Health News

How The US Government Funds Medical Research Affected By Patient-Led Advocacy

Date: Oct-03-2012
Patient-led advocacy has created a shift in the way the U.S. government has prioritized funding for medical research, and significantly changed the way policymakers think about who benefits the most from these dollars, a University of Michigan School of Public Health fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholars in Health Policy Research Program found...

Preoperative Falls May Predict Worse Postoperative Outcomes In Older Adults

Date: Oct-03-2012
An answer to the simple question - "Have you recently taken a fall?" - can tell a surgeon how well an older adult may recover from a major operation according to researchers from the University of Colorado, Denver. New study findings, reported today at the 2012 Annual Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons (ACS), indicate that preopera-tive falls in older surgical patients are a powerful predictor of complications, prolonged hospital stays, and higher rates of disability...

Outbreaks Of Deadly Mosquito-Borne Viruses May Be Prevented Following Snake Hibernation Discovery

Date: Oct-03-2012
Snakes in the wild serve as hosts for the deadly mosquito-borne Eastern equine encephalomyelitis Virus (EEEV), possibly acting as a "bridge" to the next season, according to researchers studying endemic areas in the Tuskegee National Forest in Alabama. This sets the stage for mosquitoes feeding on the infected snakes - primarily in the early spring - to become virus carriers. Scientists have been puzzled as to how the virus survived a harsh winter. With this new link established in the transmission cycle, a viable strategy to counter the virus may be at hand...

Across A Range Of Patient Risk Scores, Apixaban Found To Be Superior To Warfarin

Date: Oct-03-2012
A new anticoagulant called apixaban is superior to warfarin in preventing stroke with consistent effects across a wide range of stroke and bleeding risk in patients with atrial fibrillation, according to Duke University Medical Center researchers. Their results, published online in The Lancet, suggest that the current risk scoring systems for tailoring anticoagulation treatment to individual patients may be less relevant when using apixaban for patients with atrial fibrillation who have at least one risk factor for stroke...

Five-Pronged Assessment Tool Measures Postsurgical, Clinical, And Social Outcomes Of Facial Transplant Operations

Date: Oct-03-2012
Facial transplant operations are often portrayed as dramatic before-and-after stories but new research shows that the procedures' real long-term impact may sometimes be underreported, explained researchers from The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD...

Improvement Needed In Post-Stroke Depression Screening

Date: Oct-03-2012
Physicians are prescribing anti-depressants for stroke patients without first giving them a proper diagnosis, they are over-treating some patients, and overlooking others, according to a study presented at the Canadian Stroke Congress. "A lot of people are being treated for depression, but we don't know if they're the right ones," says lead researcher Ms. Katherine Salter of Parkwood Hospital in London, Ontario. "This study found that 40 per cent of stroke patients were treated for depression, but most were not screened or diagnosed...

High-Sugar, High-Salt Intake Creates 'A Ticking Time Bomb Of Health Problems'

Date: Oct-03-2012
The fat- and sugar-rich Western diet leads to a lifetime of health problems, dramatically increasing the risk of stroke or death at a younger age, according to a study presented today at the Canadian Stroke Congress. Researchers found that a high-calorie, high-sugar, high-sodium diet nicknamed the 'cafeteria diet' induced most symptoms of metabolic syndrome - a combination of high levels of cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure and obesity - in rats after only two months...

Promoting Awareness Of Aphasia, A Hidden Stroke Impairment That Leaves Thousands Suffering In Silence

Date: Oct-03-2012
Most people are completely unaware of one of stroke's most common, debilitating but invisible impairments, according to the first awareness survey of its kind in Canada released at the Canadian Stroke Congress. Thirty community volunteers trained by the York-Durham Aphasia Centre, a March of Dimes Canada program, collaborated with researchers from two Ontario universities in a survey of 832 adults in southern Ontario. They found that only two per cent of respondents could correctly identify aphasia as a communication disorder affecting the ability to speak, understand, read or write...

Childhood Allergies, Asthma Reduced By Shortened Length Of Immunotherapy

Date: Oct-03-2012
When children suffer from dust mite induced allergies and asthma, finding relief can seem impossible. While there isn't a complete cure for childhood respiratory allergies, researchers have found that long term control of allergic asthma can occur after only three years of allergy shots. According to a new study, published in the October issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, the scientific publication of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), long-term relief can be achieved by administering immunotherapy for three years...

The Importance Of Stroke Training In Emergency Programs

Date: Oct-03-2012
Medical residents training to work in the emergency department need more formal stroke training, says a study presented at the Canadian Stroke Congress, noting that, as the first point of contact in stroke care, they see nearly 100 per cent of stroke patients taken to hospital. Researchers surveyed 20 emergency medicine residency programs across Canada and found that very limited lecture time and mandatory on-the-job training are devoted to stroke and neurological care. Only two of 20 emergency medicine residency programs required on-the-job training in stroke neurology...