Electrical implant steadies balance disorder in animals
... Though human testing of the so-called multichannel vestibular prosthesis remains a few years away, the scientists say such a device, which is partially implanted in the inner ear, could aid the 30,000 Americans the experts own estimates show are coping with profound loss of inner ear balance. These people often suffer from unsteadiness, disequilibrium or wobbly vision. Problems with vesti...Air ambulance research identifies best intubation method
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. Research has identified the most effective way to insert breathing tubes in air ambulance patients on the way to the hospital. The finding, that a combination of sedative and paralytic drugs increased the chance of success by almost fourfold, may also apply to other types of pre-hospital care....... "Having solid evidence for what method is most effective allows us to offer t...Rosiglitazone -- Seeking a balanced approach to avoid panic among patients
... The Editorial discusses the sudden anxiety caused by the publication in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) of a systematic review of trials using rosiglitazone. The NEJM analysis suggests that the risk of a heart attack increases by 43% for patients taking rosiglitazone compared to control groups, and...Howe School lecture -- Changing the Management of Drug Safety and Pharmacovigilance, May 3
HOBOKEN, N.J. -- The Howe School Alliance for Technology Management at Stevens Institute of Technology will host the lecture, "Enabling Technology: Changing the Management of Drug Safety and Pharmacovigilance," on Thursday, May 3. The event is part of the Evening Lecture series and will feature speaker: Michael Breggar, DPM, director, Life Sciences and Health Care, Deloitte Consulting, LLP.......Nancy Brinker and Lance Armstrong honored with Centennial Medals at the AACR 2007 Annual Meeting
... Nancy Brinker, is the founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, formerly the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. She is being recognized for her significant and sustained effort in the fight against breast cancer. Now celebrating the organization's 25th year, Ambassado...Follow-up endoscopic surveillance in colorectal cancer patients improves survival
... "The results o...Rotavirus vaccine papers win the Lancet's Paper of the Year 2006
... In a Comment to announce the winners, James Butcher, Executive Editor at The Lancet, states: "The editors were impressed by the efficacies of these two vaccines, which one day are likely to stand alongside smallpox, measles, and poliomyelitis vaccines in their global public health benefit. Rotavirus vacci...Bulimia may result from hormonal imbalance
... Bulimia nervosa, compulsive overeating, is probably the most common form of eating disorder, and it is approximately ten times more common in women than in men. The condition is normally considered to have psychological causes, and it is for t...Balance training better than tai chi at improving mobility among older adults
... Now, a study from researchers at the University of Michigan Health System and the Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System suggests that a program focusing on increasing step length and speed is more effective at improving mobility and balance than tai chi. While t...Targeted cancer drugs may work by disrupting balance of cellular signals
Targeted cancer therapy drugs like Gleevec (imatinib) and Tarceva (erlotinib), which destroy tumors by interfering with specific proteins or protein pathways, may disrupt the balance between critical cellular signals in a way that leads to cell death. In the November issue of Cancer Cell, researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center present evidence for their theory, which...Most US adults in favor of more balanced approach to sex education in schools
... Young adults age 15 to 24 account for one-fourth of all sexually active individuals, according to background information in the article. However, they acquire about half...Dopamine imbalances cause sleep disorders in animal models of Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia
... ... The same processes likely occur in humans, according to the researchers. They said the findings give insight into the sle...Lancet's coverage of the World Health Organization Director-General election
... ... The Lancet comments: "The Lancet will be closely following the campaign as it develops. This week, we publish short profiles of each of the candidates, summarising their...MRSA surveillance, rapid screening, and hospital hygiene key to preventing future transmission
