Health News

1-Year TAVI Outcomes Post-Approval Showed A Large Treatment Effect In Terms Of Symptom Relief And Improved Quality Of Life

Date: May-24-2013
One-year results from SOURCE XT - one of the largest, post-approval transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) registries to-date - reported today at EuroPCR 2013 show good clinical outcomes in routine clinical practice, with high rates of device success for all access approaches, valve sizes and delivery systems. The SOURCE XT Post-Approval Study followed up 2688 consecutively enrolled patients (mean age 81.5 years) undergoing TAVI with the Sapien XT heart valve at 93 centres in 17 countries between July 2010 and October 2011...

Results Of The BIOFLOW-II Substudy: Biodegradable Stent Proves Non-Inferior To Drug-Eluting Stent

Date: May-24-2013
The Orsiro stent, which is a novel stent platform eluting sirolimus from a biodegradable polymer, demonstrated non-inferiority to the Xience Prime everolimus-eluting stent for the primary angiographic endpoint of in-stent late lumen loss at nine months in the results of an imaging substudy reported at EuroPCR 2013 today...

Drug-Resistant TB Destroyed By Vitamin C

Date: May-24-2013
In a striking, unexpected discovery, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have determined that vitamin C kills drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) bacteria in laboratory culture. The finding suggests that vitamin C added to existing TB drugs could shorten TB therapy, and it highlights a new area for drug design. The study was published in the online journal Nature Communications. TB is caused by infection with the bacterium M. tuberculosis. In 2011, TB sickened some 8.7 million people and took some 1...

Risk Factors For Rupture Or Bleeding Of Arachnoid Cysts In Children

Date: May-24-2013
Arachnoid cysts are a common type of brain lesion that is usually harmless, but with a risk of rupture or bleeding. A new study identifies risk factors for rupture or bleeding in children with "incidentally" detected arachnoid cysts, reports the May issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. Risk is higher for children with larger cysts and a recent history of even mild head trauma, according to the report by Dr...

Tobacco Warning Images Proposed By The European Commission Should Be Reviewed As They Do Not Achieve The Desired Level Of Impact

Date: May-24-2013
The warning images Brussels proposes to include on tobacco packages in order to reduce consumption do not make the desired impact on smokers because they only find some of them really unpleasant. So, if the European Commission wants to improve the efficacy of its anti-smoking campaigns, it should produce a new set of images that make a stronger emotional impact...

New Tumour Killer Developed By Scientists

Date: May-24-2013
Scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Lund University, Sweden, have bioengineered a novel molecule which has been proven to successfully kill tumour cells. This molecule is based on a natural protein present in human breast milk, which has been found to have strong and wide-ranging tumour killing properties when bound to certain lipids. Lipids are organic molecules like amino acids and carbohydrates, made up of carbon and hydrogen, and help to store energy and to form biological membranes...

Socioeconomic Factors Affect Satisfaction Following Knee Replacement Surgery

Date: May-24-2013
Knee replacement surgery is a very common procedure. However, it does not always resolve function or pain in all the recipients of new knees. A study by Robert Barrack, MD and his colleagues from the Washington University School of Medicine wanted to determine if any socioeconomic factors were associated with less successful outcomes of knee replacement surgery. Their study, which appears in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research®, published by Springer, found that lower-income individuals reported higher levels of dissatisfaction and poorer function than those with higher incomes...

Gender Differences In The Prescribing Of Analgesics In Spain

Date: May-24-2013
Regardless of pain, social class or age, a woman is more likely to be prescribed pain-relieving drugs. A study published in Gaceta Sanitaria (Spanish health scientific journal) affirms that this phenomenon is influenced by socioeconomic inequality between genders in the Autonomous Community in which the patient resides. In 1999, a researcher at the University of Harvard, Ishiro Kawachi, observed that in the states of the USA with a larger proportion of women with a high social class, mortality in both genders was lower...

Computational Study Tracks E. coli Cells' Regulatory Mechanisms

Date: May-24-2013
Environment is not the only factor in shaping regulatory patterns - and it might not even be the primary factor, according to a new Rice University study that looks at how cells' protein networks relate to a bacteria's genome. The Rice lab of computer scientist Luay Nakhleh reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that when environmental factors are eliminated from an evolutionary model, mutations and genetic drift can give rise to the patterns that appear. They studied changes that show up in regulatory networks that determine the organism's characteristics...

Low Population Immunity Predicted If New Bird Flu Virus H7N9 Escalates Into A Human Pandemic

Date: May-24-2013
The level of immunity to the recently circulating H7N9 influenza virus in an urban and rural population in Vietnam is very low, according to the first population level study to examine human immunity to the virus, which was previously only found in birds. The findings have implications for planning the public health response to this pandemic threat. The study used a new, high throughput method that allows blood samples to be analysed for antibodies to multiple human and animal influenza viruses at the same time and is easier to standardise than previous techniques...