Health News

New Guidelines On Fluid Management During High-Risk Surgery

Date: Jun-27-2012
New journal Perioperative Medicine launches on 27th June 2012 with important guidelines for fluid management during surgery. The Consensus Statement was agreed by the Clinical Leaders of the English Enhanced Recovery Partnership, set up by the UK Department of Health to improve recovery after major surgery.  The statement provides important evidence-based guidelines for fluid management in high-risk patients, including the training of all anaesthetists in the use of cardiac output measuring technologies...

Magnetically Programmable Shunt Valves May Be Affected By Tablet Computers

Date: Jun-27-2012
Researchers at the University of Michigan have found that the Apple iPad 2 can interfere with settings of magnetically programmable shunt devices, which are often used to treat children with hydrocephalus. The iPad 2 contains magnets that can change valve settings in the shunt if the tablet computer is held too close to the valve (within 2 inches). Such a change may result in shunt malfunction until the problem is recognized and the valve adjusted to the proper setting...

A Story Unfolding Of Prions And Cancer

Date: Jun-27-2012
Prions, the causal agents of Mad Cow and other diseases, are very unique infectious particles. They are proteins in which the complex molecular three-dimensional folding process just went astray. For reasons not yet understood, the misfolding nature of prions is associated to their ability to sequester their normal counterparts and induce them to also adopt a misfolding conformation. The ever-growing crowd of misfolded proteins form the aggregates seen in diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Once misfolded, a protein can no longer exert its normal functions in the cell...

Chronic Spinal Cord Injury And Neuroprotective Dietary Supplements

Date: Jun-27-2012
Researchers from the Department of Neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine and the Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology at UCLA have found that a diet enriched with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an omega-3 fatty acid, and curcumin, a component of the Indian spice turmeric, can protect the injured spinal cord and minimize the clinical and biochemical effects of spinal cord myelopathy in rats. This finding is fleshed out in the article "Dietary therapy to promote neuroprotection in chronic spinal cord injury. Laboratory investigation," by Langston Holly, M.D...

Potential For 75 Percent Reduction Of Invasive Procedures For Patients With Suspected Coronary Artery Diseases

Date: Jun-27-2012
Preliminary findings from the EVINCI study show that the prevalence of "significant" coronary artery disease in patients with chest pain symptoms is lower than expected in Europe. In as much as 75% of this population an accurate non-invasive screening could avoid unnecessary and costly invasive procedures. The three year multicentre European trial will define the most cost effective strategy for diagnosing patients with suspected coronary artery disease. The EValuation of INtegrated Cardiac Imaging (EVINCI) study was completed on 15 June...

Study Of Lung Cancer Death Rates Among Young And Middle-Aged White Women; Tobacco Control Implicated In Rise

Date: Jun-27-2012
A new study comparing lung cancer death rates among women by year of birth shows dramatic differences in trends between states, likely reflecting the success or failure of tobacco control efforts. The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, finds that while lung cancer death rates declined continuously by birth year for women born after the 1950s in California, rates in other states declined less quickly or even increased. In some southern states, lung cancer death rates among women born in the 1960s were approximately double those of women born in the 1930s...

Low Blood Sugar Prevented By Experimental Insulin Drug

Date: Jun-27-2012
An experimental insulin drug prevented low blood sugar among diabetic patients more often than a popular drug on the market, a new study finds. The results were presented at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston. Nearly 26 million people in the United States have diabetes, which can cause blood sugar, or glucose, to climb to dangerously high levels. While treatment with the hormone insulin can help control blood sugar, it sometimes leads to abnormally low levels, or hypoglycemia...

Poorly Controlled Type1 Diabetes Improved By Liraglutide With Insulin

Date: Jun-27-2012
Obese adults with poorly controlled Type 1 diabetes can better control their blood sugar by adding liraglutide, a Type 2 diabetes drug, to their insulin therapy, a new study finds. The results, which were presented at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston, also found that these diabetic patients lost weight and lowered their blood pressure...

Although Type 2 Diabetes Cured By Weight Loss Surgery, It Returns In One-Fifth Of Patients

Date: Jun-27-2012
A new study shows that although gastric bypass surgery reverses Type 2 diabetes in a large percentage of obese patients, the disease recurs in about 21 percent of them within three to five years. The study results were presented at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston. "The recurrence rate was mainly influenced by a longstanding history of Type 2 diabetes before the surgery," said the study's lead author, Yessica Ramos, MD, an internal medicine resident at Mayo Clinic Arizona in Scottsdale...

Potential Diagnostic Test For Autism Suggested By Computer Analysis Of EEG Patterns

Date: Jun-27-2012
Widely available EEG testing can distinguish children with autism from neurotypical children as early as age 2, finds a study from Boston Children's Hospital. The study is the largest, most rigorous study to date to investigate EEGs as a potential diagnostic tool for autism, and offers hope for an earlier, more definitive test. Researchers Frank H...