Mortality News and Research

RSS

Left ventricular hypertrophy prevalent in lung disease patients

The prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy is increased in normoxemic patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, results from a pilot study suggest.

25 Jan 2013

Undetected comorbidities linked to increased mortality in schizophrenia

Patients with schizophrenia have elevated mortality, the leading causes of which appear to be ischemic heart disease and cancer, a Swedish national cohort study shows.

25 Jan 2013

Risk factors pave way for tailored substance use prevention in bipolar disorder

Researchers have identified risk factors that may help clinicians identify bipolar disorder patients who are at increased risk for substance use disorders.

25 Jan 2013

Smoking continues to threaten US public health

Research published in The New England Journal of Medicine shows that disease and mortality due to smoking have continually increased over the past 50 years in the USA.

25 Jan 2013

Conscious sedation potential for intracranial aneurysm intervention

Coil embolization of ruptured intracranial aneurysms can be performed using conscious sedation and local anesthesia, report clinicians.

25 Jan 2013

New evidence supports thrombolysis in presence of contraindications

A Norwegian study offers further evidence to support the use of intravenous thrombolysis to treat stroke even in patients with contraindications to the drug.

25 Jan 2013

Tailored treatments and PSA screenings required to improve health outcomes in Ghana

Infectious diseases in Ghana tend to capture the most attention, but a quiet crisis may soon take over as the country's most threatening epidemic: cancer.

25 Jan 2013

One more reason to quit smoking

Smokers who quit when they are young adults can live almost as long as people who never smoked, groundbreaking new research has found.

25 Jan 2013

Findings could help develop targeted exercise for obese women with Type 2 diabetes

More than one-third of Americans are obese, and these individuals often experience accompanying health issues, such as Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular problems. In response to the so-called "obesity epidemic," many medical professionals have suggested ways to improve the health outcomes of obese individuals through diet and exercise.

25 Jan 2013

Study into H1N1 pandemic suggests at least 1 in 5 were infected

At least one in five people in countries for which data are available were infected with influenza during the first year of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, according to a new study.

25 Jan 2013

Kidney disease increases risk of premature death in diabetic patients

One in every 10 Americans has diabetes, and a third or more of those with the condition will develop kidney disease. It may be possible to live a long and healthy life with diabetes, but once kidney disease develops, the risk of dying prematurely increases significantly, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

25 Jan 2013

'Helping Babies Breathe' program may help save newborns' lives, studies show

"Training midwives and other birth attendants to help babies start breathing immediately after birth may prevent stillbirths and newborn deaths in the developing world, two new studies suggest," Reuters reports, noting, "So-called birth asphyxia -- when babies are born not breathing -- is one of the major causes of newborn death in regions with limited resources, researchers said."

24 Jan 2013

Increased resources needed to continue progress lowering child mortality rates

"The last decade has seen extraordinary progress with child mortality rates coming down significantly all over the world. Yet 6.9 million children still die each year, most from preventable causes," Raymond Chambers, founder and co-chair of Malaria No More and the U.N. secretary-general's special envoy for malaria, writes in a Forbes opinion piece, published in conjunction with the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship.

24 Jan 2013

KLF6-SV1 gene variant drives the spread of breast cancer

A team of researchers led by Goutham Narla, MD, PhD, at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals Case Medical Center, and collaborators at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Erasmus Medical Center, have discovered a gene variant that drives the spread of breast cancer.

23 Jan 2013

Strong link between mortality and reduced innate immune responsiveness in critically ill patients

Investigators from 15 children's medical centers, including Nationwide Children's Hospital, observed and evaluated critically ill children with influenza to evaluate the relationships between levels of systemic inflammation, immune function and likelihood to die from the illness. The study appears in the January issue of Critical Care Medicine.

23 Jan 2013

African health officials, child health experts gather for child survival summit in Ethiopia

"Representatives from African health ministries, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and child health experts gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, January 16-18 to share strategies to increase child survival rates," IIP Digital reports.

23 Jan 2013

Viewpoints: A 'fail safe' and a 'time bomb' in health law; Reason for 'optimism' about health costs?

Although Republicans are eager to repeal the entire 2010 healthcare reform law, they started the new session of Congress last week by taking aim at one provision in particular: the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a yet-to-be-named group of 15 presidential appointees from various healthcare disciplines that could play a key role in limiting the growth of Medicare spending. Critics argue that it's a bad idea and even un-American to put so much power in the hands of unelected bureaucrats.

23 Jan 2013

Roundup: Ariz. Gov. proposing hospital tax for Medicaid expansion as Nev. ponders options; Vt. hospitals form ACO

Ariz. Gov. Jan Brewer, who has become something of a conservative icon for her aggressive opposition to Mr. Obama's policies, surprised many Legislature watchers at her State of the State address last week by saying she wanted to expand the state's Medicaid program to include anyone who makes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, or $14,856 for an individual.

23 Jan 2013

Routine gastric volume monitoring thrown out

Monitoring gastric residual volumes in critically ill patients receiving enteral nutrition does not prevent them from developing ventilator-associated pneumonia, shows a randomized trial.

22 Jan 2013

Chronic heart failure treatment, Inspra (eplerenone), accepted for use within NHS Wales

Inspra (eplerenone) has now been accepted by the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group (AWMSG) for use in adult patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) NYHA class II, in combination with standard optimal therapy...

22 Jan 2013