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Aggressive medical treatment without stenting better for high-risk stroke patients

An article appearing in the Sept. 7 New England Journal of Medicine, reporting on National Institutes of Health research on brain stents, says aggressive medical treatment without stenting is better for high-risk stroke patients.

8 Sep 2011

Spring Break may explain upswing in adolescent pregnancies

Researchers have found that the relative likelihood of conceiving in the month of March is higher if you're a school-aged adolescent than if you're an adult.

8 Sep 2011

Building up public sector in Haiti key to controlling cholera

The U.N.'s Pan-American Health Organization, the United States and the international community "should be working with the Haitian Health Ministry to wage a more aggressive and effective effort" against the cholera epidemic that hit the country last year, and those efforts "should include not only clean water and sanitation systems but more antibiotics and cholera vaccinations," a New York Times editorial says.

8 Sep 2011

Scientists discover backup circuits in cetuximab-resistant cancer cells

Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and colleagues overseas have discovered a pair of backup circuits in cancer cells that enable the cells to dodge the effect of a widely used cancer drug.

8 Sep 2011

HHS finds more than 30,000 health record breaches

The security breaches were relatively small scale but they exposed records of nearly 8 million people, Modern Healthcare reports.

8 Sep 2011

Intensive medical treatment more effective in preventing second stroke than stenting

People who received intensive medical treatment following a first stroke had fewer second episodes and were less likely to die than people who received brain stents in addition to medical treatment, according to a new report in the New England Journal of Medicine, to be published online Sept. 7.

8 Sep 2011

Capsules: Deficit hawk or dove? Enzi's autism stance

On Kaiser Health News' news blog, Phil Galewitz examines Sen. Mike Enzi's efforts to provide federal funds for autism research, even as the Wyoming Republican calls for major budget cuts.

8 Sep 2011

In releasing economic plans, Romney vows to roll back health law on Inauguration Day

Facing new trouble in his quest for the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney released a detailed plan Tuesday to revive the nation's stumbling economy, proposing tax cuts and rollbacks in environmental, health and banking rules. He proposed a 10 percent cut in the federal workforce and a $200-billion-per-year reduction in the Medicaid health care program for the poor. Romney would convert Medicaid into a block grant for states.

8 Sep 2011

UVB light processing boosts vitamin D in mushrooms

A new commercial processing technology is suitable for boosting the vitamin D content of mushrooms and has no adverse effects on other nutrients in those tasty delicacies, the first study on the topic has concluded. The technology, which involves exposing mushrooms to the same kind of ultraviolet light that produces suntans, can greatly boost mushrooms' vitamin D content. It appears in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

8 Sep 2011

Abnormal levels of lysophosphatidic acid can trigger congenital hydrocephalus

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have found what may be a major cause of congenital hydrocephalus, one of the most common neurological disorders of childhood that produces mental debilitation and sometimes death in premature and newborn children.

8 Sep 2011

Hospitals: HHS inspector general counsel backs telemedicine plan for stroke care program

Hospital issues making headlines include a telemedicine plan, the unreliability of some children's hospital rankings and how long hospital wait times can be deadly.

8 Sep 2011

Number of underinsured adults increases from 16 million to 29 million between 2003 - 2010

The number of underinsured adults-those with health insurance all year, but also with very high medical expenses relative to their incomes-rose by 80 percent between 2003-2010, from 16 million to 29 million, according to a new Commonwealth Fund study published in the September issue of Health Affairs.

8 Sep 2011

Researchers identify new drug target for heart failure

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have identified a new drug target that may treat and/or prevent heart failure. The team evaluated failing human and pig hearts and discovered that SUMO1, a so-called "chaperone" protein that regulates the activity of key transporter genes, was decreased in failing hearts. When the researchers injected SUMO1 into these hearts via gene therapy, cardiac function was significantly improved.

8 Sep 2011

Medicare actuary: HHS' safety plan savings projections 'reasonable'

CMS chief actuary Rick Foster says the Obama administration's expected savings for its patient safety program are "reasonable," but will be difficult to achieve by 2013.

8 Sep 2011

Natural ruminant trans fats are not detrimental to health

Not all trans fats are created equal and it's time for nutritional labels to reflect that reality, says a University of Alberta nutrition expert.

8 Sep 2011

GOP candidates bicker but all denounce health law

About 20 minutes into the debate come the questions about Mitt Romney's health care plan in Massachusetts, against which he defends his record and pivots to Obamacare. He says he would repeal it.

8 Sep 2011

ATA announces five recipients of 2011 thyroid cancer research grants

The American Thyroid Association (ATA) announced the five recipients of its 2011 research grants, each of whom will receive up to $25,000 annually for up to two years. Three of the five recipients were awarded special ATA ThyCa grants for research projects that focus on thyroid cancer. These grants are funded by ThyCa: Thyroid Cancer Survivors, Inc.

8 Sep 2011

Pharnext puts together €2.5M to fund development of Pleodrug for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease

Pharnext SAS, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of innovative treatments based on Pleotherapy for severe neurological diseases, today announced that it has put together a €2.5 million round of financing (corresponding to a pre-money company valuation of €60 million).

8 Sep 2011

Apply lessons from the AIDS response to NCD control and prevention in developing countries

In anticipation of the September 2011 U.N. High-level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), low- and middle-income countries "should not only look at the lessons learned in the control of NCDs in developed countries, but also those from other areas of public health, especially AIDS, which can inform the design of an effective and sustainable response to NCDs in developing countries," Rebecca Dirks from FHI 360 and colleagues write in this PLoS Medicine Policy Forum editorial piece.

8 Sep 2011

Cam impingement may increase risk of hip OA in young men

Hip impingement may be a risk factor of osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip. A new study reveals that the presence of an underlying deformity, known as cam impingement, is associated with hip damage in young men without any arthritis symptoms and detected using magnetic resonance imaging.

8 Sep 2011