American Thoracic Society Journal news tips for April 2005 (second issue)
...ily is complicated by the fact that family members report significant financial and health burdens as a result of their loved one's critical illness, as well as a major load of anxiety and depression. The missed opportunities to communicate fell into three categories: opportunities to listen and respond to ...MR spectroscopy may be superior for determining prostate cancer prognosis
...better than standard pathological studies do. The report appears in the April 15 issue of Cancer Research. "Our study indicates that analyzing prostate tissue's metabolic profile may give clinicians additional information about the biologic status of the disease that could allow them, in consultation with...Mesotherapy not proven as a safe alternative to liposuction
...SPS Device & Technique Assessment (DATA) Committee report published in the April 15 issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (PRS), the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), patients should be wary of mesotherapy until the safety and effectiveness of the procedure a...Gene expression pattern predicts multiple drug resistance, treatment failure in pediatric leukemia
...aining 80 percent of children with this disease. A report on the study that produced this new information appears in the April issue of Cancer Cell. Drug resistance is a major cause of treatment failure, and the biochemical mechanisms responsible for de novo resistance are largely unknown. De novo resistan...Long term outcomes for children who undergo ear tube placement surgery
...iversity Hospital, Kuopio, Finland, and colleagues report on the results of follow-up checkups 14 years following surgery for 237 children who had tubes inserted to treat ear infections at the age of five to16 months. The children had also participated in an earlier follow-up visit five years following the ...Anthrax treatments' cost effectiveness shown in Stanford study
...ated, the mortality rate approaches 100 percent. A report from the World Health Organization estimated that the aircraft release of anthrax over a city of 5 million people (just over half the size of New York) would result in 250,000 deaths. Owens and his colleagues evaluated the cost-effectiveness of diffe...Patients' lives at risk from substandard drugs say heart specialists
...study appeared reliable and were backed by another report from an independent academic institution using rigorous analysis methods. She detailed 10 steps [5] to be considered to reinforce and improve surveillance. "It's essential that we acknowledge the problem of counterfeit and substandard drugs and recog...Institute of Medicine news: Human resource crisis in HIV/AIDS
...ribbean, and Southeast Asian countries, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Aca... is one of the world's greatest health crises, the report emphasizes. Nearly 40 million people are infected with HIV, and 95 percent of them live in resource...Obesity hits below the belt: Overweight Americans suffer higher rate of knee cartilage tears
...re likely to tear the cartilage, the U researchers report in the May edition of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. All the extra weight Americans are lugging around accounts for up to 450,000 out of 850,000 operations for meniscus tears annually, the researchers conclude. At an average of $3,000 p...Alcohol-impaired driving on the increase, study shows
...ported binge drinking were 13 times more likely to report driving while alcohol impaired. Most binge drinkers reported that they often consume far more than five drinks per binge. "The increase in alcohol-impaired driving episodes," the authors conclude, "is probably due, at least in part, to the substanti...Number and quality of kidney transplants much greater if national matching program adopted
...., a surgeon at Johns Hopkins and lead author of a report published in the April 20, 2005, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "Even if only 7 percent of patients awaiting kidney transplantation participated in an optimized national KPD program, the health care system could save as m...News tips from the Journal of Neuroscience
...ependently cause mild impairment. Blair et al. now report that the amygdala fear circuitry can be exclusively one-sided, depending on the site of the US....Researchers develop 'genetic blueprint' to predict response to esophageal cancer treatments
...e University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report that six different gene variants can predict an improved outcome in patients treated with two different chemotherapy drugs and/or with radiation therapy. For example, the researchers say that a combination of several gene variants in patients treated...Child health teacher numbers at worrying levels
...linical lecturer numbers have been falling. The report says: 'There remains serious concern about the future of academic paediatrics in the UK. It is inevitable that with the reduction in number of lecturers and senior lecturers, and the marked increase in students, teaching quality will deteriorate.' U...Trusts perform better on chemical incidents but protective suits and tents still imperfect
...its and they were left uncovered in the open. The report concludes: 'Although the training package and dogma seem to have been delivered effectively to hospitals, the current suit and inflatable shelter pose a number of considerable ergonomic and functional difficulties.'...Monoclonal antibody cures West Nile virus-infected mice
...from the disease." Diamond and his colleagues will report their results in the May issue of Nature Medicine. In 2004, West Nile virus reportedly caused 2,470 infections and 88 deaths in the United States. The mosquito-borne virus, first isolated in Africa in 1937, spread to the Middle East, Europe, and Asi...Breast cancer detector that uses electricity instead of X-rays under study
...ill determine whether the device, which produces a report rather than a breast image, is accurate enough for...eive HEDA results but will receive their mammogram report per usual, says Helen Fain, a nurse and study sub-investigator and coordinator....Reducing malarial transmission in Africa
...the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine report the results of a randomized, controlled trial of 497 children in Uganda treated with one of two leading combination therapies. One regimen was an artemisinin-based combination consisting of artemether and lumefantrine (co-artemether, trade names CoAr...Exercise slows development of Alzheimer's-like brain changes in mice, new study finds
...mouse model." These findings follow another recent report of a link between an enriched environment and Alzheimer's-like brain changes. That study, published Orly Lazarov, Ph.D., and colleagues in the March 11, 2005, issue of the journal Cell, found that beta-amyloid levels decreased in the brains of anothe...Report reveals need to improve physical health of people with schizophrenia
...source centres across the city. Dr Moira Connolly, report author and Consultant Psychiatrist, NHS Greater Glasgow, said: "It's important that sufferers get the right type of support from medical and social services. The potential for improving the overall health of this group of people is only starting to ...