HealthGrades identifies hospitals with highest-rated specialty practices
....com, where more than 2.5 million individuals each month search for ratings and quality information on hospitals, physicians and nursing homes....Morning grogginess more debilitating than sleep deprivation, according to CU-Boulder study
...rtia study, slept eight hours per night during the month leading up to the study, had no medical, psychiatric or sleep disorders and were free of medication including alcohol, nicotine, recreational drugs and caffeine. The subjects also spent several hours each day during their six-day, in-patient stay pr...Study shows inhaled medicine improves survival for lung transplant patients
...r a single or a double lung transplant. Within one month following their transplants, they were randomly assigned to take either the inhaled cyclosporine or an inhalable placebo along with traditional anti-rejection therapy. The patients took the inhaled drugs at home three times a week and were followed b...Patients now surviving once-fatal immune disease
...ese individuals had a mean age of 4 years (range 1 month to 53 years) when their diseases were diagnosed; and 27 of the patients had family histories of XLA. The study was based on results of a questionnaire filled out by each participant concerning current and past medical problems and quality of life. "...Patients prescribed long-term corticosteroids often do not receive therapy to prevent osteoporosis
... Each was taking glucocorticoids for at least one month before they were referred. The researchers obtained information about the participants' prescriptions during their clinic visits, by reviewing medical records and sometimes by telephone. Twenty-eight (80 percent) of the patients were not taking bisp...'Vioxx like' drugs may still be best option for arthritis, write scientists
...In a Nature Reviews of Drug Discovery article this month the researchers from Imperial College London and Queen Mary, University of London examine the use of selective inhibitors of cyclo-oxygenase-2 (COX-2). They argue that although this class of drugs, which includes Vioxx, has been associated with an i...Wine drinkers have healthier diets than beer drinkers
... of two large Danish supermarket chains over a six month period (September 2002 to February 2003). Customers were categorised as "wine only," "beer only," "mixed," or "non-alcohol" buyers. Details of items bought, the number and price of the items, and the total charge for each customer's transaction were...Epidural injection does not reduce long-term pain for people with shingles
...bupivacaine). The investigators found that up to 1 month after inclusion, the number of patients reporting pain was reduced in the epidural group. However, the effect of the epidural was strongest during the first week and did not last beyond one month. Dr van Wijck comments: "We conclude that one epidura...Complications in plastic surgery are unrelated to duration of anesthesia
...h, Yale School of Medicine researchers report this month in Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery. Several high profile patient deaths in office-based plastic surgery facilities have led state regulatory agencies and medical boards to develop policies regarding the procedures performed at these locations. So...Fitness counteracts cognitive decline from hormone-replacement therapy
...nology at Illinois. The study appeared online this month in advance of regular publication in the journal Neurobiology of Aging. By using magnetic resonance imaging and voxel-based morphometry (VBM), researchers documented the combined effects on specific areas of the brain based on fitness of short- and l...Japan's ALOS in orbit: ESA will deliver its data to European researchers
...ntly available from ESA. Following launch, a nine month commissioning phase will begin, with products set to be available to users from November 2006. ALOS data will be made available at conditions similar to those of ERS and Envisat missions, namely for scientific 'Category-1' use as well as commercial a...Study reveals Maori and Pacific islanders have increasing incidence of stroke
A study published this month in Stroke* investigating trends in stroke incidence in Auckland, New Zealand shows Maori and Pacific peoples are suffering more strokes than other ethnic groups. The data from two decades of research reveals that stroke attack and incidence rates hav...Alzheimer's drugs offer modest improvements, equal effectiveness
...years is not unusual, clinical trials of six or 12 month duration are of limited use," she noted. Longer trials could also provide more information on whether these drugs are cost-effective treatments. For the moment, there is only limited data on how these drugs affect the overall cost of care for Alzheim...Massage for childbirth prep may reduce episiotomy rate
Low-tech, at-home preparation in the last month before childbirth could help pregnant mothers avoid one of the more common surgeries performed on women in the United States, a new review suggests. The review looked at studies in which women used a massage technique in the last four or five weeks o...Headache, sleep problems connected in children
...ily headache -- headache present 15 or more days a month for three months or more -- and 100 children in the same age category with episodic headache -- headache that occurs with less frequency than chronic daily headache. In addition to sleep onset delay, sleep problems found in children studied included ...Yale findings hold promise for stopping progression of bipolar disorder
...s, Yale School of Medicine researchers report this month in Biological Psychiatry. The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to measure a part of the brain that regulates emotions, the ventral prefrontal cortex, that lies above the eyes. The changes in persons with bipolar disorder were not prominent...Preventive treatment helps avoid Hepatitis B relapse during chemotherapy
...g lamivudine. The chemotherapy was continued every month without any limit on the number of cycles until the tumors disappeared, while treatment with lamivudine began with the chemotherapy and continued for 12 months following its completion. In total, 43 percent of the patients in the control group devel...Text messaging speeds up treatment for Chlamydia infection
...ection and cuts down on staff time, suggests a six month study in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infectio...sages are sent in the UK every year. In the final month of the study, over a third of all test results were provided by text, but no personal identifying in...Asthmatic children in multi-family housing hit by indoor nitrogen dioxide
...were asked the number of days during the preceding month that their child experienced respiratory symptoms. They were also questioned about medications the child took for both asthma attacks and disease maintenance. "Children using maintenance medications were more likely to have respiratory symptoms tha...Study shows minimally invasive lung surgery has low risk with same results as open surgery
...edures. Most patients will be tired and sore for a month or two but VATS tremendously shifts the recovery rate and reduces the pain compared to the standard operation. We have had two patients who played tennis five and six days after having lobectomies this way and two patients who played golf seven days ...