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Recent developments for drug-eluting stents

Drug-eluting stents -- small metal tubes used to prop open clogged arteries -- have been garnering headlines.

10 May 2007

Baby aspirin better for your health

Nearly a quarter of a million Americans each year may be hospitalized with bleeding complications caused by needlessly taking a daily dose of an adult-sized aspirin rather than a baby aspirin to prevent a heart attack or stroke.

9 May 2007

Many children of HIV-positive parents are not in their custody

A new joint study by UCLA and the Rand Corp. shows that more than half of children with an HIV-infected parent are not consistently in that parent's custody.

8 May 2007

Study evaluates why blacks do not successfully donate kidneys

In one of the first studies of its kind, researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine explored why blacks are less likely than other races to become living kidney donors, and the reasons are obesity and failure to complete the donor evaluation.

8 May 2007

New option for soft-tissue imaging in interventional radiology procedures

Soft-tissue cross-sectional imaging acquired on a flat panel C-arm fluoroscopic unit located in the interventional radiology area is feasible and useful for interventional radiology procedures, avoiding the necessity of sending patients out to a CT scanner, according to a new study by researchers from the Baptist Cardiac & Vascular Institute in Miami, FL.

8 May 2007

Scientists create cheaper 3-D ultrasound device

Almost every doctor's surgery has an ultrasound scanner. Medical ultrasonography allows us to see an unborn child in its mother's womb and helps to detect gall stones or identify tumor-like lumps.

8 May 2007

Custom stents hold microcapsules to treat diabetes

Johns Hopkins undergraduates have invented a device to improve cell therapy for diabetes patients by anchoring transplanted insulin-producing cells inside a major blood vessel.

7 May 2007

Popular epilepsy drug damages the unborn

A study by researchers in the United States has found that women who took an epilepsy drug during their pregnancy had a higher risk of giving birth to children with a lower IQ or with mental retardation.

7 May 2007

Doctors say too many Brits addicted to OTC drugs

Doctors in Britain are warning about the dangers of becoming addicted to over-the-counter (OTC) medicines; they say more research is needed on how many misuse OTC drugs.

7 May 2007

Migraines take a toll on employers as well!

Data presented at the 59th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) in Boston, Mass., reinforced the benefit for employers to acknowledge and assess the impact of migraine to potentially improve workplace productivity.

4 May 2007

Newer flu vaccines may have been less effective than vaccines used in previous years

A new Harris Poll suggests that the flu vaccine used before last winter may have been less effective than the vaccines used in some previous years.

4 May 2007

FDA - all antidepressants need new warning labels

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States wants the manufacturers of antidepressant medications to change the labels on their products.

3 May 2007

Some doctors refuse to purchase cervical cancer vaccine because of low reimbursements

Some physicians are refusing to purchase Merck's cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil or are restricting who receives it because they say insurance reimbursements for the vaccine are too low, the Washington Post reports.

2 May 2007

Infliximab fails to improve chronic obstructive pulmonary disease symptoms

A promising anti-inflammatory drug failed to improve symptoms of moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, in a large, multi-center trial.

2 May 2007

New tool refines heart risk prediction

For about 10 years, the Framingham risk score has been used to estimate a person's chances of having a heart attack based on just six bits of information -- age, sex, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, smoking status, and systolic blood pressure.

2 May 2007

1758 cases of malaria reported in UK travellers in 2006

1386 of the cases were due to the potentially fatal Plasmodium falciparum which is a major international health risk and which kills more than a million people a year in Africa. 219 were due to Plasmodium vivax which causes a debilitating disease, but is rarely fatal.

2 May 2007

Adverse health outcomes after Hurricane Katrina among children and adolescents with chronic conditions

Children and teenagers in New Orleans with chronic medical conditions at the time of Hurricane Katrina were more likely than other children to have worsening of physical and psychological symptoms, develop new symptoms, miss doctor appointments and run out of medications in the wake of the disaster.

2 May 2007

Biomarker discovery bodes well for better cancer diagnostics

While new findings from Ohio State University scientists suggest a genetic marker that could help distinguish between chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer and gauge who will do well with cancer treatment, a pharmacologist at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson in Philadelphia sees the discovery as much more.

2 May 2007

One out of four people don't know they have hypertension

High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart attack, stroke, and renal failure, but one out of four people don't even know they have it.

2 May 2007

Ultra fast and ultra active: the strange life of the extraocular muscles

The eye, often called the window to the soul, may become a window to the mysteries of muscular dystrophy, a debilitating muscle disease that often leads to death in early adulthood.

2 May 2007