Health News

BMJ investigation reveals tensions over future of 111 urgent medical helpline

Date: Jan-02-2014
General practitioners are on a collision course with senior civil servants over plans to give patients who dial the government's 111 medical triage helpline the right to demand contact from a GP at their registered practice, an investigation by the BMJ has found.Email correspondence between senior figures at NHS England obtained by the BMJ reveals a desire to insert new clauses into GPs' contracts, which would allow breach of contract notices to be served to GPs who fail to see or speak with patients that have been diverted from 111 call centres.

Hospital-diagnosed maternal infections linked to increased autism risk

Date: Jan-02-2014
Hospital-diagnosed maternal bacterial infections during pregnancy were associated with an increased risk of autism spectrum disorders in children, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published Dec. 23 in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.The research contributes new evidence to a body of scientific literature on the role of infection in autism risk and points to areas for further examination.The study included 407 children with autism and 2,075 matched children who did not have autism.

New hand-held optical device to catch early signs of retinal disease

Date: Jan-02-2014
A new optical device puts the power to detect eye disease in the palm of a hand. The tool - about the size of a hand-held video camera - scans a patient's entire retina in seconds and could aid primary care physicians in the early detection of a host of retinal diseases including diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and macular degeneration. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) describe their new ophthalmic-screening instrument in a paper published in the open-access journal Biomedical Optics Express, published by The Optical Society (OSA).

Young adults 'damage DNA' with weekend alcohol consumption

Date: Jan-02-2014
College students are renowned for partying at the weekends, and this usually involves having a drink or two. But new research has found that this level of alcohol consumption may cause damage to DNA. This is according to a study published in the journal Alcohol.The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism states that around four out of five college students in the US drink alcohol and 1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year as a result of unintentional alcohol-related injuries.

Transient receptor potential channel A1 may contribute to hyperalgesia

Date: Jan-02-2014
Transient receptor potential channel A1 is one of the important transducers of noxious stimuli in the primary afferents, which may contribute to generation of neurogenic inflammation and hyperalgesia. However, there is no direct evidence that activation of transient receptor potential channel A1 contributes to neuropeptide release from primary afferent neurons.

Both real and sham acupuncture treatments may help alleviate side effects of breast cancer drugs

Date: Jan-02-2014
A new analysis has found that both real and sham acupuncture treatments may help alleviate side effects of drugs commonly used to treat breast cancer. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the findings may help clinicians improve care for cancer patients. The results also raise the question of whether sham acupuncture is truly inert or may, like real acupuncture, have beneficial effects.

Antibiotics before heart surgery protect against infection

Date: Jan-02-2014
A new study found preoperative antibiotic therapy administered within two hours of cardiac surgery decreased the risk of developing surgical site infections (SSIs) significantly. The study was published in the January issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America."Antimicrobial prophylaxis can reduce the risk of SSIs following many operations, however that efficacy diminishes or disappears if antibiotics are given either too early or after incision," said Renato Finkelstein, MD, lead author of the study.

Infectious diarrhea germs stick to healthcare worker hands

Date: Jan-02-2014
A new study finds nearly one in four healthcare workers' hands were contaminated with Clostridium difficile spores after routine care of patients infected with the bacteria. The study was published in the January issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America."This is the first known study focusing on the carriage of viable C. difficile spores on healthcare workers hands," said Caroline Landelle, PharmD, PhD, lead author of the study. "Because C.

Transitioning epithelial cells to mesenchymal cells enhances cardiac protectivity

Date: Jan-02-2014
Cell-based therapies have been shown to enhance cardiac regeneration, but autologous (patient self-donated) cells have produced only "modest results." In an effort to improve myocardial regeneration through cell transplantation, a research team from Germany has taken epithelial cells from placenta (amniotic epithelial cells, or AECs) and converted them into mesenchymal cells.

Study finds axon regeneration after Schwann cell graft to injured spinal cord

Date: Jan-02-2014
A study carried out at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine for "The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis" has found that transplanting self-donated Schwann cells (SCs, the principal ensheathing cells of the nervous system) that are elongated so as to bridge scar tissue in the injured spinal cord, aids hind limb functional recovery in rats modeled with spinal cord injury.The study will be published in a future issue of Cell Transplantation but is currently freely available on-line as an unedited early e-pub here.