Medical News

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Gynecologic Oncology, Journal for the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists, Reports Findings That Additional Test Has Limited Clinical Benefits

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A variant of the apolipoprotein E (apoE) gene known as apoe-4 has been shown to be a significant risk factor for Alzheimer's Disease in several ethnic and racial groups, including Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics and Japanese. Leading a collaborative effort of hundreds of scientists around the world, researchers at Boston University School of Medicine report their conclusion in the Oct. 22 issue of JAMA. The paper, which studied the impact of the apoE gene on age and sex as well as race and ethnicity in approximately 6,000 Alzheimer's Disease patients and 8,600 non-demented controls, helps clarify the importance this gene plays in causing Alzheimer's.

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Four independent research studies involving a combined total of more than 22,000 women debunk the misconception that labor epidural analgesia increases a woman's risk of having a cesarean section delivery (c-section).

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The combination of all-natural ingredients in the nutritional supplement LipoGuardô was found to reduce total cholesterol levels by 11 percent, according to results of a clinical study published in this month's issue of the Journal of the National Medical Association.

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New research could offer help for the thousands of sufferers with sickle cell anemia. Nitric oxide (NO), a gas that has been used successfully to treat certain lung ailments, may have another application--the "unsickling" of sickled cells.

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Experts at the University of Illinois at Chicago have pioneered a new procedure to repair the skulls of persons who have undergone brain surgery or have suffered serious head trauma, including gunshot wounds.

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Alvin J. Glasky, Ph.D., president and CEO of NeoTherapeutics, Inc., will present research findings on AIT-082, a potential new therapy for the treatment of memory impairments associated with Alzheimer's disease, stroke and spinal cord injuries, at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in New Orleans, LA.

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Vaccinations may ultimately take their place beside leeches in medical history if promising methods of inserting DNA into animal tissues works out.

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Emergency Diagnostic and Treatment Units (EDTUs) may offer an alternative to inpatient hospitalization for adults suffering from a reversible disease such as acute asthma. The study, funded by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR), shows that most EDTU patients had clinical outcomes equivalent to the inpatients, overall lower costs, greater patient satisfaction and an improved quality of life.

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Osteoporosis -- the loss of bone calcium -- is a problem most women face after menopause. But recent studies by LSU researchers show that swimming may be a key to keeping bones strong.

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The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) announces the first set of topics it has assigned to its 12 Evidence-based Practice Centers (EPCs). The findings will be published as evidence reports or technology assessments, which will form the basis of other organizations' guidelines, quality improvement projects, and purchasing decisions.

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Americans are increasingly recognizing the value of therapeutic massage, according to a national survey being released today in conjunction with the first-ever National Massage Therapy Awareness Week, Oct. 19-25, sponsored by the American Massage Therapy Association.

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The largest study ever to examine the prevalence of thyroid disease found that 11.7 percent of the study participants had abnormal thyroid function, yet only one percent of the total population were receiving treatment.

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Doctors can face an ethical dilemma when patients request screening tests - such as those for breast cancer and prostate cancer - that may be ill-advised under certain circumstances. Four authors explore that predicament in the article "Ethical Considerations in the Provision of Controversial Screening Tests," in the current issue of the Archives of Family Medicine.

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A tell-tale genetic defect that has been identified in the thyroid cancers of children exposed to radiation from the Chernobyl disaster may lead to a better understanding of the precise role of radiation in the type and incidence of the disease in the United States, according to researchers at the American Thyroid Association (ATA) meeting.

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The University of Michigan's Comprehensive Cancer Center is launching a statewide network of interactive computer kiosks to link residents with up-to-date health information. The $1 million project, was funded by proceeds from the state tobacco tax. The highly interactive system is the first health-related project of its kind in the nation.

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A mechanism that regulates protein activity, previously undescribed for advanced cells, has been reported by Dr. Toshinori Hoshi, University of Iowa assistant professor of physiology and biophysics.

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Maggots wriggling in an open wound; leeches crawling about your body; blood oozing from a punctured vein. The stuff of nightmares? In reality, it could be the cure for what ails ya'. A new book by a Michigan State University professor looks with loving detail at many ancient folk remedies and old wives' tales that were discarded by medical practitioners of the past but are now making comebacks in medical clinics today.

