Health News

First analysis of global drug dependence reveals opioids responsible for the greatest burden of death and illness

Date: Aug-29-2013
The first ever analysis of the global and regional prevalence of dependence upon the four major categories of illicit drugs - amphetamine, cannabis, cocaine, and opioids (such as heroin) - has revealed that opioid dependence causes the greatest health burden (overall death and illness) of all the illicit drugs. The results come from new analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010, and are published in The Lancet. For all of the drugs studied, over two thirds of dependent individuals were male (64% each for cannabis and amphetamines, and 70% each for opioids and cocaine)...

Study examines cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers in early Parkinson disease

Date: Aug-29-2013
Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of tau proteins, a-synuclein, and β-amyloid 1-42 (Aβ1-42) appear to be associated with early stage Parkinson disease (PD) in a group of untreated patients compared with healthy patients, according to a study by Ju-Hee Kang, M.D., of the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues.  The study included the initial 102 research volunteers (63 patients with PD and 39 healthy control patients) of the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) study...

Genome-wide survey examines recessive alzheimer disease gene

Date: Aug-29-2013
Runs of homozygosity (ROHs, regions of the genome where the copies inherited from parents are identical) may contribute to the etiology (origin) of Alzheimer disease (AD), according to a study by Mahdi Ghani, Ph.D., of the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues.  Caribbean Hispanics are known to have an elevated risk for AD and tend to have large families with evidence of inbreeding, according to the study background.  A Caribbean Hispanic data set of 547 unrelated cases (48...

Interpretation of do-not-resuscitate order appears to vary among pediatric physicians, study suggests

Date: Aug-29-2013
Clinicians use the do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order not only as a guide for therapeutic decisions during a cardiopulmonary arrest but also as a surrogate for broader treatment directives, according to a study by Amy Sanderson M.D., of Boston Children's Hospital, M.A., and colleagues.  A total of 107 physicians and 159 nurses responded to a survey regarding their attitudes and behaviors about DNR orders for pediatric patients. There was substantial variability in the interpretation of the DNR order. Most clinicians (66...

Study suggests thyroid ultrasound imaging may be useful to reduce biopsies in patients with low risk of cancer

Date: Aug-29-2013
Thyroid ultrasound imaging could be used to identify patients who have a low risk of cancer for whom biopsy could be postponed, according to a study by Rebecca Smith-Bindman, M.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues.  The retrospective case-control study of 8,806 patients who underwent 11,618 thyroid ultrasound imaging examinations from January 2000 through March 2005 included 105 patients diagnosed as having thyroid cancer.  Thyroid nodules were common in patients diagnosed as having cancer (96...

Terminology used to describe preinvasive breast cancer may affect patients' treatment preferences

Date: Aug-29-2013
When ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS, a preinvasive malignancy of the breast) is described as a high-risk condition rather than cancer, more women report that they would opt for nonsurgical treatments, according to a research letter by Zehra B. Omer, B.A., of Massachusetts General Hospital - Institute for Technology Assessment, Boston, and colleagues.  A total of 394 healthy women without a history of breast cancer participated in the study and were presented with three scenarios that described a diagnosis of DCIS as noninvasive breast cancer, breast lesion, or abnormal cells...

Zealous imaging is fuelling unnecessary and harmful treatment of low risk thyroid cancers, warn experts

Date: Aug-29-2013
New imaging techniques are fuelling an epidemic in diagnosis and treatment of thyroid cancers that are unlikely to ever progress to cause symptoms or death, warn experts on bmj.com. New technologies such as ultrasound, CT and MRI scanning can detect thyroid nodules as small as 2mm - many of these small nodules are papillary thyroid cancers. In the US, cases have tripled in the past 30 years - from 3.6 per 100,000 in 1973 to 11.6 per 100,000 in 2009 - making it one of the fastest growing diagnoses. Yet the death rate from papillary thyroid cancer has remained stable...

Shedding light on the origin and evolution of reticuloendotheliosis viruses

Date: Aug-29-2013
A new study by Anna Maria Niewiadomska and Robert Gifford, of The Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, New York, reveals that reticuloendotheliosis viruses (REVs), which originated in mammals, spread to birds as a result of medical intervention. Their findings are published in the open access journal PLOS Biology. "We became intrigued by these viruses", says Gifford, "...because their distribution in nature suggests something very unusual has occurred during their evolution...

Newly developed testing strategy identifies more Australians at risk for coeliac disease

Date: Aug-29-2013
Australian researchers have developed a new approach to detecting coeliac disease, revealing this immune disorder is far more common than previously recognised. In a study of more than 2500 Victorians the researchers combined traditional antibody testing (measuring the immune response to gluten) with an assessment of specific genetic risk markers. They found more than half of Australians had genetic risk factors for developing coeliac disease. The research is published online in the journal BMC Medicine...

Interesting and useful musings are associated with a happy mood

Date: Aug-29-2013
Mind wandering can be a sign of mental wellbeing, provided that your off-task musings are interesting and useful even if not related to the task at hand, finds a new study in Frontiers in Psychology. The negative effects of mind wandering on performance and mood have recently received much attention, for example in the much-publicized study A wandering mind is an unhappy mind (Science 2010, 330:932). But Michael S...