Health News

Just over half of NHS Trusts have a mental wellbeing policy in place for staff

Date: Jan-29-2014
Only 57% of NHS trusts have a mental wellbeing policy in place to support staff, according to new audit results from the Health and Work Development Unit (HWDU) at the Royal College of Physicians (RCP).NHS trusts have a duty to their staff to support their health and wellbeing. NHS trusts rely on staff to deliver good quality healthcare to patients, but are not looking after the health of their own staff as well as they could be.Figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) indicate that NHS workers in England took an estimated average of 9.

Task Force evidence reviews suggests that one-time screening for abdominal aortic aneurysms could benefit older men

Date: Jan-29-2014
A one-time screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm in men 65 years or older is associated with decreased AAA rupture and AAA-related mortality rates, according to a new review being published in Annals of Internal Medicine. AAA is a weakening in the wall of the infrarenal aorta resulting in localized dilation, or ballooning, of the abdominal aorta. A large proportion of AAAs are asymptomatic until a rupture develops, which is generally acute and often fatal (up to 83 percent of patients die before hospitalization).

New £1.2m project launched to speed up introduction of drugs

Date: Jan-29-2014
Researchers at St George's, University of London will help build a £1.2m data system which will develop ways to quickly identify patients best suited to clinical trials.The Semantic Data Platform for Healthcare Project (SEMCARE), will help build a data system that will improve how vital data from pioneering clinical trials is used, allowing patients quicker access to new drugs and treatments. The project will determine which volunteers are best suited to a given trial by using clinical criteria such as: age, gender, diagnosis, symptoms and lab results.

Drugs cut need for surgery for Crohn's disease sufferers by more than half

Date: Jan-29-2014
The requirement of bowel surgery is dramatically reduced by up to 60% in patients who develop Crohn's disease if they receive prolonged treatment with drugs called thiopurines, says a new study.Crohn's affects more than quarter-of-a-million people in the UK leading to an inflamed intestine.Researchers from St George's, University of London, St George's Hospital, London and Imperial College, London, monitored more than 5,000 patients in the UK living with Crohn's disease for more than 20 years and looked at the effect of thiopurine drugs that suppress inflammation in the gut.

Mayo Clinic study finds standardized protocol and surgery improve mortality outcomes

Date: Jan-29-2014
For patients who have experienced a large stroke that cuts off blood supply to a large part of the brain, the use of standardized medical management protocol and surgery to decompress swelling can improve life expectancy, Mayo Clinic researchers found in a recent study.

In Rett Syndrome, permanent changes in brain genes may not be so permanent after all

Date: Jan-29-2014
In normal development, all cells turn off genes they don't need, often by attaching a chemical methyl group to the DNA, a process called methylation. Historically, scientists believed methyl groups could only stick to a particular DNA sequence: a cytosine followed by a guanine, called CpG. But in recent years, they have been found on other sequences, and so-called non-CpG methylation has been found in stem cells, and in neurons in the brain.

Severe reaction to long-acting beta agonists may be due to rare genetic variations in some asthma patients

Date: Jan-29-2014
More than 25 million people in the United States have asthma, a chronic lung disease that inflames and narrows the airways causing recurring periods of wheezing, chest tightness, shortness of breath and coughing.Although several types of drugs are available to treat asthma, long-acting beta agonists (LABAs) are among the most commonly used and work well for most people. However, for a small subgroup of people with asthma, LABAs can cause severe, life-threatening side effects and carry a boxed safety warning from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

High blood pressure can be caused by punctured cell membranes

Date: Jan-29-2014
Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark have identified how a mutated protein can lead to holes in a protein sitting in a cell's membrane. Such holes cause high blood pressure, and the discovery can now lead to new and better medication for high blood pressure.High blood pressure can be caused by many things - one of them being a specific mutated protein. Now the researchers at University of Southern Denmark have found out exactly what unfortunate events in the human organism are initiated by the mutated protein.

Enormous variation in worldwide usage of FRAX revealed by IOF position paper

Date: Jan-29-2014
One of the most important advances in osteoporosis management of the past decade has been the advent of fracture risk assessment algorithms. Today, rather than relying on bone mineral density values alone, doctors use tools such as FRAX, a widely available calculator, to help identify patients in need of treatment.A new position paper by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) Epidemiology and Quality of Life Working Group has assessed the uptake of FRAX worldwide. The study concludes that there were approximately 2.

New model for the evolution of paired appendages

Date: Jan-29-2014
How did we get 4 limbs? Because we have a bellyAll of us backboned animals - at least the ones who also have jaws - have four fins or limbs, one pair in front and one pair behind. These have been modified dramatically in the course of evolution, into a marvelous variety of fins, legs, arms, flippers, and wings. But how did our earliest ancestors settle into such a consistent arrangement of two pairs of appendages? - Because we have a belly.