Health News

Screening For Hypertriglyceridemia Every Five Years Is Recommended

Date: Sep-08-2012
Adults should be screened for hypertriglyceridemia every five years, according to a Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) for the diagnosis and treatment of the condition, which has been issued today by the Endocrine Society in the�Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism�(JCEM). Hypertriglyceridemia indicates high (hyper-) blood levels (-emia) of triglycerides, which are a type of fat found in the bloodstream and fat tissue, but too much of this fat can cause arteries to harden and narrow, resulting in an increased risk of heart attack and stroke...

Predicting How Patients Respond To Therapy

Date: Sep-08-2012
Brain scans could help doctors choose treatments for people with social anxiety disorder. A new study led by MIT neuroscientists has found that brain scans of patients with social anxiety disorder can help predict whether they will benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy. Social anxiety is usually treated with either cognitive behavioral therapy or medications. However, it is currently impossible to predict which treatment will work best for a particular patient...

Colon Cancer Drug Prolongs Patient Survival

Date: Sep-08-2012
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved a drug effective in starving cancer growth, which was first studied in humans by a Georgia Health Sciences University cancer clinician. Dr. Olivier Rixe, medical oncologist and Director of the multidisciplinary neuro-oncology group and experimental therapeutics program at the GHSU Cancer Center, conducted Phase I trials in Europe for the Regeneron/Sanofi drug Zaltrap, an infused medicine used with chemotherapy to treat metastatic colon cancer. The study by co-investigators Dr. Rixe and Dr...

Prenatal Exposure To Pesticide Additive Linked With Childhood Cough

Date: Sep-08-2012
Children exposed in the womb to the widely used pesticide additive piperonyl butoxide (PBO) have heightened risk of noninfectious cough at ages 5 and 6, according to researchers at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) at the Mailman School of Public Health and of Columbia University Medical Center. The findings, which appear in the August 31 online edition of the journal Environment International, support the premise that the children's respiratory system is susceptible to damage from toxic exposures during the prenatal period...

Can Videogaming Benefit Young People With Autism Spectrum Disorder?

Date: Sep-08-2012
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1 in 88 children in the U.S. has autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a broad group of neurodevelopmental disorders. Children and adolescents with ASD are typically fascinated by screen-based technology such as videogames and these can be used for educational and treatment purposes as described in an insightful Roundtable Discussion published in Games for Health Journal: Research Development, and Clinical Applications, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc....

Telaprevir: Added Benefit In Certain Patients With Hepatitis C

Date: Sep-08-2012
The drug telaprevir (trade name: Incivo®) has been available for treatment of chronic hepatitis C infection of genotype 1 since autumn 2011. In an early benefit assessment pursuant to the "Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products" (AMNOG), the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined whether telaprevir offers an added benefit compared with the present standard therapy. According to the findings of the assessment, the new drug telaprevir offers advantages in various groups of patients with chronic hepatitis C infection of genotype 1...

Infections In Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: Mayo Clinic Study Finds Way To Pinpoint Risk

Date: Sep-08-2012
Rheumatoid arthritis alone is painful and disabling, but it also puts patients at higher risk of death. The greater susceptibility to infections that accompanies the autoimmune disorder is one reason. Assessing the danger of infection a particular patient faces so it can be addressed can prove challenging for physicians. A Mayo Clinic study finds that a risk score can be developed to predict a patient's chances of having serious infections...

Gender Equality Influences How People Choose Their Partners

Date: Sep-08-2012
Men and women clearly have different strategies for picking sexual partners, but the reason why differences exist is less clear. The classic explanation for these differences has been that men's and women's brains have evolved to make certain choices, but a new study in Psychological Science, a publication of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that evolution is only part of the answer. To be a 'success' in evolutionary terms, women need to have access to resources for raising offspring, and men need to have access to fertile females...

Glacial Thinning Has Sharply Accelerated At Major South American Icefields

Date: Sep-08-2012
For the past four decades scientists have monitored the ebbs and flows of the icefields in the southernmost stretch of South America's vast Andes Mountains, detecting an overall loss of ice as the climate warms. A new study, however, finds that the rate of glacier thinning has increased by about half over the last dozen years in the Southern Patagonian Icefield, compared to the 30 years prior to 2000. "Patagonia is kind of a poster child for rapidly changing glacier systems," said Michael Willis, lead author of the study and a research associate at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York...

HIF Gene Mutation Found In Tumor Cells Offers New Clues About Cancer Metabolism

Date: Sep-08-2012
For the first time, a mutation in HIF2α, a specific group of genes known as transcription factors that is involved in red blood cell production and cell metabolism, has been identified in cancer tumor cells. Researchers from Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah and the National Institutes of Health found the mutation in tumor cells of two patients with the rare cancers paraganglioma/pheochromocytoma and somatostatinoma. The mutation was previously identified in connection with a non-cancerous hereditary condition, but never before in spontaneously arising cancers...