Adverse outcomes from blood clot therapy may be due to patient characteristics, not dosing errors
...er patients with an unstable early clinical course could be more likely to receive incorrect doses. Rajendra H. Mehta, M.D., M.S., of Duke Clinical Research Institute and Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C., and colleagues conducted a study to determine how much of the association between incorrec...Too much water may be as dangerous as too little during long-distance athletic events
...ce athletes who drink too much water during a race could put themselves at jeopardy for developing hyponatremia, a condition marked by a loss in the body's sodium content that can result in physical symptoms such as lethargy, disorientation, seizures and even respiratory distress. In a perspectives article...Tamoxifen can reduce breast pain in prostate cancer patients
...ment with anti-oestrogen drugs, such as tamoxifen, could also be effective. Giuseppe Di Lorenzo (University Federico II, School of Medicine, Naples, Italy) and colleagues undertook a randomised trial to compare the effectiveness of tamoxifen with that of electron-beam radiotherapy for the prevention and tr...Being too clean could be hazardous to your health and the environment
... containing triclosan mixes with chlorinated water could be absorbed through your skin or inhaled. Vikeslan...sota that the photochemical reactions of triclosan could be producing dioxins in the presence of sunlight. Dioxins do not degrade over time and they can accu...University of Chicago receives grant to study connections between religious beliefs and health
...oneliness. Religious belief, like social support, could have beneficial effects on people's health, scholars contend. Because the research is multi-disciplinary, including researchers in University of Chicago departments of Medicine, Psychology, Sociology, History, and Human Development, and the Divinity...Will cancer vaccine get to all women?
DEATHS from cervical cancer could jump fourfold to a million a year by 2050, mainly in developing countries. This could be prevented by soon-to-be-approved vaccines against the virus that causes most cases of cervical ca...Bugs in the gut could help doctors develop individualised healthcare
...th the biochemistry and immune system of the host, could play a key role in modulating how medicines can af...f microbes varies greatly between individuals this could have important implications for the development of personalised treatments, and for drug discovery. ...Prenatal sonography has no effect on the intellectual capacity of the developing child
...er, were small and other influences on the results could not be ruled out. To control for such (unquantified) factors, the scientists then conducted a smaller-scale analysis of brothers. This enabled them to confirm that there was nothing to suggest that the brother who had been exposed to in utero ultras...Smart plastics change shape with light
... to be reported in the April 14 issue of Nature , could have potential applications in a variety of fields... soon as you don't need them anymore? Again, light could do the job. "This is really a new family of materials that can change from one shape to another by h...Pathological gambling associated with brain impairments
...mily life. Better understanding of these processes could lead to the development of more effective strategies for treating pathological gamblers. The study, led by Dr. Maria Roca, investigated the decision-making processes and executive functions in pathological gamblers. "Executive functions encompass a v...Scientists identify protein that controls cancer cells
...d thyroid cancers, suggesting that a new treatment could apply to multiple cancers. Debinski and colleagues identified the protein while studying glioblastomas, the most common form of brain tumor. Glioblastomas are considered the least curable of all human cancers. Like other tumors, glioblastomas require...Northwestern Memorial researchers release study on smart-pump technology
...ciated with IV pumps, and also determine if errors could have been prevented with the smart pump technology alone," says Marla Husch, RPh, lead author of the study. "We found that by itself the smart pump technology has little potential of improving care and reducing harm but by integrating the smart pump...Scientists discover how Ebola virus infects cells
...ibility of a broad-spectrum antiviral therapy that could be effective against multiple hemorrhagic fever viruses." Senior author James M. Cunningham, M.D., of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and his colleagues discovered two cellular enzymes that the Ebola virus co-opts a...Stanford gut check shows diversity of intestinal ecosystem
...sive census of the microbes living inside a person could have implications for human forensics. Unlike people's genetic makeup, their endogenous microbial communities may indicate where they have been and what activities they have pursued in terms of travel, diet, antibiotic use and the like. Relman emphas...Independent voice rises to help consumers navigate health care
...y also reduce costs, morbidity and litigation that could occur if consumers' problems were not otherwise resolved." Interviewers surveyed 1,291 HCA users from 2000 to 2002. The surveys, done over the phone in English or Spanish, assessed consumer satisfaction, health insurance status, access and use of hea...Cleveland physician to receive Benjamin Spock Award
...tients soon realized that Dr. Esselstyn's approach could save their lives." Dr. Esselstyn served at the Cleveland Clinic for many years, as president of the Staff and a member of its Board of Governors, chairman of the Clinic's Breast Cancer Task Force, and head of the Section of Thyroid and Parathyroid S...Exercise variety - not intensity - appears to reduce some Alzheimer's disease risk
... why this association exists or what causes it. It could well be that maintaining a variety of activities keeps more parts of the brain active, or that this variety reflects better engagement in both physical and social activities. Confirmation of this association in future studies may provide an additiona...Can hospital data detect poor performing doctors?
...ly collected data from hospital episode statistics could be used to identify the gynaecologist Rodney Ledwa..." performance because valid reasons may exist that could credibly explain their results. For example, cancer specialists may have high values for several in...Cancer research could lead to improved detection methods
...velopment of cancer at the University of Liverpool could lead to earlier and improved detection methods for...arly in the development of pre-cancerous cells and could highlight those at risk of developing cancer at a much earlier stage than current screening processe......ect other healthy cells in the body. The discovery could also lead to a prophylactic treatment for heredita...ls don't need the PARP backup system to survive we could use PARP inhibitors as a prophylactic treatment to kill BRCA deficient cells before they grow out to...