Health News

Increased Asthma Severity In Pregnant Women Exposed To Traffic Pollution

Date: May-22-2013
Air pollutants from traffic are associated with increased asthma severity levels in pregnant asthmatic women, according to a new study. "Air pollution is a known trigger for asthma symptoms," said lead author Janneane Gent, PhD, Research Scientist in Epidemiology (Environmental Health) at the Yale School of Public Health. "In our study, exposures were assessed using a sophisticated air pollution modeling system (Community Multiscale Air Quality, CMAQ) that permits community-level estimates (i.e...

Gender Differences In Access To Trauma Centers

Date: May-22-2013
Women are less likely than men to receive care in a trauma center after severe injury, according to a new study of almost 100,000 Canadian patients. "Gender-based disparities in access to healthcare services in general have been recognized for some time and evidence is emerging that these disparities extend to the treatment of severe injuries in trauma centers," says lead author Andrea Hill. MSc, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada...

Both Air And Noise Pollution Increase Cardiovascular Risk

Date: May-22-2013
Both fine-particle air pollution and noise pollution may increase a person's risk of developing cardiovascular disease, according to German researchers who have conducted a large population study, in which both factors were considered simultaneously. "Many studies have looked at air pollution, while others have looked at noise pollution," said study leader Barbara Hoffmann, MD, MPH, a professor of environmental epidemiology at the IUF Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine in Germany...

Hospital Mortality In Septic Shock Patients In The ICU Affected By Source Of Infection

Date: May-22-2013
In ICU patients who have septic shock, the anatomic source of infection has a strong effect on the chances of survival, according to a new study from researchers in Canada. "Understanding the local infection source in patients with septic shock may influence treatment strategies and clinical outcomes," said researcher Peter Dodek, MD MHSc, professor of critical care medicine at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver...

Blood-Brain Barrier Integrity Suffers Days After Ischemic Stroke Leading To Serious Complications

Date: May-22-2013
While the effects of acute stroke have been widely studied, brain damage during the subacute phase of stroke has been a neglected area of research. Now, a new study by the University of South Florida reports that within a week of a stroke caused by a blood clot in one side of the brain, the opposite side of the brain shows signs of microvascular injury. Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability in the United States, and increases the risk for dementia...

The Importance Of Hospital Emergency Departments

Date: May-22-2013
Hospital emergency departments play a growing role in the U.S. health care system, accounting for a rising proportion of hospital admissions and serving increasingly as an advanced diagnostic center for primary care physicians, according to a new RAND Corporation study. While often targeted as the most expensive place to get medical care, emergency rooms remain an important safety net for Americans who cannot get care elsewhere and may play a role in slowing the growth of health care costs, according to the study...

New Drugs For IBS, Hepatitis C

Date: May-22-2013
Research presented at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) explores pharmaceutical advances for treating irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea (IBS-D) and hepatitis C. An international study holds promising results for patients suffering from IBS-D. In the phase II study, researchers found that the drug ibodutant significantly improved symptoms in more than 50 percent of the individuals treated...

New Insight Into How Pathogens Break Through A Host's Defenses

Date: May-22-2013
Parasitic wasps switch off the immune systems of fruit flies by draining calcium from the flies' blood cells, a finding that offers new insight into how pathogens break through a host's defenses. "We believe that we have discovered an important component of cellular immunity, one that parasites have learned to take advantage of," says Emory University biologist Todd Schlenke, whose lab led the research...

Patient Outcomes Not Improved By Having A Nighttime Critical Care Physician In The ICU

Date: May-22-2013
With little evidence to guide them, many hospital intensive care units (ICUs) have been employing critical care physicians at night with the notion it would improve patients' outcomes...

In The Resurgence Of Whooping Cough, Leading Explanations Don't Stand Up To Scrutiny

Date: May-22-2013
Whooping cough has exploded in the United States and some other developed countries in recent decades, and many experts suspect ineffective childhood vaccines for the alarming resurgence. Some say the vaccine wears off quicker than public health officials had previously believed. Others suggest that the vaccine protects against illness but does not prevent transmission of the bacterial disease, which is also known as pertussis...