Health News

Southampton Heart Expert Says Common Angina Test Is 'Flawed'

Date: Jun-12-2013
A leading heart specialist based at Southampton's teaching hospitals has said that a commonly used test for diagnosis and subsequent treatment of angina is often "flawed". Coronary angiography - x-rays taken via tubes which are put in the wrist or groin to inject dye into the coronary arteries to highlight narrowings - is currently considered to be the 'gold standard' method for diagnosing angina - a painful tightening of the chest caused by heart disease...

Switching To Gilenya® (Fingolimod) From Standard Interferon Offers Sustained Freedom From Disease Activity For People With Relapsing Remitting MS

Date: Jun-12-2013
Two new analyses from the pivotal Phase III TRANSFORMS study presented at the European Neurological Society (ENS) have shown early and sustained improvements in disease activity in patients who were switched from an interferon to Gilenya® (fingolimod). Improvements were seen within 12 months of the switch and were sustained up to 4.5 years, confirming the long term effectiveness of once daily pill fingolimod...

Effectiveness Of Inexpensive Non-Medical Interventions In Improving Obesity And Diabetes Outcomes Addressed By US Endocrinology

Date: Jun-12-2013
With estimates that by 2030 the majority of the world's adults will be overweight or obese and more than 500 million will have type 2 diabetes, the 2013 summer issue of the journal US Endocrinology addresses the potential for inexpensive non-medical interventions to reverse the incidence and prevalence of these inter-related epidemics. A number of the reviews discuss new approaches that replace the focus on widespread food restriction and weight loss with an emphasis on helping people achieve 'energy balance' at a healthy body weight...

Stem Cells Reach Standard For Use In Drug Development

Date: Jun-12-2013
Drug development for a range of conditions could be improved with stem cell technology that helps doctors predict the safety and the effectiveness of potential treatments. Medical Research Council scientists at the University of Edinburgh have been able to generate cells in the laboratory that reach the gold standard required by the pharmaceutical industry to test drug safety. The researchers used stem cell technology to generate liver cells â�" which help our bodies to process drugs...

In Schizophrenia, Epigenetic Changes Moderate Reality Distortion

Date: Jun-12-2013
A study in Schizophrenia Bulletin is among the first to indicate epigenetic changes related to immune function in schizophrenia. DNA methylation, a process involving the addition of a methyl group to the DNA without changing its sequence, can alter gene expression. Led by Dr. Jingyu Liu, the nine researchers analyzed and verified changes in DNA methylation patterns in people with and without schizophrenia and found significant changes in seven genes that moderate immune responses...

Small Community Hospitals Experience High Rate Of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia

Date: Jun-12-2013
Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is one of the most frequent healthcare-associated infections found in intensive-care units (ICUs). New research on the prevalence of VAP in community hospitals shows small hospitals (less than 30,000 patient-days/year) have a higher rate of VAP than their larger counterparts, despite less use of ventilators...

After Trauma, Transplant Patient Outcomes Better Than Expected

Date: Jun-12-2013
In the largest study of its kind, physicians from the Department of Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) have determined that outcomes for traumatic injury in patients with organ transplants are not worse than for non-transplanted patients, despite common presumptions among physicians. The findings, published in the June 2013 issue of The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, also show that transplanted organs are rarely injured in traumatic events...

Tooth Enamel May Be Damaged By Early Exposure To Bisphenol A

Date: Jun-12-2013
Are teeth the latest victims of bisphenol A? Yes, according to the conclusions of work carried out by the research team led by Ariane Berdal of the Universite Paris-Diderot and Sylvie Babajko, Research Director at Inserm Unit 872 "Centre des Cordeliers". The researchers have shown that the teeth of rats treated with low daily doses of BPA could be damaged by this. Analysis of the damage shows numerous characteristics that are common with a recently identified pathology of tooth enamel that affects roughly 18% of children between the ages of 6 and 8...

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Patients On Kinase Inhibitors Report Serious Quality-Of-Life Issues

Date: Jun-12-2013
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have determined that chronic myeloid leukemia patients who are treated with a class of oral chemotherapy drugs known as a tyrosine kinase inhibitors have significant side effects and quality-of-life issues that need to be addressed. Some of these issues include depression, fatigue, nausea and change of appearance. The researchers say it is important to improve the patients' quality of life because most will take tyrosine kinase inhibitors for the rest of their lives. Their study appeared in a recent issue of Supportive Care in Cancer...

Brain Scans Reveal Internal Conflict During Jung's Word Association Test

Date: Jun-12-2013
Over 100 years ago psychologist Carl Gustav Jung penned his theory of 'complexes' where he explained how unconscious psychological issues can be triggered by people, events, or Jung believed, through word association tests. New research in the Journal of Analytical Psychology is the first to reveal how modern brain function technology allows us to see inside the mind as a 'hot button' word triggers a state of internal conflict between the left and right parts of the brain...