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Researchers look at pharmacogenomics

When patients receive chemotherapy, 15 percent will have severe side effects while 85 percent will not - even though they're given the same relative dose.

28 Sep 2005

HeartMate XVE left ventricular assist device

Nine years ago this week, a team of University of Michigan doctors gave a dying heart patient a second chance at life by implanting a high-tech pump in his chest. The high-risk procedure was the first in Michigan performed using a new blood-pumping device called a HeartMate XVE left ventricular assist device, which helped the patient live until he received a heart transplant five weeks later.

28 Sep 2005

Alternative ways to manage chronic pain

Yoga, massage or plain old exercise? It could be just what the doctor ordered to minimize pain from chronic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, neck pain, low back pain or fibromyalgia, according to the September issue of Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource.

28 Sep 2005

Hair loss and self-confidence

Hair loss in women or female pattern baldness can have devastating psychological effects on sufferers, two Monash University researchers have found.

28 Sep 2005

Possible new therapy for lymphoma and leukemia patients

Marty Holmes, a landscaper from Stockton, Calif., had never heard of a regulatory T cell before his doctor suggested that it could be the key to helping him survive his cancer.

28 Sep 2005

Loss of body mass over time appears to be strongly linked to older adults' risk of developing Alzheimer's disease

The findings are the first to associate decline in body mass index (BMI) with the eventual onset of AD. The researchers suggest that the loss of body mass reflects disease processes and that change in BMI might be a clinical predictor of the development of AD.

26 Sep 2005

Supportive spouse helps lower blood pressure

When job strain causes stress, a supportive spouse might help lower the negative impact on a person's blood pressure, according to a study presented at the 2005 American Heart Association's High Blood Pressure Research meeting.

26 Sep 2005

Parkinson's dark period can be minimized or alleviated with the right kind of care

Some people call it "the dark time," the period between when a person is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and when treatment with medication begins.

26 Sep 2005

Pediatricians may fail to diagnose obesity in kids

Many physicians may be missing the chance to talk to obese children and their parents about ways to control the children's weight, according to Saint Louis University research reported in Pediatrics.

21 Sep 2005

Antibiotic resistance has put humans in an escalating 'arms race' with infectious bacteria

...as scientists try to develop new antibiotics faster than the bacteria can evolve new resistance strategies. But now, researchers have a new strategy that may give them a leg up in the race -- reproducing in the lab the natural evolution of the bacterial enzymes that confer resistance.

21 Sep 2005

SARS can infiltrate brain tissue

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), by its very name, indicates a disease of the respiratory tract. But SARS can also infiltrate brain tissue, causing significant central nervous system problems, according to an article in the Oct. 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online.

20 Sep 2005

Pocket-size device helps people living with HIV remember their medicine

In a study from Johns Hopkins, a pocket-size device giving electronic-voice reminders to "take your medicine" proves to be a success for people living with HIV whose memory is slightly impaired by the virus.

20 Sep 2005

New tool to measure coma depth

Mayo Clinic neurologists have created the first new, reliable and easy-to-use clinical tool in 30 years for measuring coma depth, a proposed replacement for the Glasgow Coma Scale. The new scoring system, called the FOUR (Full Outline of UnResponsiveness) Score, will be described in the October issue of Annals of Neurology.

10 Sep 2005

Medicine remains a white male dominated profession

Despite a record number of female medical students, medicine remains a white male dominated profession – but its days as such are numbered, says a paper in this week's British Medical Journal (BMJ).

10 Sep 2005

Funding the "war on terror" could cost the lives of millions of Americans

Professor Erica Frank argues that the US government's decision to shift funds away from basic public health services towards preventing terrorism has cut funding for common diseases and for disaster relief, resulting in enormous numbers of unnecessary deaths.

10 Sep 2005

India struggling to cope with encephalitis outbreak in Uttar Pradesh

According to a local health official, authorities are struggling to cope with an encephalitis epidemic in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, where more than 600 people have died from the disease.

10 Sep 2005

Booking ahead to see the doctor not that easy

According to a health service watchdog in the UK, getting in to see the doctor is not as easy as it should be.

10 Sep 2005

Radiation oncologists around the country open their doors to Gulf Coast patients

Many victims of Hurricane Katrina are also cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy treatments. To help patients displaced by the storm, the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology is compiling a list of radiation therapy facilities around the country who are willing and able to treat patients who have been evacuated from the area.

7 Sep 2005

Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain warns of internet medicines risk

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain has welcomed the Centre for Reform's report, Online pharmacy: patient choice or patient peril, and warns that people are dicing with danger if they use rogue internet websites to bypass safety rules and obtain medicines without a doctor’s prescription.

7 Sep 2005

Companies offering plastic surgery as a prize are violating a well-recognised code of ethics of good medical practice

The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, the not-for-profit organisation established for the advancement of education and practice of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery for public benefit, has warned that companies offering plastic surgery as a prize are violating a well-recognised code of ethics of good medical practice.

6 Sep 2005