... S. aureus meticillin resistance was first reported in the early 1960s, but widespread resistance has only become a major public-health problem in recent decades. Hajo Grundmann (Projectleader of the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System) and colleagues outline the history and microbiological and genetic characteristics of MRSA; for example, the bacterium readily acquires res...The Lancet calls for transparency in the selection of a new executive director for the global fund
... Initial plans for recruiting candidates for the Fund's next Executive Director had promised a fair and transparent process, free of the usual political wrangling that dogs UN appointments. Instead, however, the Global Fund Board's aversion to political campaigning has "resulted in a perverse secrecy pervading the...The Lancet calls on research community to address neglected disease that causes heart failure
... Chagas' disease, prevalent in Latin America, is caused by infection with the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. An estimated 18 million people are chronically infected with the parasite and about 100 million are at risk of infection in 21 countries in Latin America. The parasite is transmitted to humans by blood sucking insects that live usually in cracks in the walls of m...AIDS debate launches Lancet podcast
... Moderated by Dr Richard Horton, Editor of The Lancet, the debate posed the question: Is scaling up the response to the HIV epidemic doing more good than harm?... ...Mark Dybul (Global AIDS co-ordinator for the Presidents Emergency Programme for HIV/AIDS Relief; PEPFAR) ...David Wilson (The World Bank) ... ...David Barr (Director of the Collaborative Fund for HIV Treatment Preparedne...The Lancet goes red to support fight against AIDS
... ...Heat therapy for cancer may be key to 'Lance Armstrong Effect'
Experts at Johns Hopkins have linked scientific evidence spanning more than 30 years to suggest an explanation for why testicular cancer patients like seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong survive far better than patients with other advanced cancers. Their commentary in the July 26 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association reveals how a simple factor - heat sensitivity...Scientists describe face transplant technique in the Lancet
... ... ... ... On November 27, 2005 Bernard Devauchelle (Centre Hospitalier Universitarie Amiens, Amiens, France) and colleagues transplanted the central and lower face of a brain-dead woman onto a 38-year-old woman whose nose, upper and lower...Lancet and Mexican government to hold meeting on health-system reform
... ... Mexico, like all Latin and Central American nations, eastern Europe, central Asia, China, India, other parts of the sou...Study shows surveillance could cut number of blood stream infections
A study from Imperial College London and Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust shows how a surveillance programme designed to monitor blood stream infections in dialysis units could cut the number of infections among patients....... The study, in the British Medical Journal, shows how the implementation of the surveillance scheme for patients undergoing haemodialysis significantly reduced the numbers o...Falls at home among elderly cost ambulance service 145 each time
Falls among the elderly cost one ambulance service an average of 145 on every occasion, and add up to two days of crew time a month, reveals a study in Emergency Medicine Journal....... Significant numbers of calls come from residential care and sheltered accommodation, suggesting that these facilities are relying on ambulance services inappropriately, suggest the authors....... The researchers m...UCSD researchers link novel mutated gene to meal retardation and imbalance
The research team, directed by Joseph Gleeson, M.D., Director of the Neurogenetics Laboratory at the UCSD School of Medicine and associate professor in the Department of Neurosciences, have identified a new gene that, when mutated, leads to JSRD. Their findings will be published on-line May 7 in advance of publication in the journal Nature Genetics....... JSRD is a group of neurodevelopmental sy...Launch of the Lancet Asia Medical Forum
Day 1 - Wednesday, 3 May 2006 ...8:30 a.m. � 6:00 p.m. (Singapore time)...... ...9:00 a.m. � 5:00 p.m. (Singapore time)...... ...Some 500 scientists, public-health experts, and policy makers will be convening at the inaugural Lancet Asia Medical Forum on pandemic influenza in Singapore tomorrow. ...... Close to 300 international organisations from 52 countries will be represented at the 2-day eve...The Lancet Neonatal Series at one year of age has anything changed?
