less invasive surgical procedure, but many still have to undergo axillary dissection after the sentinel lymph node biopsy.

17 May 2005