Medical News

RSS

House Committee passes prescription drug user fee act reauthorization legislation

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday voted 39-0 to approve nine bills that would expand FDA's authority to regulate prescription drug safety and increase user fees paid by drug and medical device companies, Dow Jones reports.

22 Jun 2007

CBO Director discusses health care spending growth

Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag on Thursday at a hearing of the Senate Budget Committee said that federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid would increase from about 4.5% to about 20% of U.S. gross domestic product by 2050, CongressDaily reports.

22 Jun 2007

FDA makes final ruling on dietary supplements

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced a final rule establishing regulations to require current good manufacturing practices (cGMP) for dietary supplements.

22 Jun 2007

Autistic boys have high levels of growth hormones

Boys with autism and autism spectrum disorder had higher levels of hormones involved with growth in comparison to boys who do not have autism, reported researchers from the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Cincinnati Children's Hospital and the University Of Cincinnati College Of Medicine.

22 Jun 2007

Stem cells to repair damaged heart muscle

In the first trial of its kind in the world, 60 patients who have recently suffered a major heart attack will be injected with selected stem cells from their own bone marrow during routine coronary bypass surgery.

22 Jun 2007

Whitehead scientist to study key mechanism in cell division

"Cell division is one of the most fundamental aspects of biology, the process that makes life," says Iain Cheeseman, PhD. "And it has an intrinsic beauty."

22 Jun 2007

WHO-based tropical disease research programme to focus on emerging diseases

The World Health Organization (WHO) based Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) has adopted a new strategy for strengthening and expanding research to prevent and control 'infectious diseases of poverty.'

22 Jun 2007

New plan to contain extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB)

Hundreds of thousands of cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) can be prevented and as many as 134 000 lives saved through the implementation of a two-year response plan, published/launched today by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Stop TB Partnership.

22 Jun 2007

Multifunctional nanoparticle platforms for targeting and imaging cancer cells

There has been much recent interest in how nanotechnology will impact the field of medicine. Unfortunately, a number of promising nanostructured systems have turned out to be extremely toxic to humans, thus precluding their use in clinical applications and dashing hopes of an early success for the interdisciplinary field of nanobiotechnology.

21 Jun 2007

Women more prone than men to have mid-life strokes

After analysing data from 17,000 people over the age of 18, taking part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, researchers in the United States have found that women were more likely than men to have a stroke in mid-life.

21 Jun 2007

HRT not such a bad idea after all!

Older women struggling to cope with the symptoms of the menopause will be reassured by the latest research into hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

21 Jun 2007

Myeloma cancer drug gets the green light from the EU

The European Union has given the green light to a drug which doubles the survival rates for people with myeloma.

21 Jun 2007

Latest food scare... sesame seeds with Salmonella

In the latest food scare to hit North America the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is warning the public not to consume certain sesame seeds because they may be contaminated with Salmonella.

21 Jun 2007

Men bitten more often than women and alcohol is the culprit

A new study by doctors in Ireland has found that men are 12 times more likely than women to be bitten by another person and need surgery.

21 Jun 2007

Children as young as 11 use drugs to win at sport

According to French researchers athletes as young as eleven admit to using drugs to enhance their sporting performance.

21 Jun 2007

Size of family appears to affect breast cancer risk

Researchers have found that the probability of the breast cancer gene mutation BRCA among women with a history of breast cancer is greater when the number of older, female relatives in the family is smaller, according to a study in the June 20 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.

20 Jun 2007

Hypnosis reduces pain perception

Hypnosis can offer significant reduction in pain awareness without any effect on non-painful aspects of the subject's perception.

20 Jun 2007

Heavy drinking leads to early senile dementia

Constant alcohol consumption results not only in cognitive disorders but can elicit symptoms of senile dementia in people as young as in their forties.

20 Jun 2007

PepTcell vaccine could provide immunity against all strains of influenza virus

Previously undisclosed pre-clinical data showing how a new flu vaccine has the potential to protect against all strains of influenza, including pandemic and annual, was presented by PepTcell, at the 2007 Options for the Control of Influenza VI (Options) Conference, in Toronto, Canada.

20 Jun 2007

New treatments for migraines and chronic headaches

Twelve percent of the population, three quarters of them women, suffer at least occasionally from migraines and about 5 percent from chronic headaches.

20 Jun 2007