American Thoracic Society Journal news tips for March 2005 (first issue)
...in infectious disease and epidemiology consider it likely that there will be a recurrent outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) or other newly emerging and serious transmissible respiratory pathogens, according to the published conclusions of a workshop on the highly infectious disease. Writi...Older women can benefit from chemotherapy to treat breast cancer
...n newer trials, because healthy older patients are likely to derive similar treatment benefits as younger patients."...Fewer false alarms when mammographers have greater experience screening healthy breasts
... identified cancer, they also were 50 percent less likely to falsely characterize a mammogram as abnormal. In addition, the study found dramatic variability in physician accuracy. For example, physicians on average detected 77 percent of cancers, but for individual physicians the detection rate ranged from ...Parents who quit smoking may influence their offspring to quit as young adults
...8 and 24 the unfortunate distinction of being more likely to smoke cigarettes than any other age group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What's more, low quitting rates among young-adult smokers underscore the need to find ways to help young adults quit, Bricker said. "Overall, t...Training could remove racial bias from police reactions
...arlier trials revealed that the officers were more likely mistakenly shoot at an unarmed Black suspect than an unarmed White suspect. But in the later trails the officers were similarly conservative in their decision to fire at Black and White suspects. "Exposure to the program, in which the race of the s...NYU'S Duster cautions against FDA approval of 'race-based' pharmaceutical
...he ages of 45 and 64 are two-and-a-half times more likely to die from heart failure than are Caucasians in the same age range. However, in the Science article, Duster responds that this age group accounts for only 6 percent of heart-failure mortality and that these statistical differences in heart failure...LRRK2 gene mutation causes Parkinson's disease in several families
...ears. In addition, the older the patient, the more likely he or she exhibited symptoms. "From a research point of view, this is the first time we could identify what appears to be typical Parkinson's disease cases before people develop symptoms," Farrer says. "We know if someone inherits the mutation they...Inpatient smoking cessation counseling is associated with early differences in mortality
...morbid conditions, those counseled were still less likely to die in the first year. Writing in the article, Thomas K. Houston, MD, MPH, explains, "The positive association of smoking cessation counseling with survival that we observed provides evidence for an association suggested, but not directly demonstr...Is caesarean section linked to postnatal depression?
...t there is no reason to believe that they are more likely to experience postnatal depression....History of broken bones overlooked when treating osteoporosis
...ly the wrist after age 20 are two to 10 times more likely to be at future risk of osteoporosis. Results of the study, which also involved McMaster University and the Centre for Evaluation of Medicines, appear in the February issue of Osteoporosis International. Bone density tests show how much calcium is i...Major review of subway systems suggests potential for significant health and safety hazards
... potential target." He thinks that subways make a likely target, because, as he states, "not only would large numbers of people be victimized by such an attack, but the urban community itself would be adversely affected." The urban infrastructure, including the subways, remains one of the top priorities o...Study examines harm reduction among injection drug users
...more than two years were two and a half times more likely to get there syringes from safe sources compared t... who acquired syringes from safe sources were more likely to dispose of them safely," said Susan Sherman, PhD, the study's lead author, who is an assistant pr...Elderly receiving inappropriate prescriptions from their doctor's office
...whether identifying these inappropriate drugs will likely lead to improved use of medications....Don't let your spouse become your caregiver
...at potentially harmful caregiver behavior was more likely in spouse caregiving situations. Clinical depression was also seen as a factor. "Depressed older spouses who occupy the caregiving role may be particularly appropriate targets for screening and intervention efforts," according to researchers. Caregiv...CK2 protein sustains colon cancer cells by sabotaging ability to commit suicide
...to map out a strategy for making cancer cells more likely to self-destruct." The findings of the current study support and expand those published by Houghton's laboratory last October in the journal Clinical Cancer Research. In that study, the team reported similar findings in rhabdomyosarcoma cells. In th...A safer route to school makes children more likely to walk and bike, study shows
...ojects on their route to school are three times as likely to walk or bike to school when the project is completed, compared to classmates who do not pass such projects. "The kind of infrastructure improvements we looked at in this study are the low-hanging fruit of transportation projects, and it's quite i...Protein that promotes survival of stem cells might be key to poor leukemia prognosis
.... "The more we understand these diseases, the more likely we'll be able to design improved treatments for them. This fits into the St. Jude mission of finding cures for catastrophic diseases of childhood, such as leukemia, in order to save lives." The importance of Mcl-1 lies in the differing roles it plays...UCLA study shows that people drink less alcohol as they age
...ing so safely as with increased age, they are more likely to have conditions that could be worsened by alcohol use (such as gastroesophageal reflux disease, depression or insomnia), and to be taking medications that may negatively interact with alcohol (such as most arthritis medications that may cause stom...Hormone therapy increases risk of urinary incontinence
...men receiving menopausal hormone therapy were more likely to report that UI limited their daily activities and bothered or disturbed them at 1 year. "In conclusion, these results from a large, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial, conducted in multiple centers with an ethnically diver...Contaminated needles not contributing to spread of HIV in Africa
...r study period, but these individuals were no more likely to acquire HIV than individuals who did not receive injections. Despite the increased number of injections involved with childbearing and pregnancy there was no link to increased risk of HIV infection. Dr Simon Gregson, from the Biomedical Research a...