News briefs from the journal Chest, August 2007
... 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 d...1 of 2 pediatric kidney disease research centers in world established
...for 80 percent of the patients with chronic kidney failure on dialysis. These two conditions account for medical costs of more than $19 billion per year in the U.S. alone. This information could lead to diagnostic tests to identify individuals more susceptible to the development of hypertension and diabetic...Stem cell transplantation procedure results in long-term survival for amyloidosis patients
...t misfold and deposit in tissues, leading to organ failure and death. Between 1,200 and 3,200 new cases are reported each year in the United States, although researchers believe the disease is highly underdiagnosed. The researchers reviewed the records of 80 patients who received high-dose chemotherapy an...Rutgers professor Bart Krekelberg is named 1 of 20 US Pew Scholars for 2007
...n and global neural networks, says Krekelberg. The failure to integrate the two, he says, reminds one of the 10 blindfolded wise men trying to identify an elephant by touching its different parts. As a grant program that encourages researchers to take calculated risks, the Pew funding will allow Krekelberg...Novel candidate biomarker for heart failure also strongly predicts risk of death
A potential new biomarker for heart failure may be more powerful than established measures in ...ein called ST2 both indicate the presence of heart failure among patient with shortness of breath and powerfully predict the risk that a patient will die durin...W.M. Keck Foundation announces 2007 class of Distinguished Young Scholars in medical research
...in the underlying causes of certain types of heart failure and cardiomyopathy. Jennifer Zallen, Ph.D., Developmental Biology Program, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Dr. Zallens work on the nature of three-dimensional Rosetta cell structures combines molecular genetics, live imaging, and quantitat...New algorithm matches any tumor cells to best possible anti-cancer treatments
...effectiveness using COXEN should greatly lower the failure rate of clinical trials testing new compounds. Likewise, as the drug discovery times are decreased in research laboratories, the cost of drugs also will come down. Basically it brings the chemists making the drugs much closer to the clinic, saving ti......h around 22 million people at risk of sudden heart failure at any one time around the world. Lives can often be saved if acute care and cardiac surgery are carried out within the so-called golden hour. And, survival rates are on the increase as treatments improve. However, this means there are more and more ...Lower mortality rates associated with hospitals that rank highest on quality of care indicators
...cute myocardial infarction (AMI), congestive heart failure (CHF) and pneumonia, three common medical conditions. The findings appear in the July/August 2007 issue of the journal Health Affairs. These findings show that these quality indicators, which are widely available on the web, are very helpful in ide...First of its kind report on how children with brain tumors perform at school
...umor survivors who are at greatest risk for school failure and may need remedial help as early as possible, said study author Pivi Lhteenmki, MD, PhD, with Turku University Hospital in Turku, Finland. For the study, researchers compared the ninth grade report cards of 300 children with previous brain tumor...Intensive-care patients with alcohol problems are more likely to require mechanical ventilation
...testinal hemorrhage, asthma, COPD, and respiratory failure for the years 2002 to 2003. Medical patients who have an AUD are more likely to develop a critical illness resulting in the need for lifesaving mechanical ventilation, said de Wit. More specifically, of the 785,602 patients who were diagnosed w...Women's mortality rates for cardiovascular disease differ widely among hospitals
...ing and poorest-performing hospitals were in heart failure and interventional cardiology procedures. Compared...46 percent lower risk-adjusted mortality for heart failure and a 44 percent lower risk-adjusted mortality for interventional cardiology procedures. Overall,...Metabolic syndrome points to heart health
...tion. The results indicated that symptomatic heart failure and severe cardiac structural and functional abnormalities rise progressively with increasing degree of metabolic syndrome, regardless of symptoms. This association was independent of the 10-year predicted risk of coronary heart disease by Framingham...UK scientists set their sights on cure for AMD
...l on the normal functioning of these cells, and so failure of these cells leads to progressive loss of vision. In addition, the disease often provokes a scarring process at the back of the eye leading to the formation of new blood vessels within the retina which subsequently leak fluid resulting in exudative...Benefits of trastuzumab are lasting, reducing both HER2 + breast cancer deaths and recurrence
... 0.2 percent), including cases of congestive heart failure (22 versus 1). But the only cardiac death occurred in the chemotherapy group, she says. We have learned that cardiac toxicity that might result from trastuzumab can be managed in most cases, she says. Dr. Perez says that continuing follow-up is ne...Researchers call for investigation into links between khat use and psychiatric disorders
... study to examine khat as a cause of poverty and a failure of regeneration and economic prosperity. Whilst anecdotal evidence does point towards there being a consequence of mental illness via excessive use of khat, particularly where there is a pre-existing mental illness or vulnerability to psychologica...Bias in statin trials, failure to control malaria, and more
...Sie A, Y M, De Allegri M, Mller O (2007) The great failure of malaria control in Africa: A district perspective from Burkina Faso. PLoS Med 4(6): e127. IN YOUR ARTICLE, PLEASE LINK TO THIS URL, WHICH WILL PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE PUBLISHED PAPER: http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/"request=get-documen...New Orleans levee report finished by panel including University of Texas at Austin engineer
...nd disjointed oversight, and how this fed into the failure at 50 locations along the system during Hurricane Katrina;- how the hurricane protection system was under-designed to handle a major storm surge produced by hurricane winds that would reach New Orleans. No one had ever estimated the height of the sur...May/June Annals of Family Medicine tip sheet
...tance can be detrimental in leadership, leading to failure to perform or impotence.The Impotence of Being Important Reflections on LeadershipBy Ian Douglas Couper, B.A., M.B.B.Ch., MFamMed...Herceptin does not increase heart failure in patients long term
CHICAGO, June 3 Risk of congestive heart failure in women treated with trastuzumab (Herceptin) and ...model to help oncologists assess the risk of heart failure in individual breast cancer patients prior to treatment with Herceptin and chemotherapy. Their findi...