U.S. cancer mortality rates reflect changing socioeconomic patterns
...lowest area socioeconomic group. However, this gap narrowed in the 1970s, and began to reverse in the late 198...etween the highest and lowest socioeconomic groups narrowed during that time. The authors conclude that area socioeconomic characteristics could be used to mon...Gene expression profiles predict survival of lymphoma patients after chemotherpy
...ic between the two groups of patients, researchers narrowed the key genes down to 17. From these genes, the investigators created a formula that could be used to predict survival following chemotherapy. This predictor classified the patients into four groups of equal size. The five-year survival rates for ...Infant mortality rate drops, children more likely to have working parent, be read to
... Nevertheless, the gap in health status by income narrowed over the past few years. In 1984, just over 60 percent of low-income children were in very good or excellent health, but by 2000 this number had risen to 70 percent. The improvement for higher-income children was less dramatic, going from 83 to 85 ...Panel advises easing selection criteria to boost supply of donor hearts
...tion of vessels. It is common to find evidence of narrowed or blocked arteries beginning in middle age, Zaroff says. However, often hearts are rejected because no cardiologist is available to perform the angiography. "We know that perfectly good hearts in that age range are rejected because this examinatio...New device finds silent clots, may help prevent strokes
... risk of stroke," Russell says. In patients with narrowed carotid arteries, clots can arise at the site of narrowing and break free and travel through the blood stream to the brain, causing a stroke. MTCD detected 32 symptom-free clots in 17 of 45 (38 percent) patients with carotid narrowing. The device c...Long-term effects of tirofiban similar to abciximab in patients having coronary-artery angioplasty
... benefits for patients who undergo angioplasty for narrowed coronary arteries (the arteries that supply the he...an lead to complications during procedures to open narrowed arteries. Tirofiban and abciximab are two such drugs, but each blocks platelet clumping in a slightl...Pill-splitting can yield cost savings on common prescription drugs, Stanford researchers find
...tionally and within the specific health plan, they narrowed the list in stages. First they eliminated drugs that came prepackaged, weren't available in tablets or were available in only one dosage. They then eliminated medications in which pill-splitting yielded savings of less than 25 percent, based on the a...Gene therapy promising for preventing restenosis
... either inflating a tiny balloon to force open the narrowed vessel (angioplasty) or inserting a tiny mesh tube called a stent to serve as a scaffold to widen the opening can damage the delicate lining of blood vessels, says Seppo Yla-Herttuala, M.D., Ph.D., professor of molecular medicine at the University o...Radiologists interpretation of mammograms varies widely
...characteristics, the range of false-positive rates narrowed to 3.5% to 7.9%. Women who were younger, were premenopausal, were using hormone replacement therapy at the time of the mammogram, had a family history of breast cancer, or had had a previous biopsy were more likely to have a false-positive result. A...Stent or bypass surgery for coronary artery disease?
...s how patients given bypass surgery for blocked or narrowed coronary arteries are less likely to require further intervention than patients given stent-assisted balloon angioplasty. The study also reported an apparent survival benefit for patients given bypass surgery over those given angioplasty. Results of ...Angioplasty safer, need for emergency surgery afterward plunges
... the insertion of a balloon-tipped catheter into a narrowed artery then inflating the balloon to reopen the ve...ic patients who had angioplasty procedures to open narrowed heart arteries from 1992 2000. "We found a significant decline in the prevalence of emergency bypa...UCLA geneticists find location of major gene in ADHD; targeted region also linked to autism
...highlighting this region on chromosome 16, we have narrowed our search for a risk gene underlying ADHD to some 100 to 150 genes, said Susan Smalley, principal investigator of the study and co-director of the Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. Still, we must wait for in...University of Pittsburgh researchers link gene to depressive disorders in women
...of developing mood disorders than normal. "We have narrowed our search for a susceptibility locus for clinical depression to a small region of chromosome 2 that constitutes only 0.01% of the human genome," said lead author George S. Zubenko, M.D., Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh...Pre-term infants slower than full-terms at processing information
...es with no evidence found that the performance gap narrowed with age or that the pre-terms caught up. The results of the study are consistent with previous research by Rose and colleagues on pre-term/full-term differences in infant recognition memory with studies that show that pre-term infants need more time...Statin drugs may help patients with heart valve disease avoid surgery
...f the body. In aortic stenosis, this valve becomes narrowed and causes the heart to work harder. The only treatment for severe aortic stenosis is surgical replacement of the valve. A new understanding of the aortic stenosis disease process led to the statin study. "In the past few years there has been a tota...This is your heart on drugs: Study improves ER treatment for cocaine's heart effects
...to stick together, forming clots that can lodge in narrowed blood vessels. Both effects can cause a heart attack after the first dose of cocaine a person takes -- or their hundredth. And if the cocaine user also smokes, the two drugs can have an additive effect. Cocaine users can benefit from certain tests a...Cholesterol drug helps heart failure patients without high cholesterol
...experience the chest pain (angina) associated with narrowed coronary arteries. Instead, they often experience shortness of breath and fatigue. There are about 550,000 new cases of heart failure per year and about 15 percent of them are non ischemic, Liao says. Researchers studied 51 patients in Japan, wher...JCI table of contents, 1 August 2003
...d initiate the blood clotting process. However, in narrowed or hardened arteries platelets can block the flow of blood, resulting in stroke or heart attack. A recently identified drug designed to block platelet aggregation and thrombosis targets the receptor P2Y12. However, drugs designed to block P2Y12 are a...Jefferson scientists find anemia drug may help lessen effects of heart attack
...the blood. That may be dangerous for patients with narrowed arteries. However, according to Dr. Koch, his group's study in rabbits showed that EPO had a direct effect on the heart without increasing the red blood cell count and this benefit would counter any negative benefits. Dr. Koch had read some published...Anti-inflammatory drugs speed brain recovery in Stanford animal study
...atory cells were less likely to make neurons. She narrowed the list of offending molecular by-products to two candidates - called IL-6 and TNF-alpha - both of which are churned out by cells that cause inflammation. Monje repeated the experiment but added a substance that blocks the effects of IL-6. These ste...