Health News

An antiparalytic nasal spray to treat venomous snakebites could reduce global fatalities

Date: Aug-01-2013
A team of researchers led by Dr. Matt Lewin of the California Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with the Department of Anesthesia at the University of California, San Francisco, has pioneered a novel approach to treating venomous snakebites - administering antiparalytics topically via a nasal spray. This new, needle-free treatment may dramatically reduce the number of global snakebite fatalities, currently estimated to be as high as 125,000 per year...

Tomosynthesis reduces breast cancer screening recall rate

Date: Aug-01-2013
Digital tomosynthesis is an effective tool for reducing the recall rate in breast cancer screening, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology. Digital mammography is the gold standard for breast cancer screening, but may yield suspicious findings that turn out not to be cancer. These false-positive findings are associated with a higher recall rate, or the rate at which women are called back for additional imaging or biopsy...

Cross-cultural communication of emotional non-speech sounds

Date: Aug-01-2013
Try to remember the last time that you inferred that another person was in an emotional state of mind - chances are that it was the sounds that he or she made that provided the clues. Emotional non-speech sounds (such as crying, hums, laughter, and sighs) are often considered an especially primitive form of emotional communication that in many ways resembles animal expressions more than human speech. But, this intriguing form of emotional signaling has received little attention from researchers...

Transcription and replication result in distinct epigenetic marks following repression of early gene expression

Date: Aug-01-2013
DNA in higher organisms is packaged by proteins known as histones. In response to external factors, the histones can be tagged at precise locations by addition of methyl groups that are read to regulate the expression of genes associated with the DNA. It has been thought that when a cell divides, the location of the methyl groups in these histones is duplicated along with the DNA. Recent work from Barry Milavetz's laboratory group at the University of North Dakota now suggests that this may not always be the case...

Some women with abnormal breast lesions may avoid surgery

Date: Aug-01-2013
Surgery is not always necessary for women with a type of breast tissue abnormality associated with a higher risk of cancer, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology. Researchers said that periodic imaging and clinical exam are effective in these patients when radiology and pathology findings are benign and concordant, or in agreement. Atypical lobular hyperplasia (ALH) and lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) are abnormal breast lesions that occasionally appear as incidental findings in breast biopsies...

Severe low blood sugar occurs often in patients with Type 2 diabetes

Date: Aug-01-2013
Patients with diabetes who take certain types of medications to lower their blood sugar sometimes experience severe low blood sugar levels, whether or not their diabetes is poorly or well controlled, according to a new study by Kaiser Permanente and Yale University School of Medicine. The finding, published in the current online issue of Diabetes Care, challenges the conventional wisdom that hypoglycemia is primarily a problem among diabetic patients with well-controlled diabetes (who have low average blood sugar levels)...

American Chemical Society podcast: cotton is an eco-friendly way to clean up oil spills

Date: Aug-01-2013
The latest episode in the American Chemical Society's (ACS') award-winning Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions podcast series describes a report demonstrating that unprocessed, raw cotton has an amazing ability to sop up oil while also being eco-friendly. Based on a report by Seshadri Ramkumar, Ph.D., in the ACS journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, the new podcast is available without charge at iTunes and from http://www.acs.org/globalchallenges...

Both parents experience highs and lows in sexuality after childbirth

Date: Aug-01-2013
Partners of new mothers often experience shifts in sexuality, and these shifts are often unrelated to biological or medical factors pertaining to childbirth. The findings, which are published in a recent issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine, expand current understanding of postpartum sexuality, and may help health professionals as they counsel new parents...

UK government's delay on plain tobacco packaging: how much evidence is enough?

Date: Aug-01-2013
On bmj.com today, senior research fellow Crawford Moodie asks how much more evidence is needed before the UK government make a decision on plain tobacco packaging. In July, the UK government announced that there would be a delay on the decision on plain packaging, until findings from Australia emerge. The first study from Australia published since plain packaging came into effect found that smokers who used plain packs perceived their cigarettes to be "less satisfying and poorer quality" and "were more supportive of plain packaging and more likely to think about and to prioritise quitting"...

Chain of survival for out of hospital cardiac arrests must be improved, say cardiology experts

Date: Aug-01-2013
In this week's BMJ, two cardiologists from the Royal Free Hospital in London suggest the evidence base is strong for changing the way people who have had a cardiac arrest outside hospital are treated. The British Heart Foundation recently stated that the number of people dying from cardiac arrest was "unacceptable" whilst reinforcing the message that all schoolchildren should be taught CPR. Approximately 60,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) occur in the UK each year and current UK survival rates remain extremely poor at 2-12%...