News briefs from the journal Chest, August 2007
...Patients suffering from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and diastolic heart failure may find relief in the form of diuretics, according to a new study. Italian researchers treated 15 patients hospitalized with severe OSA, hypertension, and diastolic heart failure, with intravenous diuretics. Patients were treated twice daily for 3 days, and polysomnography was used to assess apnea severity befo...Annals of Internal Medicine tip sheet for Aug. 7, 2007, issue
... ... Authors say an earlier study, which found the drug associated with increased risk for myocardial infarction and cardiovascular death, had several flaws. The authors re-analyzed the data from the earlier trial, using a variety of modeli...Highlights from the August 2007 Journal of the American Dietetic Association
... ... Adding a lifestyle intervention led by a registered dietitian to the typical care provided to obese people with type 2 diabetes does not increase overall health-care costs and may result in cost savings, ac...Chemical in brain acts like a fuel gauge
... ... ... Their study, highlighted by the journal on its news page, identifies a chemical that sends a low blood sugar message to a part of the brain that can do so...UCL scientists gauge pain in premature babies
Scientists at UCL (University College London) have measured responses to pain in the brains of premature babies and have shown that they are likely to experience 'true' pain rather than simply displaying reflex reactions. ...... The paper, published today in The Journal of Neuroscience, illustrates that routine care procedures for premature babies, such as heel-lancing for blood tests, can cause...HIV risks reduced when mothers teach daughters about disease
Low-income African American teen girls in Chicago continue to be at high risk for contracting HIV, but the risk decreases when their mothers teach them about the dangers of the disease, according to a new study at the University of Illinois at Chicago. ...... "African American adolescents are more likely to delay early initiation of sexual activities if monitored by their mothers," said Barbara D...Assessment model based on medical history gauges lung cancer risk
... The prediction tool detailed in the May 2 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute is the first designed to assign a score assessing a person's risk for the disease. It is also the first to use standard clinical and epidemiological data easily gathered by healthcare professionals, inc...Teens can perform CPR as well as adults and should be taught from an early age
... ... The Heartstart Schools training programme, developed by the British Heart Foundation, introduces chest compression at age 11,...Inaugural award honors collaborative team science
PHILADELPHIA Highlighting the collaborative nature of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the inaugural AACR Team Science Award will be presented to a team comprised of researchers from the University of Michigan and Harvard Medical School/ Brigham and Womens Hospital at the 2007 AACR Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. The award recognizes an outstanding interdisciplinary research...Medical students should be taught about rape
Medical students should be given training on how to examine and deal with victims of rape, says an Editorial in this weeks edition of The Lancet....The Editorial says: "Last week, a report from the UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) highlighted the serious problem of drug-facilitated sexual assault. The ACMD was particularly concerned about the increased use of -butyrolactone and...World-renowned chemist honored with inaugural lectureship
... Regarded as one of the world's leading chemists, Danishefsky specializes in the synthesis of complex, biol...New journal on the study of the liver to augment medical program
... The quarterly journal will publish original research articles, covering both clinical aspects and basic research, as well as reviews, selected article summaries, case reports and video submissions...Seven-point system gauges seriousness of heart failure in elderly
... The points system may steer doctors toward considering more aggressive treatments such as implantable defibrillators and pacemakers for those at low risk of death. However, elderly patients with a high risk may want to avoid stressful and unnecessary medical intervention and may benefit m...Read my lips: Not all fillers are safe for lip augmentation, rejuvenation
... "Numerous injectable fillers have entered the market over the last five years giving patients a number of options for fuller, younger lips," said Miles Graivier, MD,...Web tool helps gauge risk of having genetic mutation linked to colon cancer
... The investigators, who report their results in the Sept. 27 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, developed the questionnaire based on findings from a five-year study of clinical and genetic data from nearly 2,000 patients. They determined that personal and family medi...Annals of Internal Medicine tip sheet for Aug. 15, 2006, issue
Annals of Internal Medicine is published by the American College of Physicians. These highlights are not intended to substitute for articles as sources of information. ...... ... ... NOTE TO EDITORS: A sepa...JCI table of contents: August 10, 2006
... ... Neurofibromatosis type I is a common genetic disorder in which tumors grow along certain types of nerves and can also affect other tissues such as bone, heart, and skin. The condition is caused by a mutation in the gene coding for Neurofibromin (NF1), a GTPase-activating protein (GAP) that triggers the abnormal activation of the protein Ras, and clinical trials are currently underway u...Multiple Sclerosis in genetically susceptible twins is augmented by the northern environment
... By following more than 700 pairs of twins diagnosed with MS, researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California found that people born in the north tended to come to physicians for diagnosis slightly earlier than those born farther south, and that the tendency for identical twins to both be diagnosed was greater in those born in the nort...Newsbriefs from the journal Chest, August 2006
...A new study shows that patients facing end-of-life (EOL) care do not have adequate knowledge about cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and that a large population show little interest in discussing EOL preferences. Canadian researchers administered face-to-face questionnaires to 440 hospitalized patients with end-stage cancer or advanced medical diseases. One hundred and sixty family members...Tip sheet Annals of Internal Medicine, August 1, 2006
... ... In the United States, kidneys for transplant operations come from people who are declared brain-dead in the hospital ("heart-beating donors") or from living donors. But in Spain, eligible kidney donors include "non-heart-beating donors," who are people who die of cardiac arrest in the community after...Assessment model gauges lung cancer risk based on medical history and genetics
