New studies show mixed results on epilepsy drugs and birth defects
...c acid during pregnancy had lower verbal IQ scores than children exposed to other epilepsy drugs or no epi...lamotrigine-exposed pregnancies reported over more than 11 years in the International Lamotrigine Pregnancy Registry. Among 414 pregnancies where the fetus ...Success of liver transplantation may be most influenced by three risk factors
...ding age (whether the donor of the liver was older than 60) and weight (donor weight of more than 220 lbs.); technical characteristics, including cold ischemia time (CIT, the length of time an organ...Simple intervention encourages sun protection behaviors
... deadly form, melanoma, is increasing more rapidly than that of any other type of cancer, according to bac...ed in the appearance-enhancing benefits of tanning than the possibility of developing skin cancer in the distant future. Heike I. M. Mahler, Ph.D., of the U...New technique shows promise for improved straightening of crooked nose
...against further trauma and provides more stability than previous techniques, according to the author. All 41 patients undergoing surgery with this technique, called extended spreader graft, had substantial improvement in the straightening of the middle third of the nose. One case showed improvement in th...New colorectal cancer screening recommendations for African Americans
...er screening in African Americans at age 45 rather than 50 years. Colonoscopy is the preferred method of s... diagnosed with colorectal cancer at a younger age than whites, and African Americans with colorectal cancer have decreased survival compared with whites. ...WISE study starts in Toulouse: 60 days of bed-rest for terrestrial female astronauts
...horizontal, so that their heads are slightly lower than their feet. This position results in physiological... arrived on 27 February, did so on 19 March. More than 1600 women responded to the ESA call for candidates, which closed in January. As planned, twelve wom...Use of inhaled corticosteroid led to fewer hospitalizations for young children with asthma
...ergency department (ED) visits or hospitalizations than children prescribed the medication as second or th...ca is a $9.6 billion healthcare business with more than 12,000 employees. AstraZeneca is listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (Global) as well as t...Scientist works on innovative treatments for brain tumors
.... If they are able to find agents that are smaller than IL 13, more opportunities to deliver treatment to ... cells will arise. "Maybe there is a better agent than IL 13 itself," said Debinski. "Nature is great, but not perfect. Sometimes, we can make it even bett...Rural America vulnerable to bioterrorism and natural disaster threats
.... 27 - 28, 2004. The session brought together more than 80 public health preparedness leaders from multipl...ith them unique challenges that are much different than their urban counterparts," said Frances. "Though many perceive rural areas to be just farmland, plai...Aloe vera: Natural, home remedy treats canker and cold sores
...a plant, which has been used to heal skin for more than 2,000 years, can also treat many oral health problems including canker sores, cold sores, herpes simplex viruses, lichen planus and gingivitis according to the January/February issue of General Dentistry, the Academy of General Dentistry's (AGD) clin...New generation contact lenses cut risk of severe eye infection
...five times more likely to develop severe keratitis than those wearing silicone hydrogel lenses. "Those who choose to sleep in lenses should be advised to wear silicone hydrogel lenses, which carry a five times decreased risk of severe keratitis for extended wear compared with hydrogel lenses," conclude th...... higher among the non-smoking toll booth operators than they were among the office workers. Levels of nitric oxide were an average of 30% higher. The levels of 1-OHPG were strongly linked to the levels of 8-OHdG. The higher the 1-OHPG, the higher was the 8-OHdG. And this held true even after adjusting for...Hospitals may now be more willing to partner up with former adversaries
... all acute care hospitals operating in 2001. More than ninety percent of the hospitals reported that QIOs had initiated specific interventions, most commonly providing educational materials, benchmark data, and hospital performance data. The majority of respondents, sixty percent, rated QIO intervention...TB Alliance announces new drug discovery program with GlaxoSmithKline
... need them most. Today's TB treatment reaches less than half of TB patients and is difficult to complete due to its complexity and length (four drugs for 6-9 months). Resistant strains have emerged and practically defy treatment with strains resistant to three of the four first-line drugs. TB is a leadin...Energy and sports drinks attack enamel
...kout could cause more irreversible damage to teeth than soft drinks. A study of the effects some of these...and sports drinks can do more harm to tooth enamel than soft drinks. "This study revealed that the enamel damage caused by non-cola and sports beverages was...Strengths and failings of U.S. health care 'system' are driven by embedded vested interests
...finest health care in the world, and yet with more than 16 percent of Americans uninsured, mostly children, many do not have access to or cannot afford this health care. The JHSB articles shed historical and contemporary light on some of the reasons behind this inequality and explore the function of the h...Alcohol relapse adversely affects 10-year liver transplant survival
...n reported in patients who have abstained for less than 6 months before undergoing transplantation. Although several previous studies analyzed the rate of alcohol relapse after liver transplantation and its influence on patient survival and transplant success, researchers had previously not studied patien...Boston University team finds link between high cholesterol and better cognitive performance
...#62; 240 mg/dL as measured in blood samples. Less than two percent of the participants were being treated with anti-cholesterol medication. Anti-cholesterol medications and diets as well as risk factors such as smoking and alcohol consumption were controlled for statistically. Cholesterol is important ...Donor age has no affect on long-term liver transplant survival
...rs it often has a more rapid and aggressive course than in patients who have not undergone liver transplantation. Survival rates of these patients appear to be worsening during the past few years, but recent studies have shown conflicting results about whether a donor's age can be associated with a poor o...Envisat enables first global check of regional methane emissions
... issue of Science Express, the results show larger than expected emissions across tropical land regions. T...therto unknown source." These results are of more than just academic interest, since methane is the second most important 'anthropogenic' or man-made green...