Health News

First use of optical biopsy with cellvizio® in robotic assisted prostatectomy

Date: Nov-07-2013
Mauna Kea Technologies (NYSE Euronext: MKEA, FR0010609263) has announced that Joseph C. Liao MD, associate professor of urology, Stanford University, has successfully used endomicroscopy with Cellvizio for the first time in eight patients treated with robotic assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) procedures. Results were presented in a poster presentation at the 2013 World Congress of Endourology Meeting in New Orleans in October where the procedure was also named "Best New Innovation...

Lower education levels linked to unhealthy diets

Date: Nov-07-2013
People with lower levels of education may eat larger amounts of unhealthy, calorically dense food than those with a higher education level, possibly because they are more physically active, according to new research published November 6th in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, by Jonas Finger and colleagues at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, Germany. Studies consistently show that unhealthy diets are seen more often in people of lower socioeconomic status, a term based on factors such as education level, income level, and occupation...

Interactive computer program helps patients talk with their physician about depression

Date: Nov-07-2013
Patients who used an interactive computer program about depression while waiting to see their primary-care doctor were nearly twice as likely to ask about the condition and significantly more likely to receive a recommendation for antidepressant drugs or a mental-health referral from their physician, according to a new study by researchers at UC Davis...

Call for attention to biggest killer of children-under-five: Pneumonia

Date: Nov-07-2013
Pneumonia is the single largest cause of death in children worldwide. Every year, it kills an estimated 1.2 million children under the age of five years, accounting for 18% of all deaths of children under five years old worldwide. Pneumonia affects children and families everywhere, but is most prevalent in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa...

Colorectal tumor risk associated with gut microbes

Date: Nov-07-2013
Transferring the gut microbes from a mouse with colon tumors to germ-free mice makes those mice prone to getting tumors as well, according to the results of a study published in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. The work has implications for human health because it indicates the risk of colorectal cancer may well have a microbial component. "We know that humans have a number of different community structures in the gut...

The cost-effectiveness of syphilis screening and treatment in pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa

Date: Nov-07-2013
Screening and treating pregnant women in sub Saharan Africa for syphilis* may be a cost-effective use of resources, according to a study published in this week's PLOS Medicine...

Depression is the second leading cause of global disability

Date: Nov-07-2013
A study published this week in PLOS Medicine reports the most recent and comprehensive estimates on how much death and disability is attributable to depression, both world-wide and in individual countries and regions. Rates and ranking among all causes of disability varied by country and by region. The rates are highest in Afghanistan and lowest in Japan, and depression ranks first in Central America and Central and Southeast Asia. Disability from depression affects mostly people in their working years, and women more than men...

Light-scattering techniques reveal the cause of sickle cell disease

Date: Nov-07-2013
In sickle cell disease, hemoglobin - the oxygen-carrying component of blood - forms fibers that stiffen red blood cells and cause life-threatening symptoms. Using light-scattering techniques to study the detailed thermodynamics of this process, researchers reporting in the Biophysical Journal, a Cell Press publication, have determined the strength of the forces that hold these fibers intact. The information could be used to design therapies that interfere with the sickling process...

Darkness significantly associated with an increase in muggings in London

Date: Nov-07-2013
Muggers in London strike around two and half times more often during hours of darkness then in daylight, a new study shows. The first study to look at the hourly pattern of street robbery in London found a 160% rise in the rate of muggings during the hours of darkness in the capital. Lisa Tompson and Professor Kate Bowers, from the Department of Security and Crime, University College London, studied crime statistics over two years in order to calculate how much more at risk people were in darkness, even when they were in urban areas which often had street lighting...

Special needs of transgender patients in the ER

Date: Nov-07-2013
While approximately one-third of transgender (trans) patients needed emergency care in the previous year, only 71 percent of those with self-reported need indicated they were able to obtain care, which researchers theorize may be due to "perceptions and previous experiences of trans-related discrimination or poor care...