Health News

Wavelength Modulation Overcomes Obstacles To In-Situ And In-Vivo Use In Raman Spectroscopy

Date: Feb-21-2013
Raman spectroscopy has enabled incredible advances in numerous scientific fields and is a powerful tool for tissue classification and disease recognition, although there have been considerable challenges to using the method in a clinical setting. Scientists have now demonstrated the advantages of wavelength-modulated Raman spectroscopy, opening the door to wider biomedical and clinical applications such as real-time assessment of tissues during surgery. This study is published in Biomedical Spectroscopy and Imaging...

If Degenerative Cervical Spine Disease Doesn't Progress, Is Surgery Necessary?

Date: Feb-21-2013
Follow-up data on patients with degenerative disease of the upper (cervical) spinal vertebrae show little or no evidence of worsening degeneration over time, according to a study in the journal Spine. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. For many patients with "unstable" cervical degenerative spondylolisthesis, observation may be a better choice than surgery, according to the new research by Dr Moon Soo Park and colleagues of Medical College of Hallym University, Republic of Korea...

ESI Associated With Worse Outcome In The Treatment Of Spinal Stenosis

Date: Feb-21-2013
For patients with spinal stenosis, epidural steroid injections (ESI) may actually lead to worse outcomes - whether or not the patient later undergoes surgery, according to a study in the journal Spine. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. The study raises questions about the benefits of steroid injection - a widely used treatment for the common problem of spinal stenosis in the lower (lumbar) spine...

Governor Rick Scott Supports Medicaid Program Expansion, Florida

Date: Feb-21-2013
The Governor of Florida, Rick Scott, announced yesterday that he would support a limited, 3-year expansion of the state's Medicaid program, reversing a previous position. The federal government pays 100% of the costs, which protects state taxpayers and the uninsured in Florida, Gov. Scott said. Governor Scott said, "While the federal government is committed to paying 100 percent of the cost of new people in Medicaid, I cannot, in good conscience, deny the uninsured access to care...

Smokeless Tobacco Users Helped To Quit With The Help Of Nicotine Lozenges, Tobacco-Free Snuff

Date: Feb-21-2013
Smokeless tobacco users who said they didn't want to quit changed their minds or significantly cut back when given nicotine lozenges or tobacco-free snuff in a Mayo Clinic study. The findings are published in the February issue of Addictive Behaviors. Mayo researchers recruited 81 users of chewing tobacco or snuff with no intention of quitting in the next 30 days. Forty were given 4-mg nicotine lozenges and 41 received tobacco-free snuff to help cut back their smokeless tobacco use. They were asked to cut back 50 percent by one month and 75 percent by two months...

Pregnant Women Vaccinated During 2009 H1N1 Pandemic Flu Outbreak Had Reduced Risk Of Preterm Birth

Date: Feb-21-2013
Pregnant women who received the H1N1 influenza vaccine during the 2009 pandemic were less likely to have premature babies, and their babies weighed more on average. Influenza infection during pregnancy is associated with adverse infant outcomes such as preterm birth. Emory researchers from the Rollins School of Public Health, in a joint study with Kaiser Permanente of Georgia and the Mid-Atlantic States, evaluated the effectiveness of the H1N1 influenza vaccine in pregnant women against adverse infant outcomes during the 2009 pandemic...

New Study Shows That Human Thinkers Are Conscious Cognitive Misers

Date: Feb-21-2013
Are we intellectually lazy? Yes we are, but we do know when we take the easy way out, according to a new study by Wim De Neys and colleagues, from the CNRS in France. Contrary to what psychologists believe, we are aware that we occasionally answer easier questions rather than the more complex ones we were asked, and we are also less confident about our answers when we do. The work is published online in Springer's journal Psychonomic Bulletin & Review...

Device To Aid Children With Autism Focuses Their Brains On "Meaningful" Sounds, Diminishing Other Extraneous Distractions

Date: Feb-21-2013
Though learning to read proceeds smoothly for most children, as many as one in 10 is estimated to suffer from dyslexia, a constellation of impairments unrelated to intelligence, hearing or vision that make learning to read a struggle. Now, Northwestern University researchers report they have found a biological mechanism that appears to play an important role in the reading process. "We discovered a systematic relationship between reading ability and the consistency with which the brain encodes sounds," says Nina Kraus, Hugh Knowles Professor of Neurobiology, Physiology and Communication...

In Patients With Cardiac Arrest, Common IV Fluid Associated With Reduced Likelihood Of Full Recovery

Date: Feb-21-2013
Although an intravenous fluid that paramedics in Japan often give to patients in cardiac arrest before they reach hospital may help restore circulation, it may also be linked to reduced survival with minimal neurological or physical damage one month later, according to a study from Japan published in this week's PLOS Medicine. In Japan, intravenous fluid loading with lactated Ringer's solution (a mixture of salts and sodium lactate) is included in resuscitation guidelines for patients who have a cardiac arrest out of hospital...

Reaching Health Targets In Millennium Development Goals Via Novel Trading System

Date: Feb-21-2013
A novel global trading system based on the cost effectiveness of health interventions, similar to the market on carbon permits to help control climate change, could provide the extra funding needed to reach the health targets in the Millennium Development Goals, argue experts writing in this week's PLOS Medicine. The authors, led by Luis Carrasco from the National University of Singapore, propose an innovative global credit market based on a global cost-effectiveness criterion to run a cap and trade system where DALY credits (Disability Adjusted Life Years) are exchanged...