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A questionnaire answered by students at a Baltimore County high school shows that nearly 10 percent of them have received psychological help to deal with difficulties related to exposure to violence in one or more of the three major areas of their lives: the media, their home and/or community, and school.

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Five thousand of the worldís premier pharmaceutical researchers are gathering in Boston, Nov. 2-6, to discuss the latest scientific research and medical advances of 1997. A small sampling of the breakthroughs, presented for the first time at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting, are listed below.

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Five thousand researchers gathering in Boston, Massachusetts for the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), Nov. 2-6, 1997 will present contributed papers responding to societies most chronic medical issues. From cancer to diabetes to asthma, the following top-lines the presented research. Complete abstracts are available by calling Lisa Mozloom or Nicolle Ugarriza at 305-672-4422.

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IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Among neurological disorders, autism is the new kid on the block, and no one really knows what causes it. For nearly 30 years scientists believed that autism was a disorder of the mind, caused by poor parenting or perhaps early psychological trauma. But by the 1970s, it became clear that biological rather than psychological factors cause the brain abnormality. Today, psychiatrists still don't know exactly what that abnormality is or where and how it develops. Those are questions Dr. Joseph Piven, University of Iowa associate professor of psychiatry, and his colleagues tackle daily. Recently, they found neuroanatomical differences between the brains of autistic and healthy young adults.

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IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Every mom knows that after giving birth, sleep is a precious commodity; fatigue and emotional fluctuations are part of the experience. Everyone knows it, but according to Michael O'Hara, University of Iowa professor of psychology, no one has documented the effect of post-birth sleep patterns on thought processes and mood.

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This supplement to the Annals of Internal Medicine deals with articles generated from the Sixth Regenstrief Conference, "Measuring Quality, Outcomes, and Cost of Care Using Large Databases," held September 4-6, 1996.

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1) Oral cavity measurements, together with body mass and neck measurements, provide a rapid, accurate method to predicting sleep apnea syndrome. 2) No increased stroke risk is found in women taking oral contraceptives. 3) A paper examining the appropriate roles of cardiovascular specialist and generalist.

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Six women who each have faced the death of a child and made the decision to donate their organs for transplantation have formed the countryπs first organization of mothers to provide counseling and support to other families confronted with similar tragic circumstances. Called Mothers of Donors ã or MOD Squad, as they refer to themselves ã was conceived and coordinated by the Albany Medical Collegeπs Center for Donation and Transplant. It is the only program of its kind in the country.

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High doses of acetaminophen, especially when mixed with alcohol, caused liver injury in some patients, researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center at Callas report in the Oct. 16 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

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The National Institute on Drug Abuse has funded a three-year, $780,000 study of marijuana use designed to answer fundamental questions about the drug, including whether it leads to the use of "harder" drugs, long-term effects, and whether users become dependent. UC Santa Cruz will coordinate the three-nation comparative study.

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NEW HAVEN, Conn., Oct. 15, 1997--A genetically engineered strain of the bacteria Salmonella potentially may target cancerous tumors, amplify within tumors and inhibit tumor growth, according to new research reported by Yale University School of Medicine scientists and colleagues.

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A course to help physicians tell parents that their child has died will be presented by University of Illinois at Chicago emergency medicine physician Dr. William Ahrens at the annual Scientific Assembly of the American College of Emergency Physicians in San Francisco Oct. 17.

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Estrogen therapy, which has halved coronary artery disease symptoms in postmenopausal women, may hold similar health benefits for men in the same age group, Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered.

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Cooling the body for heart surgery causes an overproduction of the neurotransmitter glutamate, an excitatory amino acid, and can leave the nervous system vulnerable to damage from the start of the cooling process until up to eight hours after recovery, a Johns Hopkins animal study suggests. This contradicts previous theories that brain damage occurred only during the initial recovery period.

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Emory University surgeons split a donated cadaveric liver into two portions, providing and adult and child with part of the same organ.

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Simultaneously giving AIDS patients the antiviral ganciclovir via pill as well as in a tiny pellet implanted in the eye delays or prevents complications of CMV, reports Dan Martin, MD, of Emory Unviversity.

