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Cataract specifics are not relevant to postsurgery improvement

Patient-reported improvements in vision after cataract surgery are high and are unrelated to the level of ocular comorbidity or whether the surgery is in the first or second eye, report researchers.

21 Nov 2012

Exercise relieves cancer fatigue

A review of studies spanning 45 years shows that exercise, particularly aerobic rather than strength- or flexibility-based training, improves fatigue in cancer patients.

21 Nov 2012

Symptomatic voice therapy enhances vocal exercise response in transgender patients

Vocal function exercises do not significantly improve the voice feminization of male-to-female transgender patients, but researchers say that symptomatic voice therapy and the experience of full-time living as a woman may help.

21 Nov 2012

Factors linked to cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia identified

The cognitive dysfunction regularly seen in schizophrenia patients may be associated with negative symptoms and medication-induced extrapyramidal symptoms, show study findings.

21 Nov 2012

Bipolar patients oblivious to medication non-adherence risks

European psychiatrists’ survey findings suggest that over half of all patients with bipolar disorder on prescribed medication show compliance issues, with most unable to attribute their deteriorating condition to this behavior.

21 Nov 2012

Computational apolipoprotein estimates ‘reliable’ for CV risk

Computational estimates of apolipoprotein B and apolipoprotein A1 can be used as reliable markers for atherosclerosis, report researchers.

21 Nov 2012

Electrophysiology: an interview with Dr Kaylene Young

Bioelectricity is an essential part of our make-up. All cells in our body communicate by electrical activity. If an electrical charge is applied to one of our muscles it will interpret that electrical activity as a signal telling it to contract.

21 Nov 2012

Tips on how to help children understand concepts of thankfulness during holidays

Most people are looking forward to the food, family gatherings and gift giving that comes along with the holiday season. Dr. William Hansen, a psychologist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, reminds parents that this is also the time of year when they should pause to say thanks and also reinforce this idea in their children.

21 Nov 2012

Health care executives accused of insider-trading scheme

Secrets passed at recreational basketball games, code words and calls on a pay phone outside a Virginia K-Mart marked what prosecutors say was a five-year insider-trading scheme fueled by corporate secrets leaked by health care executives. Federal prosecutors in New Jersey have accused six men -- including former executives at pharmaceutical company Celgene Corp. and medical-technology firm Stryker Corp. and some of their high-school friends -- of passing corporate secrets about their companies and using that information to make profitable trades.

21 Nov 2012

Pregnant women with mental health disorders face too many barriers to stop smoking

Pregnant women with mental health disorders are facing too many barriers to help them quit smoking during pregnancy despite their willingness to accept support, finds a new study published today (21 November) in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

21 Nov 2012

French oil company funding rotavirus research in Congo

"Medical researchers in the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) have been empowered to set their own research priorities through a funding mechanism backed by a French oil company, according to scientists speaking at the second European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), in South Africa this month," SciDev.Net reports.

21 Nov 2012

FOCUS Clinics Director performs KAMRA Vision surgery on two distinguished ophthalmologists

Dr. David Allamby, Director of FOCUS Clinics, an eye surgery clinic in London, announced that he has performed KAMRA Vision surgery, the proven solution to reading glasses, on two distinguished ophthalmologists.

21 Nov 2012

Unjustified repeat tests common among Medicare patients

Dartmouth researchers found that up to half of older adults who had a heart, lung, stomach or bladder test had the same procedure repeated within three years despite guidelines against routine testing, leading to unnecessary costs.

21 Nov 2012

More than half of all retired people report sleeping at least 7.5 hours per night

More than half of all retired people aged 65 and over report sleeping at least 7.5 hours per night, and between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7:30 a.m., contrary to commonly held assumptions that most elderly go to bed early and have trouble sleeping through the night, according to a study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh's Sleep and Chronobiology Center (SCC) and University Center for Social and Urban Research (UCSUR).

21 Nov 2012

Forty percent of vets have little understanding of benefits due them

More than half of America's veterans say they have little or no understanding of the benefits due them, despite efforts over recent years to match returning soldiers with the help and services they need. An analysis of Department of Veterans Affairs survey data found that younger veterans – those who served in the post-9/11 war period – are better versed in their benefits.

21 Nov 2012

Rituximab may help patients with aPL-related clinical problems

Rituximab, a drug used to treat cancer and arthritis, may help patients with antiphospholipid antibodies (aPLs) who suffer from aPL-related clinical problems that do not respond to anticoagulation, such as cardiac disease and kidney disease, according to a new study by rheumatology researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery. The study appears online ahead of print, in the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism.

21 Nov 2012

Global health programs need to address community needs

A "key problem" in reaching the goal of polio elimination "may well be that organizers of the global anti-polio initiative, and of other global health programs, are not listening to the people they want to help -- or to each other," Thomas Abraham, an associate professor in the Journalism and Media Studies Center at the University of Hong Kong, writes in a New York Times opinion piece.

21 Nov 2012

Sectra OneScreen can effectively identify people at high risk for osteoporosis

A research team at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm has conducted a study that shows how Sectra's online service, Sectra OneScreen, provides an efficient and inexpensive method for early identification of people in the "at-risk group" for osteoporosis. Sectra OneScreen can be combined with routine mammography examinations.

21 Nov 2012

Questions continue over state, FDA oversight of specialty pharmacies

Several news outlets analyze the hearings last week into the meningitis outbreak resulting from a New England compounding pharmacy.

21 Nov 2012

Prader-Willi children may receive relief from sleep disorders after adenotonsillectomy

Children with Prader-Willi syndrome may receive relief from sleep disorders after undergoing an adenotonsillectomy, suggests a new study from Nationwide Children's Hospital published in the November print issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

21 Nov 2012