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How hurricanes impact public health long term

A Johns Hopkins emergency physician who spent the past five weeks working on public health issues in the Gulf Coast region following hurricane Katrina warns that the disaster's potential for wreaking havoc and damage to people's health may continue for months after the hurricane has passed.

19 Oct 2005

Herceptin therapy highly superior to standard breast cancer treatment

In a joint paper, co-authored by Mayo Clinic's Edith Perez, M.D., and Edward Romond, M.D., of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP), researchers report complete and combined results of two trials comparing adjuvant chemotherapy with or without concurrent trastuzumab treatment in women with surgically removed HER2-positive breast cancer.

19 Oct 2005

New drug safety officer for FDA will have more clout

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has a new director to its Office of Drug Safety.

19 Oct 2005

When it comes to keeping clean, old fashioned soap and water may be best

Over the last decade the popularity of soaps and cleaning products claiming to have anti-bacterial properties has mushroomed as consumers are persuaded, by clever marketing, that they offer a defense against household illnesses.

19 Oct 2005

Study of the effects of aripiprazole, olanzapine, quetiapine and risperidone, in elderly patients with dementia

Some newer antipsychotic medications may be associated with a small increased risk of death when used to treat elderly dementia patients, psychiatrists at Johns Hopkins warn.

18 Oct 2005

LABA medications, asthma and inhaled steroids

A combination of airway-opening drugs and inhaled inflammation-reducing steroids works better at preventing severe asthma attacks than a normal dose of steroids alone, according to a new review of recent studies.

18 Oct 2005

Access to genetic counseling and testing are an important part of cancer control

Ten years after the identification of the first breast cancer susceptibility genes so few high-risk minority women have received genetic counseling or testing that the standard methods of calculating risk have not been validated in these groups and the results of genetic testing can still produce surprises.

18 Oct 2005

Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for head and neck cancer

Results from a University of Pittsburgh study evaluating intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for head and neck cancer determined the ideal doses for lessening treatment side effects. The findings were presented today at the 47th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) in Denver.

18 Oct 2005

Health insurers are turning to a new approach to get doctors and hospitals to do better

In this approach, insurers offer financial rewards for better or more efficient care and sometimes create penalties for poor performance. Even though it has become commonplace, there is little evidence about its impact on care, says R. Adams Dudley, MD, MBA, a professor in the UCSF Institute for Health Policy Studies and the Department of Medicine.

18 Oct 2005

HIV drug combo Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole highly effective at preventing malaria

A drug combination used to prevent pneumonia and opportunistic bacterial infection in persons with HIV/AIDS has unexpectedly been found to be highly effective at preventing malaria, according to a study published in the November 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online.

18 Oct 2005

Controlling antibiotic-prescribing practices in hospitals

Plenty of promising strategies exist to control antibiotic-prescribing practices, but no single method emerges as the best for hospital patients, according to a new review of studies.

18 Oct 2005

Evidence is mounting to link toxoplasmosis with schizophrenia

Keep pet cats inside, stop feeding strays, cook meat sufficiently and reconsider the way the veterinary profession and public health agencies think - and teach - about the zoonotic pathogen Toxoplasma gondii.

18 Oct 2005

Treating four or more brain tumors in a single radiosurgery session resulted in improved survival

...compared to whole brain radiation therapy alone, according to a study the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine presented today at the 47th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) in Denver.

18 Oct 2005

Newly discovered role of MECP2 gene in Rett Syndrome

Huda Zoghbi, of Baylor College of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Juan Young, also of Baylor and colleagues report in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, posted the week of October 17, 2005, that the Rett Syndrome gene, MECP2, regulates RNA splicing.

18 Oct 2005

Atypical antipsychotic drugs slightly increase risk for death when used in people with dementia

Atypical antipsychotic drugs seem to confer a small increased risk for death when used in people with dementia, concludes a team of researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California in a meta-analysis of 15 clinical trials published in the October 19 issue of the JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.

18 Oct 2005

Study demonstrates feasibility of a revolutionary, minimally invasive approach to introducing an electrical lead to stimulate the heart

Correcting the timing of heart contractions through cardiac resynchronization therapy can be a lifesaver for people with advanced heart failure. But the procedure, as it is done today, fails in about 15 percent of patients.

18 Oct 2005

Cutting-edge research to develop this range of next-generation biomedical devices

Revolutionary new self-diagnostic devices to provide early warning of deadly and debilitating illnesses like cancer, diabetes and heart disease are the aim of a Euro 22.5m Science Foundation Ireland research facility to be established at Dublin City University.

18 Oct 2005

Epidurals in labour and delivery reduce pain but can increase the risk of needing forceps

Epidurals in labour and delivery reduce pain but can increase the risk of needing forceps Pain relief is an important issue for women in labour and epidurals are increasingly used.

18 Oct 2005

Not enough evidence to recommend routine bed rest for hypertension in pregnancy

Currently there is a lack of evidence that keeping pregnant women with high blood pressure in bed for a prolonged period of time improves the chance of a healthy delivery. Prolonged bed rest is disruptive to women's lives, carries the risk of generating blood clots, and may be expensive.

18 Oct 2005

Expert evaluates orlistat (Xenical)

A 60 mg low-dose version of the prescription weight-loss medication orlistat (marketed by GlaxoSmithKline as Xenical 120 mg) was found to be safe, effective and tolerable in overweight individuals, according to new data presented today at the 2005 Annual Meeting of NAASO, The Obesity Society in Vancouver, British Columbia.

18 Oct 2005

Medicine News and Research

How hurricanes impact public health long term

Herceptin therapy highly superior to standard breast cancer treatment

New drug safety officer for FDA will have more clout

When it comes to keeping clean, old fashioned soap and water may be best

Study of the effects of aripiprazole, olanzapine, quetiapine and risperidone, in elderly patients with dementia

LABA medications, asthma and inhaled steroids

Access to genetic counseling and testing are an important part of cancer control

Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for head and neck cancer

Health insurers are turning to a new approach to get doctors and hospitals to do better

HIV drug combo Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole highly effective at preventing malaria

Controlling antibiotic-prescribing practices in hospitals

Evidence is mounting to link toxoplasmosis with schizophrenia

Treating four or more brain tumors in a single radiosurgery session resulted in improved survival

Newly discovered role of MECP2 gene in Rett Syndrome

Atypical antipsychotic drugs slightly increase risk for death when used in people with dementia

Study demonstrates feasibility of a revolutionary, minimally invasive approach to introducing an electrical lead to stimulate the heart

Cutting-edge research to develop this range of next-generation biomedical devices

Epidurals in labour and delivery reduce pain but can increase the risk of needing forceps

Not enough evidence to recommend routine bed rest for hypertension in pregnancy

Expert evaluates orlistat (Xenical)

Industry Focus eBook - Cell & Gene Therapy (1st Edition) eBook

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

Expanding access to NMR with the Fourier 80 Duo

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