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Short-term complications after bariatric surgery for extreme obesity low

Short-term complications and death rates were low following bariatric surgery to limit the amount of food that can enter the stomach, decrease absorption of food or both, according to the Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery (LABS-1). The study was funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health. Results are reported in the July 30 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

30 Jul 2009

Higher drug doses needed to defeat tuberculosis in overweight and obese

The typical dose of a medication considered pivotal in treating tuberculosis effectively is much too low to account for modern-day physiques, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers said.

30 Jul 2009

Covance enters strategic genomic services agreement with Merck

Covance has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement with Merck & Co., Inc. relating to the supply of genomic analysis services.

30 Jul 2009

Three organizations form alliance to address global malnutrition

"Three internationally known organizations based in St. Louis - the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, the Washington University School of Medicine and St. Louis Children's Hospital" - have entered into a partnership, known as the Global Harvest Alliance (GHA), which aims to "create inexpensive, nutritionally complete food to help the world's hungry and undernourished," the AP/Google.com reports.

29 Jul 2009

No evidence for superior nutritional content of organic produce

There is no evidence that organically produced foods are nutritionally superior to conventionally produced foodstuffs, according to a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

29 Jul 2009

Smokeless tobacco use carries little or no risk of cancer

A large meta-analysis, published in the open access journal BMC Medicine, has shown that snuff as used in Scandinavia has no discernible effect on the risk of various cancers. Products used in the past in the USA may have increased the risk, but any effect that exists now seems likely to be quite small.

28 Jul 2009

Enjoyable leisure activities tied to psychological and physical well-being

Taking time for leisure activities apart from the demands of work and other responsibilities helps people function better physically and mentally. In fact, the more time spent doing different types of enjoyable activities, the better a person's health tends to be, according to a new study.

28 Jul 2009

Being active at age 5 helps kids stay lean as they age

Being active at age 5 helps kids stay lean as they age even if they don't remain as active later in childhood, a new University of Iowa study shows.

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

Research shows why HIV virus is so successful and so deadly

Retroviruses such as HIV that are already within cells are much more easily transmitted when they are next to uninfected cells than if they are floating free in the bloodstream.

28 Jul 2009

Discovery of potential treatment for spinal muscular atrophy

Spinal Muscular Atrophy is the second-leading cause of infant mortality in the world. Ravindra Singh, associate professor in biomedical sciences at Iowa State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, would like to see Spinal Muscular Atrophy lose its high ranking and even slide off the list altogether.

28 Jul 2009

Study finds few patients die from prostate cancer within 15 years of radical prostatectomy

Investigators at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), along with collaborating teams at the Cleveland Clinic and the University of Michigan, have completed the first large- scale, multi-institutional study of prostate cancer death after standard treatment to remove the prostate since PSA screening has become widely used as a method to screen for the disease.

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

Current diagnostic tests for ovarian cancer woefully ineffective

A new study finds that in order to make a significant dent in the mortality rate for the deadly cancer, the tests would have to be able to detect tumors of less than 1 cm in diameter, or about 200-times smaller in mass than those currently used to assess potential new tests. Still, if that hurdle can be overcome, there is good reason to believe that testing could make a big difference: The window of opportunity for treating these clinically undetectable cancers before they become life threatening is surprisingly long: about four years.

28 Jul 2009

Coronary calcium scoring may predict heart attack risk

Researchers may be able to predict future severe cardiac events in patients with known, stable coronary artery disease (CAD) using coronary calcium scoring, according to a study published in the online edition of Radiology.

28 Jul 2009

Artificial intelligence used to diagnose metastatic cancer

When doctors are managing care for women with breast cancer, the information available to them profoundly influences the type of care they recommend. Knowing whether a woman's cancer has metastasized, for instance, directly affects how her doctors will approach treatment -- which may in turn influence the outcome of that treatment.

28 Jul 2009

Cost effectiveness study looks at potential value of new genetic test for guiding chemotherapy treatment

For the 29,000 patients in the United States with metastatic colorectal cancer, chemotherapy with irinotecan is a standard treatment that has been shown to improve survival. But for more than one in 10 of these patients, a variation in their DNA means that this treatment could result in a severe reduction in their white blood cell count, leading to a high risk of bacterial infection and possible subsequent death.

27 Jul 2009

Nanodiamonds hold promise for wound-healing applications

Bacterial infection is a major health threat to patients with severe burns and other kinds of serious wounds such as traumatic bone fractures. Recent studies have identified an important new weapon for fighting infection and healing wounds: insulin.

27 Jul 2009

Intensive glucose control halves complications of longstanding type 1 diabetes

Near-normal control of glucose beginning as soon as possible after diagnosis would greatly improve the long-term prognosis of type 1 diabetes, concludes a study published in the July 27, 2009, issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, which updates information about the clinical course of type 1 diabetes.

27 Jul 2009

Diets high in calcium and dairy products in childhood may lower mortality

Suggestive evidence points to the possibility that children who have a diet high in calcium and who consume dairy products may have a lower mortality rate than those who don't, according to a study by researchers in Bristol and Brisbane, published in the journal Heart.

27 Jul 2009