Health News

The Immune System During Sepsis

Date: Jul-02-2012
Septic shock is the most severe outcome associated with pathogen infection in the bloodstream. It is a life-threatening condition invariably leading to multiple organ dysfunctions. Currently, septic shock is one of the most frequent causes of death in intensive care units worldwide. However, it is already known that sepsis-induced multiple organ dysfunction is not a direct effect of the pathogen invasion itself but rather an overreaction of the host immune system against the infection...

'Recruitment By Genotype' For Genetic Research Poses Ethical Challenges, Study Finds

Date: Jul-02-2012
A potentially powerful strategy for studying the significance of human genetic variants is to recruit people identified by previous genetic research as having particular variants. But that strategy poses ethical challenges to informed consent, as well as potential risks to the people recruited, and it is unlikely that there is a "one-size-fits-all" solution, concludes an article in IRB: Ethics & Human Research...

Genetic Research Can Boost Indigenous Health But Guidelines Needed, Australia

Date: Jul-02-2012
Genetic research is shaping up as a powerful research tool to improve Indigenous health, but progress could be hampered unless Australia develops guidelines on the ethical conduct of such research, according to an article published in the 2 July issue of the Medical Journal of Australia. Dr Emma Kowal, a senior researcher from the University of Melbourne's School of Social and Political Sciences, said genomics had been a controversial issue in Indigenous health across the globe...

Mental Disorders Affect Large Numbers Of Indigenous Australians In Custody

Date: Jul-02-2012
Most Indigenous adults in Queensland prisons have at least one mental disorder, according to a study published in the July 2 issue of the Medical Journal of Australia. The director of Queensland Forensic Mental Health Services, Dr Edward Heffernan, and coauthors based their findings on interviews with 347 Indigenous men and 72 Indigenous women who were incarcerated in Queensland in 2008. The researchers found that 73% of Indigenous men and 86% of Indigenous women in prison had a mental disorder, compared with 20% prevalence in the Australian community...

Risk Of Fractures And Falls Increased By Epilepsy Drugs

Date: Jul-02-2012
The study led by the University of Melbourne and published in the prestigious Neurology journal, found that people taking antiepileptic drugs are up to four times more likely to suffer spine, collarbone and ankle fractures and are more likely to have been diagnosed with osteoporosis. The study also revealed that these patients are more than four times as likely as non-users of antiepileptic drugs to have been diagnosed with osteoporosis...

Women With Noninvasive Breast Cancer Benefit From Accelerated Radiation Treatment

Date: Jul-02-2012
Accelerated whole breast irradiation after lumpectomy is an effective treatment for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a very common early stage and noninvasive form of breast cancer, meaning many more breast cancer patients could see their treatment times reduced by half, according to a study in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, the official scientific journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO)...

Cortisone Injections Can Lead To Necrosis

Date: Jul-02-2012
Injections of corticoid preparations can have severe side effects. In this issue of Deutsches Arzteblatt International, Christian Holland and coauthors contribute to physicians' awareness of problems of this type with a report on the relevant findings of medicolegal expert committees in Germany (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2012; 109[24]: 425-30. One patient, for example, received multiple intramuscular injections of dexamethasone and diclofenac for the treatment of back pain...

Bangladeshi Women Cannot Afford Clean Cookstoves

Date: Jul-02-2012
Women in rural Bangladesh prefer inexpensive, traditional stoves for cooking over modern ones despite significant health risks, according to a Yale study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A large majority of respondents - 94 percent - believed that indoor smoke from the traditional stoves is harmful, but less so than polluted water (76 percent) and spoiled food (66 percent). Still, Bangladeshi women opted for traditional cookstove technology so they could afford basic needs...

The Effects Of Bullying And 'Ambient' Bullying In The Workplace

Date: Jul-02-2012
Merely showing up to work in an environment where bullying goes on is enough to make many of us think about quitting, a new study suggests. Canadian researchers writing in the journal Human Relations published by SAGE, have found that nurses not bullied directly, but who worked in an environment where workplace bullying occurred, felt a stronger urge to quit than those actually being bullied. These findings on 'ambient' bullying have significant implications for organizations, as well as contributing a new statistical approach to the field...

Ewing's Sarcoma: New Marker, New Target

Date: Jul-02-2012
Ewing's sarcoma is a bone cancer commonly diagnosed in about 250 U.S. teenagers per year. If early chemotherapy is effective, improvement can be durable. But for children and teens who respond poorly to a first attempt at chemotherapy or if the disease spreads, long-term survival can be less than 10 percent. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in the journal Molecular Cancer Research shows an important difference that may explain why some respond and some don't: the existence of high levels of the protein EYA3...