Health News

Routine Developmental Screening Essential To Identify Hispanic Children With Developmental Delay, Autism

Date: Aug-30-2012
Hispanic children often have undiagnosed developmental delays and large numbers of both Hispanic and non-Hispanic children who first were thought to have developmental delay actually had autism, researchers affiliated with the UC Davis MIND Institute have found. The study, one of the largest to date to compare development in Hispanic and non-Hispanic children, is published in the journal Autism. The results lead the study authors to recommend increased public health efforts to improve awareness, especially among Hispanics, about the indicators of developmental delay and autism...

CT Angiography And Perfusion To Assess Coronary Artery Disease: The CORE320 Study

Date: Aug-30-2012
A non-invasive imaging strategy which integrates non-invasive CT angiography (CTA) and CT myocardial perfusion imaging (CTP) has robust diagnostic accuracy for identifying patients with flow-limiting coronary artery disease in need of myocardial revascularisation, according to results of the CORE320 study presented by Dr Joao AC Lima from Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, USA...

Why The Circadian Rhythm Affects Health

Date: Aug-30-2012
Disruptions to the circadian rhythm can affect the growth of blood vessels in the body, thus causing illnesses such as diabetes, obesity, and cancer, according to a new study from Linkoping University and Karolinska Institutet. The circadian rhythm is regulated by a "clock" that reacts to both incoming light and genetic factors. In an article now being published in the scientific journal Cell Reports, it is demonstrated for the first time that disruption of the circadian rhythm immediately inhibits blood vessel growth in zebra fish embryos...

Gender Differences In Mortality Following Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation

Date: Aug-30-2012
Women with severe aortic stenosis are 40% less likely to die after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) than men, reveals the latest data from the largest study to date of gender differences in outcomes after TAVI. The findings were presented at ESC Congress 2012 by Professor Karin Humphries from St. Paul's Hospital. More than 1.5 million people in the US suffer from aortic stenosis, a progressive disease where the aortic valve becomes obstructed, leading to life-threatening heart problems...

Patients With Severe Aortic Stenosis Report Improved Quality Of Life Following Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation

Date: Aug-30-2012
Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) leads to meaningful improvements in health-related quality of life in patients with severe aortic stenosis that are maintained for at least 1 year, according to a study presented at ESC Congress 2012. The results from the German transcatheter aortic valve interventions registry were presented by Professor Till Neumann, MD, from Essen, Germany. Aortic stenosis is the most common valvular heart disease with increasing incidence especially with regard to the ageing of the population...

Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Consensus Set To Standardize And Improve Care For Patients Worldwide

Date: Aug-30-2012
Recommendations for the practical management of CRT patients have been set out for the first time in an international consensus statement on cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) in heart failure...

Regulation Of Red Blood Cell Size And Number By Newly Identified Protein

Date: Aug-30-2012
The adult human circulatory system contains between 20 and 30 trillion red blood cells (RBCs), the precise size and number of which can vary from person to person. Some people may have fewer, but larger RBCs, while others may have a larger number of smaller RBCs. Although these differences in size and number may seem inconsequential, they raise an important question: Just what controls these characteristics of RBCs? This question is particularly relevant for the roughly one-quarter of the population that suffers from anemia, which is often caused by flawed RBC production...

Study Shows That PTSD And Depression Together Make It Harder For Children To Recover Following Natural Disasters

Date: Aug-30-2012
As Hurricane Isaac nears the Gulf Coast, one may wonder what the impact of natural disasters are on children. Who is most at risk for persistent stress reactions? How can such youth be identified and assisted in the aftermath of a destructive storm? Dr. Annette M. La Greca, a professor of psychology and pediatrics at the University of Miami, and her colleagues, have been studying children's disaster reactions following Hurricanes Andrew (1992), Charley (2004) and Ike (2008). Recent findings from Hurricane Ike shed light on these questions about children's functioning...

Important New Practice Guidelines Issued For Prevention And Treatment Of Lightning Injuries

Date: Aug-30-2012
About 24,000 people are killed by lightning every year, with about 10 times as many people injured. The Wilderness Medical Society has issued important new practice guidelines for precautions that can lower the likelihood of being killed or injured and recommendations for effective medical treatments post-strike. These guidelines appear in the September issue of Wilderness & Environmental Medicine.* Updating the 2006 guidelines, a panel of experts chosen for their clinical or research experience convened at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Wilderness Medical Society in Snowmass, CO...

Preventing Thrombotic And Thromboembolic Complications By Omitting Aspirin From Antiplatelet Regimen

Date: Aug-30-2012
Lifelong anticoagulation is necessary for the prevention of stroke in patients with rhythm disturbances and with mechanical valves. Patients who have a coronary stent implanted also need the antiplatelet drugs aspirin and clopidogrel to prevent the rare but lethal complication of stent thrombosis...