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Single dose of antibiotics may be just as effective as multiple doses in preventing infections after an appendectomy

The review found that antibiotic injections do work no matter how diseased the appendix was or whether it was diseased at all. This is significant, because some surgeons contend that antibiotics should be used only when the appendix is at a more advanced stage of disease.

20 Jul 2005

Antibiotics should not be prescribed to patients with the common cold

Antibiotics should not be prescribed to patients with the common cold because there is scant evidence they stop other infections, and the benefits do not outweigh the risks, according to a new systematic review of current evidence.

19 Jul 2005

Calcium may prevent polyps, but effect on colorectal cancer unclear

Although calcium supplements might prevent development of polyps that sometimes lead to colon cancer, there is not enough evidence that the mineral can prevent colorectal cancer itself, according to a new study.

19 Jul 2005

Intestinal hormone secretin should not be used to treat autism

The intestinal hormone secretin, considered by some to be a promising drug in the treatment of autism, does not improve the symptoms and should not be used to treat the disorder, according to a new review of studies.

19 Jul 2005

No single PSA level ensures safety from prostate cancer risk

Ian M. Thompson Jr., M.D., professor and chair of urology at the U T Health Science Center, is looking for a better test - or set of tests - to diagnose prostate cancer and to distinguish between cancers that will kill men if left untreated and those that will not threaten health and do not need treatment.

19 Jul 2005

Removing warts without scarring

If burning and freezing warts hasn't worked, ask your dermatologist about getting a shot.

19 Jul 2005

Results demonstrate the safety and tolerability of ABthrax treatment for Anthrax infection

Human Genome Sciences has announced that results published in the current issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases demonstrate that the first investigational agent against anthrax infection to be evaluated in a clinical study since the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, is safe, well tolerated and achieves the blood levels predicted by relevant animal models as necessary to afford significant protection from the lethal effects of the anthrax toxin

19 Jul 2005

Tamiflu may treat avian flu virus

Experiments in mice show that an antiviral drug currently used against annual influenza strains also can suppress the deadly influenza virus that has spread from birds to humans, killing dozens of people in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand since early 2004.

18 Jul 2005

Nebivolol may help control high blood pressure

According to research presented at ISHIB2005, nebivolol was shown to be statistically significantly better than placebo in reducing systolic and diastolic blood pressure among African-American hypertensive patients in a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

18 Jul 2005

New compound ruboxistaurin may decrease vision loss in diabete

A multicenter international study chaired by a Joslin Diabetes Center investigator and reported in the July issue of the American Diabetes Association's journal Diabetes brings hopeful news to the 18 million people in the United States -- and millions more worldwide -- with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.

15 Jul 2005

Current recommendations for prescribing antidepressants should be reconsidered

Most people with depression are initially treated with antidepressants, and prescribing has risen by 253% in 10 years. Yet recent studies show that SSRIs have no clinically meaningful advantage over placebo, write Joanna Moncrieff and Irving Kirsch.

14 Jul 2005

FDA panel says asthma drugs should stay on market but must carry warnings

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel has declared that three asthma drugs are safe enough to stay on the market, after concerns that in rare cases they raise the risk of severe asthma.

14 Jul 2005

Erlotinib increases survival in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer

An international clinical study led by Canadian researchers has demonstrated that a drug called erlotinib increases survival in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who typically have no other treatment options.

13 Jul 2005

Australian product promotes healing in venous stasis ulcers

Novogen has announced the results of a Phase II clinical trial of its investigational wound healing compound, Glucoprime, in venous stasis ulcers.

13 Jul 2005

Menopause symptoms return with a vengence when women stop HRT

In somewhat depressing news for women battling that often miserable phase in their lives, the menopause, it appears that more than half of women who start taking hormone replacement therapy to relieve the discomfort, can expect to see a dramatic resurgence of those symptoms, when they discontinue the therapy.

12 Jul 2005

Nitric oxide good for some prem babies but not for others

According to two new studies, although nitric oxide can halve the risk of developmental problems in premature babies with undeveloped lungs, the gas could be harmful to newborns who are too small and too ill.

7 Jul 2005

Accuracy of PSA screening for detecting prostate cancer

A new study indicates there is no specific PSA value that has both high sensitivity and high specificity for monitoring healthy men for prostate cancer, but rather there is a continuum of prostate cancer risk at all values of PSA, according to a study in the July 6 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.

6 Jul 2005

Novel inhibitor offsets neurotoxic effects of tPA - possible new stroke treatments

A research team lead by the Burnham Institute has synthesized and tested a new series of inhibitors that can prevent the type of nerve cell injury and death associated with many neurodegenerative diseases and stroke.

6 Jul 2005

Vitamin E fails to deliver benefits for major cardiovascular events or cancer

In an article in the July 6 JAMA, I-Min Lee, M.B.B.S., Sc.D., of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues analyzed data from the vitamin E component of the Women's Health Study, which tested whether vitamin E supplementation decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer among healthy women.

6 Jul 2005

Aspirin can help prevent heart disease, but vitamin E no protection against cancer

It may have taken 12 years, but researchers now say that studies involving nearly 40,000 women in the U.S. has found that regular, low doses of aspirin do not prevent cancer, and vitamin E is pretty ineffective in warding off both heart disease and cancer.

6 Jul 2005