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The standard X-ray exam has changed very little over the past several decades. However, digital technology currently being studied at the Cleveland Clinic could revolutionize general radiographic X-ray procedures -- making them more convenient for both the patient and the doctor, producing sharper images, eliminating storage concerns, and allowing the images to be transmitted hundreds of miles away within seconds.

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Even people who have had a stroke don't always know the signs, symptoms and risk factors relating to their "brain attack", according to a study in today's Stroke, a journal of the American Heart Association.

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If your blood levels of "good" cholesterol are low and you already have heart disease, you may be at increased risk of having a stroke, according to a report published today in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.

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For the first time, researchers say they have proof that people who have suffered a stroke have a better chance of long-term survival if they are treated in a hospital "stroke unit."

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Improved techniques in hair restoration surgery have dramatically improved aesthetic results, and an increased number of patients are satisfied with the procedure, according to results from a survey to be presented at the annual meeting of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) in Barcelona, Spain, October 15-19.

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New developments combining cutting-edge technology with familiar laser techniques increases effectiveness in hair restoration surgery. The carbon dioxide laser in combination with a computerized pattern generator offers a more effective method of creating recipient sites for hair grafts, according to research to be presented at the annual meeting of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) in Barcelona, Spain, October 15-19.

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People of Asian descent, black people, and females may require different surgical techniques for hair restoration than the typical standards used for Caucasian males, according to a clinical study to be presented at the annual meeting of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) in Barcelona, Spain, October 15-19. Hair restoration specialists use a variety of transplant techniques to "harvest" groups of individual hair follicles from a denser area, usually the fringe above the ears and around the back of the head, and graft those into a thinning area, most commonly the crown and front of the scalp.

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One of the misconceptions that patients often encounter in considering graft techniques for hair restoration surgery is that "more is better." If patients know the number of hairs to be transplanted, rather than the number of grafts, they will get a more accurate description of the hair restoration procedure and have more realistic expectations, according to a presentation scheduled for the annual meeting of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) in Barcelona, Spain, October 15-19.

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Psoriasis is a noncontagious, incurable skin disorder that affects more than 6.4 million people in the United States. The National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) has proclaimed October National Psoriasis Awareness Month in order to educate the public about the serious physical and emotional impact of the disease, and encourage people with psoriasis to become fully informed about their treatment options.

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Dr. James F. Toole of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center has been elected president of the World Federation of Neurology for a four-year term, defeating four other candidates.

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Scientists at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center report today that they have found another way to shut down the doorway for HIV-1 to invade two types of white blood cells -- lymphocytes and macrophages. In a report in the Oct 14 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Si.-Yi Chen, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of cancer biology, and his colleagues describe how they have inactivated the most frequently used co-receptor -- docking site -- for HIV-1 viruses on the surface of both macrophages and lymphocytes, resulting in immunity of those macrophages and lymphocytes to HIV-1 infection.

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A workshop on U.S.-Mexican border policy, featuring some of the region's top experts on drug control and immigration control, will be held Oct. 17 from 1:30-5:30 p.m. at the University of California, San Diego.

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The FDA has cleared a device invented at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons that may reduce the incidence of pneumonia in thousands of elderly Americans and stroke patients who develop swallowing disorders. The device, called the Air Pulse Sensory Stimulator, measures sensory loss, or numbness, in the throat and voice box. Numbness in this region can increase the risk of food and secretions inadvertently going into the lungs and causing pneumonia.

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The American College of Emergency Physicians today released a major new practice guideline for managing elderly patients who experience falls, the cause of death for 12 percent of those older than age 65.

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Long-term use of vitamin C supplements may substantially reduce the development of age-related eye disease. A new study published in the October American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that women who had consumed a vitamin C supplement for more than 10 years had a 77 percent lower incidence of early lens opacity (cloudiness on the lens) and an 83 percent lower rate of moderate lens opacity. Lens opacity is an early stage in the development of cataracts.

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In a step toward providing chronic pain relief, researchers at the University of Minnesota and the Minneapolis Veterans Administration Medical Center have identified a group of nerves that are instrumental in causing hypersensitive pain responses. Working with rats, the researchers showed that destroying a certain type of spinal nerve left the animal resistant to a treatment that usually causes hypersensitivity to heat and touch.