Washington D.C. - Physicians have little to help them predict development of lung cancer in their patients - even a history of heavy smoking doesn't really help, since only a small fraction of lifetime smokers develops the cancer....... Now, however, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center are developing a risk assessment model that they hope will result in early detec...Daughters of Indian immigrants continue trend of giving birth to small babies
STANFORD, Calif. - U.S.-born Asian-Indian women are more likely than their Mexican-American peers to deliver low birth weight infants, despite having fewer risk factors, say researchers at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and Stanford's School of Medicine. The finding confirms previous research that showed a similar pattern in more recent immigrants, and suggests that physicians should consider...Parents need to be educated about HPV vaccinations for daughters
London, UK: Parents of young girls may soon be offered the opportunity to have their daughters immunised against a sexually transmitted virus that is the major cause of cervical cancer, the 4th International Conference on Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Medicine heard today (Thursday 30 March)....... Professor Henry Kitchener told the conference, organised by the Teenage Cancer Trust charity, that...Mayo Clinic to host Inaugural National Symposium on Health Care Reform in May
Journalists are welcome to attend, either as full participants in the three-day symposium or to cover it as a news event. For more information, and to register for the symposium, go to: with questions relating to regist...Mayo Clinic to host inaugural National Symposium on Health Care Reform in May
The Mayo Clinic National Symposium on Health Care Reform will bring together leaders from all sides of the issue May 21--23 as the first step of a nationwide, long-term project to help shape the future of health care. National experts in health care, public policy, business and patient advocacy will gather in Rochester, Minn., to identify innovative and tangible solutions to the complex issues of...Pathogens are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, causing problems for therapy. Doctors need to have antibiotics available that work in new kinds of ways. The last few years of research have, however, found few such ways. One major difficulty for developers of antibiotics is choosing the proper point of attack against bacteria. There are hundreds of possible points of attack, accordin...The science of tickling (ourselves) is no laughing matter, Queen's psychologist says
Anticipating our own touch for example in tickling oneself reduces its impact, says Queen's psychologist Dr. Randy Flanagan, a member of the university's Centre for Neuroscience Studies. This is evidence of an important human adaptation that helps us interact with objects in our environment.... ...An expert in eye/hand movement, Dr. Flanagan is part of an international team exploring sensory a...Teen daughters of parents with HIV have higher childbearing rate
Adolescent daughters of parents with HIV in New York City have a high childbearing rate compared to those in the general U.S. population, a new study finds.... ...According to a 2002 New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene report, teen pregnancy in the city was 10 percent for females age 15. In the current study of daughters of parents with HIV, the pregnancy rate ranged from 38 per...New studies gauge knowledge, attitudes and preferences of patients with irritable bowel syndrome
HONOLULU, October 31, 2005 -- Significant misconceptions about the causes of their condition and mistaken beliefs about its potential progression into other diseases, including cancer, marks the knowledge of a sample of patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) in two recent studies by researchers at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire. Presented at the 70th Annual Scientific...Examining how medicine is taught
INDIANAPOLIS Rigorous course work, state of the art laboratories, relevant textbooks and demanding clinical rotations produce technically competent physicians. But surveys say that in addition to highly qualified care givers, we want doctors who are compassionate and know how to communicate well when caring for us and our loved ones, yet the environment in which medical students become physicia...Sports doping explored during half-day symposium, Aug. 30
WASHINGTON, Aug. 30 Nearly every major sport has been plagued by scandals involving the use of banned substances by athletes. In the wake of this growing problem, a group of researchers at the American Chemical Societys 230th national meeting in Washington, D.C., will discuss scientific and regulatory aspects surrounding the controversial topic of sports doping during a special half-day symposi...Tungsten in the environment: National symposium, Aug. 29
HOBOKEN, N.J. -- A team of researchers from the Center for Environmental Systems (CES) at Stevens Institute of Technology, Drs. Christos Christodoulatos, Washington Braida, Agamemnon Koutsospyros and Dimitris Dermatas, are organizing a symposium on "Tungsten: occurrence, environmental fate, potential ecological and health effects." The event is co-sponsored by the Geochemistry Division and Envir...Annals of Internal Medicine, tip sheet, August 2, 2005
New Study: GERD Linked to Obesity ... ...A new analysis of existing studies of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) finds that the risk for GERD symptoms, erosive esophagitis and esophageal cancer increases 1.5- to 2.0-fold with overweight or obesity compared with normal weight (Article, p. 199). Researchers say that the link with obesity implies that losing excess weight may be important in t...July/August 2005 Annals of Family Medicine tip sheet
...Prehypertension is associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease, according to a study from researchers with the Medical University of South Carolina. These findings support the latest recommendations from the Joint National Commission on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC 7), which added prehypertension as a new risk category. The exper...Protecting Europe from epidemics: official inauguration of ECDC on 27 May
The EU's new health agency, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), will be inaugurated at a ceremony at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm on Friday 27 May.... ...Markos Kyprianou, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Mrs Zsuzsanna Jakab the Director of the ECDC and Morgan Johansson, the Swedish Public Health Minister will be among the speakers at the...SAN DIEGO-More than half of people with asthma report that their symptoms are brought on by laughter, according to a study to be presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference on May 24....... The study of 235 patients with asthma found that 56% had laughter-induced asthma (LIA). Asthma that is triggered by laughter doesn't seem to cause more asthma flare-ups requiring emerge...MIAMI BEACH A new drug may help people with multiple sclerosis (MS) who have a condition that leaves them unable to control their emotions, according to research that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 57th Annual Meeting in Miami Beach, Fla., April 9 16, 2005....... Called pseudobulbar affect, the condition results in episodes of uncontrollable laughing or crying that may b...