One year after The Lancet published its Neonatal Survival Series, Joy Lawn (Saving Newborn Lives Initiative, Cape Town, South Africa) and colleagues conclude that more urgency is needed if Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4 for child survival to be reached by 2015. ...... Since last year's call for action, there have been positive changes in policy and funding. More efforts have been made to inc...Representation from 41 countries confirmed for the Lancet Asia Medical Forum on Pandemic Influenza
Representatives from 41 countries and 148 international organisations are set to convene in Singapore for the inaugural Lancet Asia Medical Forum--Preparing for pandemic influenza: the avian dimension and other emerging threats (May 3-4, 2006). 400 delegates are expected to attend in total....... 22 world-renowned speakers are confirmed for the forum including:... ... ... Professor Albert Osterha...The Lancet calls for independent scrutiny of the TGN1412 trial
Commercial confidentiality should not obstruct independent scrutiny of the drug trial that led to six men becoming seriously ill in Northwick Park Hospital in London, UK, states an editorial in this week's issue of The Lancet. ...... On March 13 six volunteers received TeGenero's TGN1412 drug and two a placebo in a phase 1, first-in-man trial, run by Parexel--a contract research organisation. Wit...Experts call for balance in addressing under treated pain and drug abuse
A balance must be struck between physicians' responsibility to treat chronic pain and the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) duty to combat drug abuse, according to a series of seven commentaries by national thoughtleaders published today in the February issue of Pain Medicine....... The commentaries explore the current state of the use of pain medicine from a variety of perspectives, with a...The world health organization launches new stop TB strategy in the Lancet
Details of the World Health Organization's (WHO) new global strategy to tackle tuberculosis (TB) are published as part of a special TB Essay Focus in this week's issue of The Lancet. ...... There are around 8.8 million new cases of TB per year. DOTS (directly-observed treatment short-courses)--the current WHO recommended TB control strategy--has contributed to the successful treatment of nearly 2...Racial disparities in access to medicines increase after implementation of prescription surveillance
BOSTON--Health policies designed to curb inappropriate medication prescribing can have the unintended effect of increasing racial disparities in access to appropriate care, reports a study by the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention (of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care). The research, led by Dennis Ross-Degnan, ScD, associate professor in the Department of Ambulatory...ECG transmission from ambulance cuts time to direct clot removal
DURHAM, N.C. When emergency medical technicians (EMTs) wirelessly transmit eletrocardiograms (ECG) directly to a cardiologist's hand-held device, heart attack patients can potentially receive direct clot removal in half the usual time, according to cardiologists at Duke University Medical Center and NorthEast Medical Center, Concord, N.C....... Cutting this "door-to-reperfusion" time is critical...Medical/dental insurance databases and drug safety surveillance
Recent failures of the Drug Safety Surveillance system in the United States and abroad, as evidenced by market withdrawals of commonly used medications, call attention to the many limitations to the monitoring of long-term drug safety. Although drug safety evaluation is primarily performed during clinical development, clinical trials are not efficient in identifying rare adverse effects. Similarl...Breast screening information should be more balanced
The information sent to women about breast screening needs to be more balanced to ensure women are adequately informed about the benefits and harms, say researchers in this week's BMJ....... Invitations to screening mammography play a central part in the process of obtaining informed consent, but conflict of interest exists for publicly funded screening, since organisers want a high uptake. Resea...Two papers win the Lancet's Paper of The Year 2005
Two papers on the characterization of the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic virus have won The Lancet's Paper of the Year 2005....... One of the papers--"Characterization of the 1918 influenza virus polymerase genes" published in Nature--details the final three genes of the 1918 human influenza virus, which is thought to have killed up to 50 million people. While authors of the other winning paper...MSG-2 will advance long-term monitoring of Earth's energy balance
This week's launch of MSG-2 will ensure that satellite images continue to be available to European weather forecasters well into the next decade. It also marks a new chapter in a long-term space experiment measuring the available energy that drives the weather as a whole, and helping to establish how much the Earth is heating up.... ...MSG-2's main instrument is the Spinning Enhanced Visible and...Scythe balances life and death during development
A protein called Scythe determines which cells live and which die during the growth and development of the mammalian embryo, according to investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. ... ...The St. Jude study is the first to show that Scythe plays a critical role during development of mammals by selectively regulating when and where specific cells either proliferate or undergo apoptos...Progress conference on child survival as called for in 2003 Lancet series to take place next week
An editorial in this week's issue highlights an upcoming conference on child survival that was called for in the 2003 Lancet Bellagio child survival series. As a result of the Bellagio initiative, progress towards improving child survival will be tracked in a series of 2-yearly rolling meetings, the first of which takes place at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on Dec 1314. The...The Lancet highlights the global burden of foot disease and amputation in diabetic patients
...Every 30 seconds a lower limb is amputated somewhere in the world as a consequence of diabetes, states a review in this week's issue of The Lancet. Most of the content of this week's issue is devoted to diabetic foot disease, coinciding with World Diabetes Day today (Friday November 14, 2005), which is this year focusing on foot complications.... ...The world is facing an epidemic of type 2 d...Lancet study: Pfizer's Vfend equals two-drug candidemia regimen, with fewer serious side effects
New York, November 4, 2005 Using Vfend (voriconazole) for the treatment of nonneutropenic patients with candidemia, an often-fatal hospital-acquired bloodstream infection, is as effective as a regimen of two older antifungals and carries fewer serious side effects than that regimen. This is based on a study published in The Lancet in October.... ...The study highlights Vfend, Pfizer's antifungal...