Health News

Better outcomes for stroke victims admitted to Get With The Guidelines-Stroke hospitals

Date: Oct-16-2013
Award-winning Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke hospitals are more likely than Primary Stroke Center certified hospitals to provide all the recommended guideline-based care for patients, according to new research in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's Get With The Guidelines-Stroke (GWTG-S) Performance Achievement Award (PAA) recognizes hospitals that meet specific criteria in following research-based guidelines for stroke care...

Expert panel diagnosis for diagnostic tests often poorly described, experts often not blinded to test under study

Date: Oct-15-2013
Evaluation of diagnostic studies is often a challenge in diseases that are not defined by a specific test. Assessment of the accuracy of diagnostic tests is essential because they may be used to define who is considered to have a disease and receive treatment for it. However, measuring the accuracy of a diagnostic test requires an accurate gold standard, which defines which patients truly have and do not have the disease. Studies of diseases not defined by a specific test often rely on expert panels to establish the gold standard...

Study finds high variability among primary care physicians in rate of PSA screening of older men

Date: Oct-15-2013
"No organization recommends prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening in men older than 75 years. Nevertheless, testing rates remain high," write Elizabeth Jaramillo, M.D., of the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, and colleagues in a Research Letter appearing in the October 16 issue of JAMA. The authors examined whether PSA screening rates would vary substantially among primary care physicians (PCPs) and if the variance would depend on which PCP patients used...

For patients with diabetes, angioplasty and bypass surgery lead to similar long-term benefits for quality of life

Date: Oct-15-2013
For patients with diabetes and coronary artery disease in more than one artery, treatment with coronary artery bypass graft surgery provided slightly better health status and quality of life between 6 months and 2 years than procedures using drug-eluting stents, although beyond 2 years the difference disappeared, according to a study in the October 16 issue of JAMA...

Medication taken for nausea during pregnancy not associated with increased risk of major malformations, stillbirth

Date: Oct-15-2013
In an analysis that included more than 40,000 women exposed to the nausea medication metoclopramide in pregnancy, use of this drug was not associated with significantly increased risk of major congenital malformations overall, spontaneous abortion, and stillbirth, according to a study in the October 16 issue of JAMA.  More than 50 percent of pregnant women experience nausea and vomiting, typically early in their pregnancy. The care of most women is managed conservatively, but 10 percent to 15 percent of those with nausea and vomiting will eventually receive drug treatment...

What is anorexia nervosa?

Date: Oct-15-2013
Anorexia nervosa is a potentially life-threatening eating disorder. It is a serious psychological disorder characterized by either a significantly reduced appetite or complete aversion to eating. A patient with anorexia nervosa, often just called "anorexia" (although the meaning is different), has a distorted body image and an exaggerated fear of becoming overweight or obese - so a deliberate effort is made to lose weight...

A step forward for touch-sensitive prosthetic limbs

Date: Oct-15-2013
The ability to hold and move objects relies on sensory signals sent from the hand to the brain, a faculty that amputees lack with current prosthetic limbs. But new research from the University of Chicago may one day result in touch-sensitive prosthetic limbs that communicate directly with the brain. The researchers, led by Sliman Bensmaia, assistant professor in the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago, believe their research could help to increase both the dexterity and function of robotic limbs...

Air pollution linked to low birthweight babies

Date: Oct-15-2013
Researchers say that air pollution during pregnancy may increase the risk of lower birthweight babies, even at pollution levels below those deemed acceptable in current European Union air-quality directives. This is according to a study published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. A team of European researchers used data from the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE). They analyzed 14 cohort studies from 12 European countries, involving 74,000 women who had singleton babies between 1994 and 2011...

Early measles immunization reduces seizure risk

Date: Oct-15-2013
A new study published in JAMA Pediatrics shows that children who are vaccinated against measles between 12 and 15 months are less likely to suffer fever or seizures than those vaccinated between 16 and 23 months. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends a first dose injection with a measles-containing vaccine at 12-15 months, with a follow-up "booster" between the ages of 4 and 6...

New ALS research may spark ways to slow progression

Date: Oct-15-2013
A team of scientists in the UK and Italy has completed new research into motor neuron disease that could spark the development of new treatments. By comparing mice with fast progressing ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), the most common form to mice with the slow progressing form, they found some clues that could help develop new drugs to slow the disease. ALS accounts for between 60-70% of all cases of motor neuron disease (MND), a serious and incurable disease where nerves in the spine and brain that control movement (motor function) gradually stop working and die...