Placebo, antidepressant may lift depression via common mechanism
...ctivity in the posterior cingulate may be an early indicator of a brain's capacity to change and respond to treatment, says Mayberg. Medications that take a "bottom up" approach or non-drug, cognitive "top-down" interventions should work equally well. However, a need for progressively more aggressive treatme...Polycystic ovaries can lead to coronary artery calcification, says University of Pittsburgh
...said Dr. Talbott. Coronary calcium deposits are an indicator of early, subclinical cardiovascular disease. In the study, researchers used electron beam computed tomography (EBCT) to scan coronary arteries of 41 women with PCOS, and 43 controls. Their average age was 47. Scans showed an increased prevalence of...New patient survey puts a human face on overcoming depression
...n) of their depression symptoms said the strongest indicator that they were able to go on and live depression-free was the ability to re-engage in family life, followed by participation in hobbies and community service. The survey was conducted as part of the newGOAL! Go On And Live awareness campaign intende...University of Pittsburgh transplant researchers present findings at international meeting
...tly, we believe it yields data that is an accurate indicator of recovery," reported Don Severyn, M.S., senior biomedical engineer with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Artificial Heart Program. In a second study, Robert L. Kormos, M.D., professor of surgery and director of the Artificial Heart Pro...Annals of Internal Medicine, tip sheet, April 2, 2002
...art disease risk C-reactive protein (CRP) is an indicator of inflammation. Blood levels of CRP increase in ...panying editorial agrees that levels of CRP are an indicator of increased cardiovascular risk in people with no signs of heart disease (Editorial, p. 550). Howev...High pulse pressure associated with greater death risk in dialysis patients
...e the study shows that a high pulse pressure is an indicator for risk of death in dialysis patients, researchers don't know how to lower pulse pressures specifically. "Even if we did know how to lower pulse pressures, we wouldn't know if this would reduce death," Klassen said. "We need more research to unders...HIV protein stops cell division, leading to more virus and sicker patients
..., physicians may be able to use p24 staining as an indicator of how patients are faring. Current measures of clinical status, such as viral load and CD4 counts, sometimes dont give physicians enough information to tailor drug treatments for individual patients, Sherman said. Knowing how many cells are infected...Stroke news tips for Friday, Feb. 8, 2002
... stroke. Social support remained the leading risk indicator even when compared to high blood pressure, diabetes, education, gender, insurance, occupation, marital status and the presence of a primary care doctor. Researchers suggest future secondary stroke prevention programs may need to incorporate ways to ...Hormone can predict future congestive heart failure
... care for dyspnea (shortness of breath)is a strong indicator of whether a patient will experience congestive heart failure in the proceeding six months. (B-Type Natriuretic Peptide Predicts Future Cardiac Events in Patients Presenting to the Emergency Department with Dyspnea) In 325 patients who sought emergen...Air pollution may trigger asthma in young athletes
...likely to be serious athletes. "Team sports are an indicator of kids who do a lot of physical activity," he says. "Theyre breathing more ozone than a kid sitting in front of a TV inside the house." Athletes get a higher dose of pollutants to the lung, because they must breathe rapidly and deeply. In addition, ...Blood sugar control partially a function of beliefs
...as assessed by measuring blood levels of HbA1c, an indicator of blood sugar levels over the previous three months, at the studys beginning and at three-month intervals during the following year. The results reveal that young adults with high self-efficacy tend to have the best blood sugar control and the best ...Stanford researchers challenge value of widely used prostate cancer diagnostic methods
...PSA), a marker traditionally used by doctors as an indicator of prostate cancer risk, is clinically unreliable. "For any level of serum PSA - from 2 to 9 nanograms per milliliter - there is no way you can turn to a patient and say you've got prostate cancer," said Thomas Stamey, MD, professor of urology...Drug regimen adherence key in keeping babies virus-free, study suggests
...izumab offers her child against RSV is the biggest indicator of that compliance." The research appears in the current issue of the American Journal of Perinatology. Langkamp co-authored the study with Sally Hlavin, a nurse clinici...Blood pressure measures during exercise can indicate unhealthy hearts
...ods of stress. Increased pulse pressure is also an indicator of blood-vessel stiffening, which may be a marker of early heart disease. Recent epidemiological studies have shown that pulse pressure is the leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease in the elderly. "Most clinicians focus on the patient's bl......, the authors write. Procedure time is also a good indicator of the way an organization, rather than individuals, learns. And reducing procedure time is desirable for the patient's well being. To examine learning rates, the authors analyzed data on operative procedure times from a sample of 660 patients who un...NHLBI-VA study finds no increased survival from beta-blocker for moderate to advanced heart failure
... average left ventricular ejection fraction (a key indicator of how well the heart pumps) was 23 percent. The most common cause of participants' heart failure was coronary artery disease. BEST had been scheduled to end in June 2000, but was stopped in July 1999 at the recommendation of its Data and Safety Mon...Training for doctors improves screening for risk-taking in teens
...ain the patient perspective, which is an important indicator of the provider's screening and counseling practices." "These results show that multifaceted training, based on previous research about how to change behavior, improves risk-screening practices," Ozer said. The hypothesis of the larger ongoing study,...New method lets researchers study heart cell communication
...s for the cell to recover fluorescence would be an indicator of how well the cells are coupled," or connected to each other, Muller-Borer said. Coupling is important in heart muscle cells because the electrical signal that causes the heart to beat travels through them. If they become uncoupled, you're ...Bad habits, non-cholesterol risk factors in youth linked to fatty plaques
..., particularly among blacks. High blood sugar (an indicator of diabetes) was associated with more extensive fatty streaks in the coronary artery. The researchers also examined coronary arteries microscopically to determine how advanced the plaques were. Advanced plaques those likely to lead to arteri......ck and head. Carotid artery stenosis is itself an indicator of a higher risk of stroke. After adjusting for the other variables, the researchers found no association between carotid artery stenosis and sleep duration, daytime sleepiness and snoring. Thus, they conclude sleep pattern abnormalities are...