American Academy of Neurology sums up scientific highlights from 57th annual meeting
... the disease, but a 12-month trial in ALS patients did not show an effect. The current trial extended the earlier trial to 24 months, and examined five different doses of the drug. Results showed that patients taking the highest doses lived for up to 200 days longer than those receiving the lower doses. ...Access to mammography may worsen
... New Hampshire and Colorado) found that 44 percent did not have enough radiologists on staff to meet the demand for mammography services. Twenty percent of facilities reported a shortage of Mammography Quality Standards Act (MQSA) qualified technologists, and nearly half (46 percent) reported difficulty ...Substituting nurses for doctors results in high quality care, few savings
...review, found that adding nurses to doctors' teams did not reduce physician workload. Further research on physicians' workload and behavior is needed, Laurant says. Overall, the review findings suggest that appropriately trained nurses can produce the same high-quality primary care as doctors and achieve...Costs of medical institutional review boards' greater than previously estimated
...al centers, while spending more for IRBs in total, did benefit from an economy of scale, Sugarman said. At these institutions, each IRB review averaged $431 versus $644 for their low-volume counterparts. Intermediate-volume centers' cost per IRB review was $612....'Surprising' findings reported about iron overload
... investigator for the Birmingham Field Center that did the screening. James C. Barton, M.D., director of the Southern Iron Disorders Center and UAB clinical professor of medicine, is co-principal investigator. They exceeded the goal of screening 10,000 African-Americans and 10,000 whites for blood iron l...Herbal medicine may alter cell response to cancer therapeutic agents
...rugs, decreased the effectiveness of one drug, and did not alter the effects of radiation or a fourth drug. Why each agent responded differently needs to be studied further, she said, but enough is known about the herb's effects on cancer cells to caution patients about using and other over the counter a...OHSU study finds ginkgo beneficial for MS symptoms
...been shown to be of benefit in Alzheimer's, but we did not know if it would work for MS," Lovera said. "We wanted to see if there was any suggestion that it could help patients with MS that are having cognitive problems." Lovera said the study results demonstrate that ginkgo shouldn't be discounted for t...M. D. Anderson announces collaboration with India's largest yoga research institution
...rogram had lower levels of sleep disturbances than did the patients in the control group. Improving sleep quality in a cancer population may be particularly salient as sleep disturbances are common problems for patients with cancer. "From meditation to music therapy, the key to the success of mind-body i...New insights into HIV immunity suggest alternative approach to vaccines
...nd we vaccinated several kinds of animals. In none did we get any of the good antibodies. That frustrating result led me to ask if something was preventing these good antibodies from being made," Haynes said. "A light went on when I saw that the rare human monoclonal antibodies had physical characteristi...Risk of womb cancer varies according to the type of HRT used
... use of tibolone. By contrast, use of combined HRT did not increase the overall incidence of womb cancer. The researchers also found that among HRT users the risk of womb varied according to bodyweight when compared with women who had never used HRT. In women who were not overweight, a form of HRT, calle...No evidence that calcium and vitamin D prevent fractures
...eriod, fracture rates were lower than expected but did not significantly differ between the groups. There was no evidence that supplements reduced the risk of fractures or falling, or improved quality of life. Putting this study in the context of other trials suggests that calcium and vitamin D suppleme...Vascular structure and function improve with diet and exercise
...s not a weight reduction program." Blood pressure did not change significantly. Ultrasound measurements of the heart and blood vessels at rest were performed as well. Left ventricular diastolic filling (LVDF) measurements indicate the efficiency of the heart to relax. Left ventricular mass is a measu...Social connections: Could heartwarming be heart-saving?
...the study counted the number of relationships, but did not assess the quality of relationships. For exam...ionships supportive for the study participants, or did they often cause stress and conflict? Future studies on the quality of relationships will provide k...Watching metals melt, nanometer-scale views inside cells
...ce bent (refracted) in the opposite direction asit did for ordinary materials. Combining metamaterials withconventional materials might lead to new kinds of cell-phoneantennas which could provide better reception and coverage. Inaddition, a flat panel of metamaterial might enable the constructionof a "...Excess oxygen worsens lung inflammation in mice
...n three groups of mice. The first group of 15 mice did not receive any supplemental oxygen. While they sustained moderate lung damage, only two died. Another group of 15 mice with acute lung inflammation were treated with either 100 percent or 60 percent oxygen for 48 hours. These mice suffered very exte...HIV treatment not affected by hormonal birth control
...are CD4 cell count and viral load. The researchers did not find an association between hormonal contraceptive use and changes in CD4+ cell count or time to viral load suppression after initiation of HAART. There was also no relationship between those outcomes and the duration of hormonal contraception us...Simple questions may determine children's exposure to smoke
...arettes per day and smoking outside, these factors did not prove to be significant determinants of their child's exposure. Further research is needed to test and refine this tool in the practice setting."...3 questions may provide good clues to smoke exposure
...ay. We found that parental report of these factors did not impact on the child's actual exposure as measured by hair cotinine," said Groner, who is on the medical staff at Columbus Children's Hospital. "Our interpretation of this finding is that parents tell pediatricians what they perceive is the 'soci...Burden of cardiovascular disease will shift to the developing world
...proportion of people living in cities increased so did BMI and cholesterol, which may be due to changes in patterns of diet and physical activity with city life. Blood pressure levels were independent of the economic development. The authors conclude that changes in patterns of living and with econom...Attention full-time workers: Get off the computer and out to exercise in your free time!
...entary activities in their free time. The finding did not reach the level of statistical significance, perhaps because of the smaller number in that group, she said. "Full-time workers have less free time, so the more time spent in sedentary activity, the less time they have to exercise," Warren said. "...