Health News

Better Than Expected Long-Term Outcomes In Patients With Advanced Coronary Artery Disease

Date: May-18-2013
Death rates associated with patients with refractory angina, or chronic chest pain, are lower than previously considered; therefore, physicians should focus on relieving the chest pain symptoms and improving the quality of life in these patients according to an article published online in the European Heart Journal. Refractory angina patients endure ongoing chest pain despite optimal medical management and for them, standard revascularization techniques, such as surgery or stenting, is no longer an option...

Men Suffer More Severe Psoriasis, Which Explains The Higher Costs Of Care For Men

Date: May-18-2013
Men often suffer from more severe cases of psoriasis than women, which may explain why the cost of care for men is higher. This is the conclusion of researchers at Sweden's Umea University in a new study. It is known that psoriasis affects about as many women as men. However, it has been shown, both in Sweden and internationally, that men receive more frequent and more expensive care for their disease, compared to women...

Plasmin Delivered Through A Bubble Is More Effective Than TPA In Busting Clots

Date: May-18-2013
A new study from the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine has found that, when delivered via ultrasound, the natural enzyme plasmin is more effective at dissolving stroke-causing clots than the standard of care, recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA). The novel delivery method involved trapping plasmin into bubble-like liposomes, delivering them to the clot intravenously and bursting it via ultrasound...

Most Americans Have Smoke-Free Rules For Home And Car

Date: May-18-2013
A national survey finds that a large majority of adults in the US voluntarily apply smoke-free rules in their homes or vehicles. Yet despite this, millions of Americans, many of them children, continue to be exposed to secondhand smoke in these environments, say researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who write about their findings in a study published online in the CDC journal Preventing Chronic Disease this week...

Study Finds Broad Support For Rationing Of Some Types Of Cancer Care

Date: May-18-2013
The majority of cancer doctors, patients, and members of the general public support cutting health care costs by refusing to pay for drugs that don't improve survival or quality of life, according to results of a new study that will be presented by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania during the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago in early June (Abstract #6518)...

Brain Stimulation Can Boost Math Skills

Date: May-17-2013
Administering high-frequency electrical noise to the brain can actually boost math skills up to six months later, according to a small study at the University of Oxford. The finding was published in the journal Current Biology and outlines a technique that consists of placing electrodes on the scalp of the head and administering random electrical noise to stimulate parts of the brain - causing nerve cells to fire. During this study, the electrodes were placed on the head to aim at hitting regions of the brain known to be involved in doing math...

Faulty Energy Production In Brain Cells Leads To Learning Disabilities

Date: May-17-2013
Dysfunctional mitochondria in brain cells can result in learning disabilities, according to a new study in Molecular Cell. The association between dysfunctional mitochondria and Parkinson's disease has been known, but this new study, led by neuroscientist Patrik Verstreken of VIB (Flanders Institute for Biotechnology) and KU Leuven, has revealed that it is also present in other disorders of the brain. Patrik Verstreken (VIB / KU Leuven) said: "This discovery shows that energy production in brain cells is the basis of various brain disorders...

Poop Bacteria In Most Public Swimming Pools, USA

Date: May-17-2013
E. coli bacteria are present in over half of all public swimming pools, according to a new report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. E. coli (Escherichia coli), a fecal indicator was found in 58% of pool samples, the CDC informed. Fecal material (poop material) can get into a pool during a formed or diarrheal fecal incident in the water or washing off of swimmers bodies. In other words, pool water can become contaminated if people don't shower beforehand or poop while in the pool...

Advanced Prostate Cancer Drug Xofigo Approved By FDA

Date: May-17-2013
Xofigo (radium Ra 223 dichloride) has been approved by the US FDA for symptomatic late-stage (metastatic) castration-resistant prostate cancer that has reached bones but not other organs, i.e. with no known visceral metastatic disease. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Xifogo under the priority review program, three months ahead of schedule. According to an online FDA communiqué published this week, Xofigo is aimed at male patients whose prostate cancer metastasized despite receiving medical or surgical interventions to reduce testosterone levels...

Doctors Are Missing Coeliac Disease, Warns Senior GP, Whose Daughter Has The Condition

Date: May-17-2013
"As doctors, we are missing many diagnoses of coeliac disease," warns a senior GP. Attending a parliamentary reception with policy makers to mark Coeliac Awareness Week, Dr Geraint Preest, a GP Principal in Bridgend is calling on doctors to "have a high index of suspicion when patients present with symptoms applicable to coeliac disease." Dr Preest, who has a young daughter with the condition, conducted a study at his practice and was surprised to find that for every five expected cases of coeliac disease, only one case had been diagnosed...