Health News

In Emergency Departments, Some Stroke Victims Not Receiving Timely Diagnosis, Care

Date: May-04-2012
The mantra in stroke care is "time is brain." With each passing minute more brain cells are irretrievably lost and, because of this, timely diagnosis and treatment is essential to increase the chances for recovery. While significant strides have been made to improve the response time of caregivers, a new study shows that a critical step in the process - imaging of the brain to determine the nature of the stroke - is still occurring too slowly at too many hospitals. A study out this month in the journal Stroke shows that only 41.7 percent of stroke patients underwent brain imaging within the...

Compliance By African-Americans To HIV Therapy Problematic, Untreated Depression Makes It Worse

Date: May-04-2012
African-Americans To HIV Therapy Problematic, Untreated Depression Makes It Worse Main Category: HIV / AIDS Also Included In: Depression;  Compliance Article Date: 04 May 2012 - 1:00 PDT  email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions    rate article  Current ratings for: 'Compliance By African-Americans To HIV Therapy Problematic, Untreated Depression Makes It Worse' Patient / Public: Healthcare Prof: African-Americans with HIV are much less likely to adhere to drug therapy than others with the disease, according to a University of Michigan study. Moreover,...

Women In Resource-Poor Countries Can Flash-Heat Breast Milk To Inactivate HIV

Date: May-04-2012
An international team led by UC Davis researchers has found that mothers in sub-Saharan Africa could successfully follow a protocol for flash-heating breast milk to reduce transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) -- the virus that causes AIDS -- to their infants. Flash-heating breast milk is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for HIV-infected mothers during times of increased transmission risk. The technique involves expressing breast milk into a glass jar that is placed in a small pot of water and heated until the water boils. Previous research from UC Davis and UC...

Progression Of Alzheimer's Disease In Mice Prevented By Biosynthetic Grape-Derived Compound

Date: May-04-2012
Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers have succeeded in developing a biosynthetic polyphenol that improves cognitive function in mice with Alzheimer's disease (AD). The findings, published in a recent issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, provide insight in determining the feasibility of biosynthetic polyphenols as a possible therapy for AD in humans, a progressive neurodegenerative disease for which there is currently no cure. Polyphenols, which occur naturally in grapes, fruits, and vegetables, have been shown to prevent the cognitive decline associated with AD in a mouse model, but the...

Epilepsy And Psychosis Familial Vulnerability

Date: May-04-2012
Although the two disorders may seem dissimilar, epilepsy and psychosis are associated. Individuals with epilepsy are more likely to have schizophrenia, and a family history of epilepsy is a risk factor for psychosis. It is not known whether the converse is true, i.e., whether a family history of psychosis is a risk factor for epilepsy. Multiple studies using varied investigative techniques have shown that patients with schizophrenia and patients with epilepsy show some similar structural brain and genetic abnormalities, suggesting they may share a common etiology. To investigate this...

Stem Cell Therapy To Treat PAD In Clinical Trial

Date: May-04-2012
Research led by vascular surgeons at Dartmouth-Hitchcock may offer new hope to sufferers of peripheral artery disease, the cause of nearly 60,000 lower-limb amputations annually, through the use of a patient's own stem cells. Richard J. Powell MD, chief of vascular surgery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, is the principal investigator on a national study - involving 550 patients at 80 sites around the country - of so-called "no option" patients, for whom the disease is so advanced that amputation is the only available treatment. Powell's study is now in a three-year, third-stage clinical trial, after...

Addressing Cardiac Risk Factors For COPD Patients May Significantly Improve Outcomes

Date: May-04-2012
A simple test for heart disease risk can go a long way toward determining the long-term prognosis for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to UC Irvine researchers. Dr. Hwa Mu Lee and Nathan Wong of the UCI Heart Disease Prevention Program found that individuals with moderate to severe COPD who had a low Framingham Heart Study 10-year risk assessment rate lived longer and healthier than COPD patients who scored high on the heart test. Study results point to the importance of cardiovascular health for those with COPD and strongly suggest that heart disease risk...

Thrombus Aspiration And Stents In PCI - Long-term Outcome Similar

Date: May-04-2012
New research confirms thrombus aspiration (TA) during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) provides long-term outcomes similar to conventional intervention with bare-metal or drug-eluting stents. Findings published in a special STEMI-focused issue of Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, a journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), report that compared to conventional PCI, thrombectomy does not affect rates of major adverse cardiac events at two-year follow-up. The...

Fatigue May Impact Surgeons' Ability To Deal With The Unexpected

Date: May-04-2012
Sleep-deprived surgeons can perform a previously learned task or learn a new task as well as surgeons who are rested, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers. However, in sleep-deprived surgeons, the brain must work harder, which could lead to problems during unexpected events. The researchers reached these conclusions using simulations to study the effects of sleepiness on surgeons. "Particularly in surgery, simulation has become the introduction to many procedures for new residents," said Jonathan Tomasko, M.D., a research fellow involved in surgical resident training....

Growth Of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Halted By Combining Two MTOR Inhibitors

Date: May-04-2012
The combination of two inhibitors of protein mTOR stops the growth of primary liver cancer and destroys tumour cells, according to a study by researchers of the Group of Metabolism and Cancer at Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL). The study results are been published on the online edition of the journal Science Translational Medicine. Primary liver cancer or hepatocellular carcinoma is the fifth most common cancer and, due to its aggressiveness, is the third most deadly. It affects half a million people worldwide. Two of every three cases are related to chronic alcoholism, the...