Mortality News and Research

RSS

Flu protection: an interview with Dr Gillian SteelFisher of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, USA

In 2009, a new strain of influenza, or flu, virus emerged and spread rapidly to many countries around the world. It was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in June 2009.

24 Oct 2012

Simple-to-use risk score can identify low-risk STEMI patients for early discharge

A simple-to-use risk score can identify low-risk patients following a severe heart attack (STEMI) and may provide an opportunity to employ early discharge strategies to reduce length of hospital stay and save hospital costs without compromising the safety of the patient, based on a study presented by the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation on Oct. 23 at the 2012 Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference.

24 Oct 2012

International community must ensure political will, financial support necessary to eradicate polio

"Last month, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon convened a group of global leaders, including [Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Co-Chair] Bill Gates and heads of state of polio-affected countries, to renew the commitment to eliminate polio," William Keenan, executive director of the International Pediatric Association, and Robert Block, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, note in the Huffington Post's "Global Motherhood" blog.

24 Oct 2012

Study to examine possible link between mitochondrial DNA and ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer is a deadly disease. With no overt symptoms and no screening tests to catch it early, ovarian cancer is often detected at stage 3 or later. By then, it can be very aggressive and may have spread beyond the ovaries into other organs. Many women eventually succumb to it; the five-year survival rate for a stage 3 ovarian cancer diagnosis is only 34 percent.

24 Oct 2012

Men with cardiovascular risk factors more likely to develop peripheral artery disease

Among nearly 45,000 men who were followed up for more than two decades, those with the risk factors of smoking, hypertension, high cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes had an associated greater risk of developing PAD, according to a study in the October 24/31 issue of JAMA.

24 Oct 2012

Review describes link between alcohol consumption and breast cancer

An excellent review article from two scientists at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in the USA to be published in Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2012, describes the epidemiologic and basic scientific evidence linking alcohol consumption to the risk of breast cancer.

24 Oct 2012

SIDS Center of New Jersey launches new initiative to reduce risk of sudden infant death syndrome

October is national SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) Awareness Month and recognized by the State of New Jersey through a proclamation signed by Governor Chris Christie, calling attention to one of the leading causes of infant mortality.

24 Oct 2012

Study finds decline in inpatient mortality rate for upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage in the U.S.

The number of patients dying from upper gastrointestinal bleeding has decreased over the past two decades, a result researchers attribute to the advances in medical and endoscopic therapies introduced over the past 20 years, according to a report unveiled today at the American College of Gastroenterology's (ACG) 77th Annual Scientific meeting in Las Vegas.

24 Oct 2012

Warning against colloids in fluid resuscitation

Hydroxyethyl starch offers no benefits over saline for fluid resuscitation in critically ill patients and may have renal consequences, shows a randomized trial.

23 Oct 2012

Up to 10% of acute lung injuries may be drug-related

A population-based study has found that drug-induced acute lung injury accounts for around 9.5% of all acute lung injury cases.

23 Oct 2012

Schizophrenia patients at increased death risk after AMI

Results from a Canadian study show that patients with schizophrenia are significantly more likely to die after acute myocardial infarction than other patients.

23 Oct 2012

Donor gene clue to kidney transplant rejection

Genetic study results show that long-term kidney transplant rejection risk may be increased if the organ donor has a variant form of the multidrug resistance 1 gene.

23 Oct 2012

Moms and babies more likely to die when co-ICU arises

When mothers and newborns are both admitted to intensive care units they are significantly more likely to die than when neither is admitted to an ICU, new research has found.

23 Oct 2012

Transplant wait-list deaths not just due to organ availability: Study

Most liver transplant candidates who died or were removed from the transplant list actually received one or more liver donation offers, according to a recent UCSF study.

23 Oct 2012

Highlights of colorectal cancer research from ACG annual scientific meeting

Women under age 50 who have been diagnosed with endometrial cancer, and first, second and third degree relatives of patients with colorectal cancer may have an increased risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC), according to two separate studies unveiled today at the American College of Gastroenterology's (ACG) 77th Annual Scientific meeting in Las Vegas.

23 Oct 2012

Magnet hospitals reduce rates of patient death

Patients treated in magnet hospitals (specially designated for their nursing excellence) had 14 percent lower odds of death than those in non-magnet hospitals in a four-state study of 564 hospitals led by the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

23 Oct 2012

Combining distal protection devices with nicardipine improves post-PCI outcomes

Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital have shown that combining distal protection devices with the prophylactic use of the drug nicardipine is more effective at preventing life-threatening complications following a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) (angioplasty, stenting) on patients who have undergone previous bypass surgery than distal protection devices alone.

23 Oct 2012