Loss of body mass linked to development of Alzheimer's disease
...sk of developing AD. "There are actually very few predictors of Alzheimer's disease," Bennett explains. "This study makes us think about the spectrum of clinical signs of AD beyond changes in memory and behavior and motor skills. Changes in BMI are easy to measure in a doctor's office without an expensive scan...Columbia study shows elderly with diabetes at increased risk for falling
...it and balance difficulties were the most potent predictors of falling in this population....Vaccine may protect babies from lethal infection
...on-smokers, Dr. Ferris says. A Pittsburgh study of predictors of infection showed that sexual activity, in terms of frequency and/or number of partners, was highly associated with vaginal infection. Also, women with an imbalance in the protective bacteria that typically colonize the vagina are at increased risk...New studies shed light on stroke prevention and management
...ett, and also to be published in Stroke*, examined predictors of depression after stroke. Depression in stroke victims has been an often neglected area of recovery from stroke, and with past studies focusing primarily on the physical outcomes of stroke, health systems have not been properly configured to deal w...Wheelchair technology & spinal cord injury
...because of pressure sores, and length of stay were predictors of function. Length of stay in the Netherlands is very long, compared with length of stay in the U.S., but the outcomes are not necessarily better. Functional outcome appears slightly better in persons with complete tetraplegia, but not in persons wi...Childhood predictors of smoking in adolescence
...d colleagues investigated these and other possible predictors of teenage cigarette smoking and found that salivary cotinine, a measure of uptake of environmental tobacco smoke, was a significant predictor. It is possible that efficient absorption in childhood of nicotine from second-hand tobacco smoke renders a...Insulin resistance associated with increased risk for congestive heart failure
...ertrophy, smoking, and serum cholesterol level) as predictors of subsequent incidence of CHF. One-hundred four men developed CHF during a median (middle value) follow-up of 8.9 years. "In this community-based sample of elderly men free of CHF and valvular disease at baseline, insulin resistance predicted CHF in...Predicting the outcome of drug-induced liver disease
.... "AST and bilirubin levels are the most important predictors of death or liver transplantation."...Creating a new questionnaire to assess alcohol problems among college students
...ahler. "The measure should be useful in comparing predictors of alcohol problems in college, measuring response to alcohol interventions, and tracking changes in alcohol problems throughout college. The relative ordering of the items is interesting as it may suggest that certain problems are likely to occur e...Some male breast cancer patients may have unnecessary radiotherapy
... and 10 years (women). "Statistically significant predictors for receiving radiotherapy after surgery included tumour size, the status of the margins around the tumour, whether chemotherapy was given and whether the nodes were affected," said Dr Macdonald. "But when we added the sex of the patient into the ana...The bigger the serving, the more young children will eat
...rnell University researchers. "We examined all the predictors we could of how much a child eats at a meal," said David Levitsky, professor of nutritional sciences and of psychology at Cornell. "We found that portion size is, by far, the most important factor in predicting how much a child will eat. These findin...Diabetes, hypertension and obesity negatively effect joint replacement outcomes
...on, diabetes and obesity are important independent predictors of increased complications for patients undergoing major joint replacement surgery," said the study's first author Nitin Jain, M.D., currently a post-doctoral fellow at Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He conducted the study as a r...New study has surprise findings on childhood depression
... Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology on predictors of depression in very young children. Professor Najman heads the Mater/University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy (MUSP), one of the world's major longitudinal health studies, jointly run by The University of Queensland and the Mater Hospital in Br...New kidney function test better than standard at predicting death and cardiovascular outcomes
...n, cystatin-C and the standard test creatinine, as predictors of death from all causes, death from cardiovascular causes, and incidence of heart attack and stroke among 4,637 elderly participants in the study. The 20 percent of the participants with the highest levels of cystatin-C had twice the risk of death ...American Thoracic Society Journal news tips for May 2005 (second issue)
...vel of 22 ppb or greater were the most significant predictors of failed inhaled corticosteroid reduction in children with apparently well-controlled asthma. The study appears in the second issue for May 2005 of the American Thoracic Society's peer-reviewed American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medic...Carbonated soft drinks and sleeping pills cause heartburn during sleep
...pitate gastroesophageal reflux. Other significant predictors of heartburn during sleep that were found include increased body mass index (BMI), various sleep abnormalities, hypertension, and asthma. "Heartburn during sleep is indicative of nighttime reflux, which has been shown to be associated with a more s...Molecular change occurring during brain tumor progression also evident in breast cancer
... newly formed tumor vessels and might be important predictors for patient outcome."...Long-term outcomes promising for patients with localized, low-grade prostate cancer
...od or biopsy samples available at diagnosis. These predictors will come not only from more detailed analysis of routine biopsy features, but from the application of new molecular technologies. Indeed, one thing that is safe to predict right now is that in 20 years, commentators discussing on the natural history...Drug-releasing stents showing higher complication rate than clinical trials indicated
...rs experienced nonfatal heart attack). Independent predictors of stent thrombosis included premature antiplatelet therapy discontinuation (thrombosis occurred in 29 percent of these patients), kidney failure, and diabetes (27 percent of the patients had diabetes)....Prevalence of concussion effects linked to 'pot of gold' lawsuits, researcher says
... from postconcussional syndrome. By contrast, some predictors of persistent postconcussional syndrome include female gender, pre-existing psychiatric illness -- and being involved in a lawsuit. Hall and colleagues examined 71 studies. "Many of the researchers found that the extent and duration of injuries in th...