Serum sodium level is a major predictor of a poor prognosis for heart failure patients
.... Serum sodium levels are easily measured through routine blood tests. "Even a minor decrease in a person's serum sodium level levels that are now dismissed by physicians had a major impact on mortality of heart failure patients," says Mihai Gheorghiade, MD, associate chief, Division of Cardiology, Northw...Telemedicine revolution is 'disappearing' from the NHS
...ystems have largely failed to become integrated in routine healthcare delivery." The study shows that patients and other users are rarely consulted in any meaningful way about development and implementation, and it is often assumed that the needs of NHS service providers and of patients are the same. Profess...Sunflower seed oil can protect low birth weight babies from infection
...outh Asia are massaged with mustard oil as part of routine practice. The challenge now is to discourage use of mustard oil, which can delay recovery of the skin barrier and have a toxic effect on the skin, and persuade people to use alternative proven, available and low-cost products such as sunflower seed o...'Artery clearing' system does not provide benefit for patients undergoing PCI
...distal microcirculatory protection in AMI, and its routine use in patients undergoing mechanical reperfusion therapy cannot be recommended. Multiple explanations may be proposed as to why distal microcirculatory protection failed to enhance myocardial reperfusion success, reduce infarct size, or improve clin...LA BioMed medical/research briefs March 2005
...mal results. "We believe our results show that the routine clinical use of high-resolution, dedicated breast cameras can be a powerful diagnostic tool for early breast cancer identification," Dr. Khalkhali said. The breast imaging camera used in the study is provided by Gamma Medica, Inc. of Northridge, Cali...New imaging technologies can enhance orthopaedic outcomes
...nvasive diagnostic tools that replace the need for routine arthroscopic inspection. "New imaging technology may serve as objective outcome measures for orthopedic conditions, both at initial diagnosis as well as following pharmaceutical or surgical intervention," said Hollis G. Potter, MD, Chief of Magnetic...Diagnosis of prions in patients should utilize novel strategy, team says
...samples, while IHC detected them in 22 percent and routine tissue examination in 17 percent. "In about 80 per...ns were not consistently detected by either IHC or routine histology that measure vacuolation. In contrast, the CDI was always positive in all regions of the b...Assessing obstructive sleep apnea syndrome in snorers
...sessed the predictive power of medical history and routine physical examination as performed by an ENT specia...me to an ENT clinic complaining of snoring using a routine examination, consisting of a medical history and an assessment of the anatomy of four points in thei...Use of cell phone images appears feasible for visualizing leg wounds
... telemedicine for chronic wounds is feasible under routine conditions using this new generation of mobile tel...ficiently replace the face-to-face consultation in routine conditions."...USC dental researchers develop first test for predicting cavities in children
...implications in areas where families cannot afford routine dental exams. "This is going to help people who are not dental professionals," said Mahvash Navazesh, associate professor in the USC School of Dentistry and co-inventor of the CARE test with USC research scientist Patricia Denny. School nurses could...Suicidal behaviour caused by antidepressants 'cannot be ruled out'
... patients closely. They should also discourage the routine prescribing of antidepressant drugs in children and adolescents. "The debate is not yet done, but these papers crystallise arguments that have been drifting in the ether these past months," says Kamran Abbasi, BMJ Acting Editor. "How many people who ...Single-donor islet transplantation procedure shows promise for patients with type 1 diabetes
...let transplantation from clinical investigation to routine clinical care." "While these findings may suggest a distinct advance in islet transplantation, further study in a larger population with longer follow-up will be critical to assess the risk-benefit ratio of this emerging therapeutic option," the rese...Wine keeps women's hearts beating healthily
...heart tracing (ECG) was taken over 24 hours during routine activities in all the participants, to test heart rate variability or HRV. HRV measures the changes in time intervals between the beats of the heart. Decreased variability has been associated with an increased risk of heart disease and death. HRV was...High levels of airborne mouse allergen in inner-city homes could trigger asthma attacks
...hese children for mouse allergy needs to become as routine as testing for allergies to cockroach or dust mites, and clinicians need to be ready to recommend aggressive extermination of mice or other ways parents can control the home environment." Asthma affects approximately 15 million people in the United S...Routine HIV screening should be expanded, study finds
...VA) Palo Alto Health Care System to recommend that routine voluntary screening for HIV, the virus that causes...sease Control and Prevention's guidelines are that routine screenings are effective in settings where there is a one percent or above prevalence of disease, ou...Early HIV screening prolongs life and is affordable, Stanford study shows
...o conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis of doing routine HIV screening. "We're convinced based on what we'v... initiative recommended making voluntary testing a routine part of medical care, yet Owens said screening is still not widespread. (Money is an issue, he said,...Stroke patients receive better care when hospitals 'get with the guidelines'
...m said. "We would consider many of these measures routine and expect them to be performed in all patients. These data provide evidence that system change improves hospital-based compliance with these acute treatment and secondary prevention strategies." LaBresh added: "The ability of our hospitals to sig...NHS Trusts meeting government target on stroke units 'in name only'
...a specialist interest in stroke or rehabilitation; routine involvement of carers in the rehabilitation process; regular programmes of education and training; and information provided to patients and carers. But fewer than half (46%) the units claimed to have all five key features; and 28% had three or fewer....New way to diagnose sciatica may point to a different cause
...despite the fact that nerves cannot be viewed with routine imaging tests. Consequently, over one million patients each year undergo magnetic resonance imaging scans (MRI) for sciatica and many are told there is no obvious cause for their pain. Now, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the University......his study is a major step forward in identifying a routine diagnostic tool for Alzheimer's disease, and it validates our hypothesis that there are many biomarkers for disease that go under the radar of conventional diagnostic tools. The extraordinary sensitivity of the bar code assay has a chance to change t...