Health News

Doctor-Patient Disagreements Over Informed Consent Can Lead To Litigation

Date: Aug-09-2012
Most informed consent disputes involve disagreements about who said what and when, not stand-offs over whether a particular risk ought to have been disclosed. But doctors may "routinely underestimate the importance of a small set of risks that vex patients" according to international experts writing in this week's PLOS Medicine. Increasingly, doctors are expected to advise and empower patients to make rational choices by sharing information that may affect treatment decisions, including risks of adverse outcomes...

New Animal Model Sheds Light On Underlying Causes Of Impaired Brain Function In Muscular Dystrophy

Date: Aug-09-2012
The molecular missteps that disrupt brain function in the most common form of adult-onset muscular dystrophy have been revealed in a new study published by Cell Press. Myotonic dystrophy is marked by progressive muscle wasting and weakness, as well as excessive daytime sleepiness, memory problems, and mental retardation. A new mouse model reported in the journal Neuron reproduces key cognitive and behavioral symptoms of this disease and could be used to develop drug treatments, which are currently lacking...

Stress-Amplifying 'TXNIP' Protein May Be Powerful New Drug Target For Diabetes

Date: Aug-09-2012
At its most fundamental level, diabetes is a disease characterized by stress -- microscopic stress that causes inflammation and the loss of insulin production in the pancreas, and system-wide stress due to the loss of that blood-sugar-regulating hormone. Now, researchers led by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have uncovered a new key player in amplifying this stress in the earliest stages of diabetes: a molecule called thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP)...

No Proven Benefit For PET And PET/CT In Ovarian Cancer

Date: Aug-09-2012
Only in certain cases are recurrences detected more reliably than with conventional techniques  Due to the lack of studies, there is currently no proof that patients with ovarian cancer can benefit from positron emission tomography (PET) alone or in combination with computed tomography (CT). As regards diagnostic accuracy, in certain cases, recurrences can be detected earlier and more accurately with PET or PET/CT than with conventional imaging techniques...

Step Forward In The Engineering Of Load-Bearing Fibrous Tissues, Regenerative Medicine

Date: Aug-09-2012
Bioengineered replacements for tendons, ligaments, the meniscus of the knee, and other tissues require re-creation of the exquisite architecture of these tissues in three dimensions. These fibrous, collagen-based tissues located throughout the body have an ordered structure that gives them their robust ability to bear extreme mechanical loading. Many labs have been designing treatments for ACL and meniscus tears of the knee, rotator cuff injuries, and Achilles tendon ruptures for patients ranging from the weekend warrior to the elite Olympian...

MRI Scans May Predict Teens' Heavy Drinking Via Brain Activity

Date: Aug-09-2012
Heavy drinking is known to affect teenagers' developing brains, but certain patterns of brain activity may also help predict which kids are at risk of becoming problem drinkers, according to a study in the September issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. Using special MRI scans, researchers looked at 40 12- to 16-year-olds who had not started drinking yet, then followed them for about 3 years and scanned them again. Half of the teens started to drink alcohol fairly heavily during this interval...

Extending Vaccination Against Human Papilloma Virus To Young Men?

Date: Aug-09-2012
Vaccination against human papilloma virus (HPV) is recommended for young women to protect them from HPV infection and cervical cancer. Male HPV immunization is increasingly a topic of debate in the medical community. A timely review of the literature published in Viral Immunology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers, explores whether HPV vaccination of young men is warranted and cost effective. The article is available free online at the Viral Immunology website...

Young Smokers More Likely To Heed Health Warnings When Cigarettes In Plain Packaging

Date: Aug-09-2012
New research published online in the scientific journal Addiction shows that plain packaging (requiring cigarettes to be packaged in standard packages without attractive designs and imagery) may help to draw the attention of some adolescent smokers to the health warnings on the package. If so, this may in turn deter young smokers from continuing to smoke. Researchers asked eighty-seven teenage secondary school (high school) students from the city of Bristol, UK, to look at twenty images of cigarette packs on a computer screen for ten seconds each while a device tracked their eye movements...

Nutrition Of Young Children Linked To IQ In Later Years

Date: Aug-09-2012
Children fed healthy diets in early age may have a slightly higher IQ, while those on heavier junk food diets may have a slightly reduced IQ, according to new research from the University of Adelaide. The study - led by University of Adelaide Public Health researcher Dr Lisa Smithers - looked at the link between the eating habits of children at six months, 15 months and two years, and their IQ at eight years of age...

The Value Of Calcium And Vitamin D Supplements Questioned

Date: Aug-09-2012
Prescribing calcium and vitamin D supplements for men at risk of bone loss from hormonal treatment for prostate cancer seems like good medicine. But new research from epidemiologists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center showed that this type of supplementation did not prevent bone loss and, in fact, may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and aggressive prostate cancer. The study was published online in the July issue of the journal The Oncologist. "It wouldn't be so bad if there simply was no obvious benefit," said Gary G. Schwartz, Ph.D...