American Thoracic Society Journal news tips for February 2005 (first issue)
...ic pulmonary artery pressure increased at altitude before treatment. It normalized in the sildenafil group, but remained elevated in the placebo subjects. Acute altitude induced hypoxemia leads to an adverse condition in which, at a minimum, overall well-being is compromised and patients suffer from a red...Neoadjuvant and adjuvant systemic therapy for breast cancer give equivalent survival, study finds
...ents had been treated with systemic therapy either before or after surgery and/or radiation therapy. There was no difference between neoadjuvant and adjuvant systemic therapy in terms of death, disease progression, or distant disease recurrence. However, neoadjuvant therapy was associated with a 22% increas...Two studies find evidence that sunlight may have beneficial influence on cancer
...homa risk," Smedby and colleagues write. "However, before this association can be considered causal we need further confirmatory data from other epidemiologic studies and, ideally, a better understanding of possible biologic mechanisms," including UV-induced systemic immune modulation and the photo-initiati...Sunlight reduces risk of lymph gland cancer
...t on lymphoma," she says. "More research is needed before we can give advice about the dangers and benefits of sunbathing in a wider perspective." Researchers will now continue with other studies to identify the possible biological mechanisms behind this relationship....Calcium and vitamin D most effective for treatment of Crohn's-related bone loss
...nts with Crohn's disease, an effect that has never before been studied in patients who were not menopausal or on corticosteroid therapy. "Calcium and vitamin D therapy alone provide benefit to Crohn's patients who suffer from osteoporosis and osteopenia," said Richard Fedorak, MD, study author. "We encou...Balancing care decisions for gravely ill patients
... said much more research and experience are needed before prognostication and resource allocation can be optimally improved in gravely ill ICU patients. "Providing health care is challenged by the need to balance increasingly expensive medical resources with the needs and desires of a growing and aging popu......myriad risk factors for breast implant infections, before discussing clinical features such as toxic shock syndrome and late infection occurring months--or even years--after implantation. Diagnostic and management strategies are proposed for such problems. In addition, they discuss the idea that capsular c...Diffusion-weighted MRI can diagnose 'mad cow'-related disease in humans before symptoms show
... cow" disease, very early in its progression--even before the onset of characteristic clinical findings, according to a new study by researchers from Showa University Northern Yokohama Hospital in Japan. For the study, researchers analyzed nine cases of CJD in which MRI of the brain was performed during ear...Feb. 1, 2005, Annals of Internal Medicine tip sheet
...ients with ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms die before reaching the hospital and having surgery. New evidence has shown that screening and surgery to repair large abdominal aortic aneurysms reduces the number of deaths from ruptured aneurysm in men. 2. Study Finds One COX-2 Inhibitor Increases Risk of...Nanoscale diagnostic sets sights on Alzheimer's
...mer's. If the BCA process can identify the markers before symptoms develop, doctors may be able to combat the illness in its nascent form when treatments may be most effective. In the first steps of the BCA process, unique microparticles latch onto the biomarker targets in this study, the ADDLs. The partic...New test is first step in early detection of Alzheimer's disease
...on when therapeutics may be most effective -- long before plaques and tangles develop in the brain and dementia sets in. A study by the Northwestern team shows that bio-bar-code amplification (BCA) technology, which was developed at the University, can detect in human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) miniscule a...Obesity and weight gain associated with poorer breast cancer survival
...ve 30). Researchers also computed change in weight before and after diagnosis and classified women as losing weight, maintaining weight, gaining a modest amount of weight, and gaining a substantial amount of weight. Although other studies have addressed the link between obesity and breast cancer survival, n...Drug treatment promising for halting Huntington's-related nerve death
... a protein called cytochrome c through a pore just before dying. From other studies, it was known the drugs nortriptyline and desipramine, which are antidepressants, and trifluoperazine, an antipsychotic, block the mitochondrial pore through which cytochrome c and other death signals are released. By trea...15 minutes training enough to save lives with an automated external defibrillator
....S. more than 1,200 people die from cardiac arrest before they reach hospital. In most cases, sudden cardiac arrest is due to ventricular fibrillation, a rapid, irregular twitching of the ventricles of the heart, which can be stopped by applying a defibrillator and delivering an electric shock within 1 minu......rly 20s, either sex is just as likely to live solo before setting up home as a couple, says the report. But between the ages of 25 and 44, men are more prone to going it alone. If a man's relationship breaks down, he is more likely to change to a lone existence, whereas women tend to live as one-parent hous...Wisconsin scientists grow critical nerve cells
...y be used in therapy, it will likely be many years before they can be tested in humans, Zhang says....Cooling lessens brain damage in sick newborn babies
...l as which babies are most suitable for treatment, before cooling becomes the standard of care for oxygen deprived babies"....Auditory screening for newborns can be successful, UT Southwestern researchers report
...also by rescreening those with a suspected problem before discharge and, if necessary, retesting infants at ...o not initially pass are rescreened by technicians before being discharged from the hospital. Parents of babies who still show signs of impairment are instruc...Study sheds light on cross-species infection for BSE
...rom a larger studies, but it will be several years before they are likely to emerge."...National Academies News: William H. Foege to receive Public Welfare Medal, Academy's highest honor
...S. Public Health Service Hospital in Staten Island before earning a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University in 1965. Foege is the author of more than 125 professional publications and has received numerous honorary degrees and awards -- among them the Mary Woodard Lasker Public Service Award,...