MRI contrast agent can detect heart attack in the making
... 48 hours. In addition, the strength of the signal correlated with the presence of the macrophage cells in which cholesterol accumulated. The more cholesterol-filled cells in an area, the brighter the signal. Development of the technique may help physicians better assess the risk of heart attack or stroke for...Embargoed March/April Annals of Family Medicine tip sheet
...rs, and that real and standardized patient ratings correlated poorly. Ratings of Physician Communication by Real and Standardized Patients By Kevin Fiscella, M.D., M.P.H., et al. COMPARATIVE FEEDBACK PROMPTS MORE REFERRALS TO TOBACCO CESSATION QUIT LINE Comparative feedback reports a report showing a comp...MRI identifies 'hidden' fat that puts adolescents at risk for disease
...ments for assessing body fat distribution strongly correlated with clinical and DEXA measures," Dr. Siegel said. "The single-slice MRI, which takes just a few seconds, characterized body fat as well as the multi-slice exam." While all participants had similar fat distribution patterns with a predominance of f...Germany & Portugal come near bottom of new blood pressure based happiness league
...alth in each country, they show, is also inversely correlated with its rate of hypertension. The study ranks countries in this order: Sweden Denmark UK Netherlands Ireland France Luxembourg Spain Greece Italy Belgium Austria Finland Germany Portugal...Surgeons with video game skill appear to perform better in simulated surgery skills course
...ns and 21 surgical residents, video game skill was correlated with laparoscopic surgery skill as assessed during a simulated surgery skills course, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. James C. Rosser Jr., M.D., of Beth Israel Medical Center, N...Blood marker helps predict prognosis among those with abdominal infection
.... "Procalcitonin concentrations were most closely correlated with the development of septic multi-organ dysfunction syndrome, with peak levels occurring early after symptom onset or during the immediate post-operative course," the authors write. "No such correlation was observed for C-reactive protein." It ...MR angiography highly accurate in detecting blocked arteries
...er 1) and 218 (reader 2) segments of artery, which correlated significantly to the DSA and CT findings. In addition, MR angiography proved highly accurate (94 to 100 percent) for detecting blockages of over 50 percent, and image quality was rated sufficient to excellent for 97 percent of the arterial segments e...Study examines genetic factors associated with head and neck cancer
...tions (markers termed "hot spots") were positively correlated with node metastases and clinical stage. "Stroma-specific genetic alterations are associated with smoking-related head and neck SCC genesis," the authors write. "We hope that our genomic observations, which point to genomic regions that may harbor m...Inherited ischaemic stroke more common in women than men
... in patients and affected siblings was shown to be correlated with age at stroke in mothers but not in fathers. These findings show that the identification of a family history of stroke in a female first-degree relative is an important clinical indicator of an increased risk of stroke in women and the likely ag...New imaging compound might 'see' Alzheimer's earlier
... memory problems, results of PET scans using FDDNP correlated well with the volunteers' clinical diagnoses measured by performance on memory tests. "Today, an estimated 4.5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, and that number could triple by 2050 as the population ages. We urgently need techniques to se...Brains can recover from alcoholic damage but patients should stop drinking as soon as possible
...gnificantly. The increase of the nerve cell marker correlated with the patients performing better in a test of a... increased by about 10%. Brain volume regeneration correlated with the percentages increase in choline, indicating that volume regain is driven primarily by risin...Study explains how NSAIDs halt cancer growth
...rs, and enhanced levels of the gene have also been correlated with prolonged survival in patients with non-small...t upregulation of this single gene MDA-7/IL-24 -- correlated not only with cell death induction of numerous types of cancer but also among various diverse classe...Protein 'fingerprint' in spinal fluid could spot Alzheimer's disease
...udies have met with limited success, but most have correlated their findings with patient's clinical symptoms rather than working with the gold-standard of autopsy-proven Alzheimer's," notes Norman Relkin, M.D., associate professor of clinical neurology and neuroscience at Weill Cornell and director of the Memo...Hospital performance measures may not accurately reflect quality of care or predict patient outcomes
... to determine whether certain quality measures are correlated with and predictive of hospitals' risk-adjusted death rates. The researchers analyzed data from Hospital Compare, a website of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that reports results of hospital performance measures. This study includ...Hospital performance measures may not make much difference when it comes to mortality
...ed to determine whether these quality measures are correlated with and predictive of hospitals risk-adjusted death rates. The researchers analyzed data from Hospital Compare between January 1 and December 31, 2004, and compared hospital performance for heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia with hospital ri...Newsbriefs from the journal Chest, December 2006
...treatment. In addition, improvement in cough score correlated significantly with improvement in depression score. This study appears in the December issue of CHEST, the peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Chest Physicians, GENDER AND OBESITY KEY FACTORS IN HABITUAL SNORING A new study confirms...Blood pressure drugs could help halt pancreatic cancer spread, Jefferson researchers find
...in a number of cancers. High VEGF levels have been correlated with poor cancer prognosis and early recurrence. ACE is the enzyme that converts Ang I to Ang II. Dr. Arafat and her co-workers examined the protein of both invasive pancreatic cancer and normal pancreatic tissue, analyzing the expression of ACE and...Two-slice-touch rule reliable when diagnosing meniscal tears
...records of 174 patients who had knee MR exams then correlated the MR results with knee arthroscopy to determine accuracy when diagnosing menisci as: torn, possibly torn, or intact. This study was undertaken to confirm that using the two-slice-touch rule increased our positive predictive value for diagnosing a...Specific strategic plans ensure timely emergency care for heart attack patients
...s. The researchers identified strategies that were correlated with "door-to-balloon" time--the time from when a patient enters hospital doors to the time blood flow is restored to the heart by opening a blockage with angioplasty. The faster patients are treated, the better their likelihood of survival. The s...High-tech spectroscopy may be used to monitor neuropsychiatric symptoms
...asures memory, learning and cognitive function. We correlated the changes in metabolites in different age groups to behavior changes," he said. The mice in the lupus group had significantly poorer cognitive function at seven weeks, tracking the decline in the glutamate/glutamine ratio. Cognitive function "cont...