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Defensive medicine under attack

Around one-eighth of all requests for tests and procedures by gastroenterologists are attributable to the practice of defensive medicine, Italian research shows.

14 Feb 2013

Crowded emergency department has psychologic impact

The likelihood for patients with acute coronary syndromes developing post-traumatic stress disorder rises with emergency department crowding, research suggests.

14 Feb 2013

US health system failing unaccompanied immigrant children

Unaccompanied immigrant or “alien” children arriving in the USA with no papers or family often receive no or inadequate mental healthcare, says the author of an article published in JAMA Pediatrics.

14 Feb 2013

Laparoscopic proctectomy stands up to open surgery

Laparoscopic surgery produces comparable results to open surgery for rectal cancer, show the findings of the first, large, randomized trial of the technique.

14 Feb 2013

Cyclist pollution exposure minimized by use of quieter roads

Research suggests that using quieter streets with less traffic exposes city cyclists to lower levels of air pollution than using more congested routes, although wind-speed has a significant influence on levels of pollution exposure experienced each day.

14 Feb 2013

Hospital mortality performance not boosted by readmission failure

Researchers say they have found no evidence of a link between hospital performance as measured by 30-day mortality rates and that by 30-day readmission rates in US hospitals.

14 Feb 2013

Xpert diagnosis of TB and its drug resistant strains

The use of a novel, diagnostic test called Xpert is both sensitive and specific in detecting tuberculosis and rifampicin resistance, report US researchers.

14 Feb 2013

Endovascular stroke therapy disappoints in head-to-head studies

Three randomized trials published in The New England Journal of Medicine have failed to prove that endovascular therapy results in better clinical outcomes than standard medical therapy in patients with acute ischemic stroke.

14 Feb 2013

Out-of-hospital death does not equal less aggressive care

Rates of intensive care unit use in the last month of life among patients aged 65 years and older increased between 2000 and 2009 in the USA, despite a reduction in rates of in-hospital death, conflating the notion that there is a trend toward less aggressive care, say researchers.

14 Feb 2013

Poor facial recognition hints at schizophrenia risk in children

Impaired facial emotion recognition may suggest an increased vulnerability to schizophrenia in children, and may therefore represent a target for early intervention, researchers report.

14 Feb 2013

Cortisol and white matter integrity relationship disrupted in bipolar disorder

Researchers have found evidence in support of hypercortisol-induced glial dysfunction affecting periventricular white matter integrity in patients with bipolar disorder.

14 Feb 2013

Researchers call for botulism testing in sick and healthy cows

Evidence of Clostridium botulinum and its toxin in milk and udder tissue samples from dairy cows has led German researchers to call for “statistically relevant testing of healthy and sick cows from healthy and affected farms.”

14 Feb 2013

Nerve stimulation could stave off migraine attacks

Transcutaneous stimulation of the trigeminal nerve has shown promise as a treatment for migraine, according to results of a randomized controlled trial.

14 Feb 2013

Amblyopia screening guidelines updated

The American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, the professional body for pediatric eye care, has issued revised guidelines for preschool vision screening based on new evidence.

14 Feb 2013

Researchers ESTABLISH efficacy of tedizolid phosphate for skin infections

Results from the phase III ESTABLISH-1 study show that the new antibiotic tedizolid phosphate is noninferior to linezolid for the treatment of acute bacterial and skin structure infections.

14 Feb 2013

Rivaroxaban ruled out for extended thromboprophylaxis

The benefits of extended prophylactic anticoagulation with rivaroxaban in acutely ill hospital patients are outweighed by an increased bleeding risk, shows a study in The New England Journal of Medicine.

14 Feb 2013

Circumcision at 3 to 6 years does not impair psychosexual function in adulthood

Circumcision performed between ages 3 to 6 years does not adversely affect men’s psychosexual function during adulthood, report Turkish researchers.

14 Feb 2013

Long’s manipulation enhances massage for chronic neck pain

Long’s manipulation, a Chinese manipulation approach that incorporates spinal manipulation and traditional Chinese massage, appears to be more effective for treating chronic mechanical neck pain than massage alone, study findings show.

14 Feb 2013

Bipolar disorder ‘frequent’ in depressive borderline personality disorder

Study results indicate that bipolar disorder may occur in up to half of individuals with co-existing borderline personality disorder and depression.

14 Feb 2013

Married people have better mental and physical health

Research shows that married people have better mental and physical health than their unmarried peers and are less likely to develop chronic conditions than their widowed or divorced counterparts.

14 Feb 2013