A new procedure that stops the most common form of irregular heartbeat is expensive, but it may pay off in the long run for many patients, new research suggests. That means it's important for doctors to choose carefully who receives left atrial catheter ablation to treat atrial fibrillation.
Taking a page from the treatment book on alcohol abuse, researchers from the University of Washington have successfully tested a brief, low-cost intervention to deal with depression, the No. 1 mental health problem in the United States.
Three common asthma inhalers containing the drugs salmeterol or formoterol may be causing four out of five U.S. asthma-related deaths per year and should be taken off the market, researchers from Cornell and Stanford universities have concluded after a search of medical literature.
Patients undergoing difficult medical procedures may benefit from getting advance detailed information about how unpleasant they might feel, according to researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and colleagues.
Medicare beneficiaries with heart failure could benefit from new strategies to decide who qualifies for lifesaving implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs).
A Mayo Clinic study has shown that the onset of REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD) at a younger age appears to be connected to antidepressant use.
Mayo Clinic sleep medicine specialists have found that almost two-thirds of patients with REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) develop degenerative brain diseases by approximately 11 years after diagnosis of RBD.
Patients with complete heart block (disrupted electrical conduction in their hearts) currently receive pacemakers, but these devices often fail over time, particularly in infants and small children. Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have now taken preliminary steps toward engineering electrically conductive tissue for the heart that would substitute for a pacemaker.
Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have announced that a vaccine they developed a few years ago against one antigenic variant of the avian influenza virus H5N1 may protect humans against future variants of the virus.
Children who stutter often face greater challenges managing their behavior and emotions than other children, researchers have found, offering new insight into how to help these children in a more holistic way.
Researchers have identified a striking dysregulation in neuronal receptor activity in the postmortem brain tissue from patients with schizophrenia. Identifying a relationship between the two receptor groups suggests a mechanism for decreased function that has long been suspected in schizophrenia.
Children's Hospital Oakland Scientist First to Show Certain Pregnant Women at Risk for Iron Overload Study proves current recommendations for iron supplementation can cause birth complications.
Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland will conduct a series of workshops to teach physicians how to talk to parents about their child's obesity-related health problems.
"As more and more patients seek therapy for sexual dysfunction, it is increasingly important for clinicians in a wide range of specialties to become proficient in the mechanisms and systemic effects of these medications," said Ernst R. Schwarz, M.D., Ph.D., a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center who specializes in therapies for men who suffer from erectile dysfunction (ED) and have heart problems, diabetes, high blood pressure or other related conditions.
Children living with many siblings or with adults in addition to their parents visit the doctor less often and use fewer prescriptions than children in more typical families, according to a new analysis. "As there are more demands on a parent's time and money "¦ each child may receive less," the authors say.
Worksite programs designed to change modifiable health risk factors such as obesity and smoking have lead to better health for employees and decreased health care costs for employers, reports a study in the June Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
If an infant is not breastfed for whatever reason, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that all infants weaned before 12 months of age should receive iron-fortified infant formula. Iron-fortified infant formula is the only safe and effective alternative to breast milk, providing complete nutrition to meet the unique needs of growing infants.
Accidental ingestion of peanut rates may be down for people suffering from peanut allergies, but there's still room for improvement, according to a new study.
Researchers found that administering the topical antiseptic chlorhexidine to critically ill patients on mechanical ventilation greatly decreased their daily risk of acquiring deadly hospital-related ventilator-associated pneumonia.
Neonatal mice fed the equivalent amount of iron used in human infant formula develop Parkinson's-like neurodegeneration as they age.
BOSTON "“ A study in the June 15 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) reveals that elevated levels of a molecule called RBP4 (retinol binding protein 4) can foretell early stages in the development of insulin resistance, a major cause of type 2 diabetes as well as cardiovascular disease.
Your friend or your sister has just learned that she has cancer. She's more worried about her children getting through this, than about herself. You can offer practical help, suggests Raising an Emotionally Healthy Child When a Parent is Sick (McGraw Hill, 2006).
Mayo Clinic researchers have found that using pesticides for farming or other purposes increases the risk of developing Parkinson's disease for men.
Evidence shows low-carb diet is beneficial to management of diabetes.
A recent study directed by Mount Sinai School of Medicine suggests that experimental dietary regimens might calm or even reverse symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease (AD). This study, which appears in the July 2006 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, is the first to show that restricting caloric intake, specifically carbohydrates, may prevent AD by triggering activity in the brain associated with longevity.
Basketball is on the minds of millions of Americans as they watch the NBA finals, but Loyola University Health System is cautioning the public that basketball is the #1 sport for injuries.
Fibromyalgia is a disorder considered disabling by many, and is characterized by chronic, widespread musculoskeletal pain and symptoms such as fatigue, joint stiffness and sleep disturbance. No cure is known and available treatments are only partially effective.
Researchers looking for methods to improve survival from cardiac arrest were surprised by the results of a study comparing manual CPR compressions with those given by an FDA-approved mechanical device. Results showed that victims of sudden cardiac arrest were more likely to be discharged alive from the hospital if they received manual CPR rather than CPR administered by the device.
A day-long conference to explore conscience-based refusals in health care and the effect on providers and patients. This conference will focus on defining a claim of conscience and discerning valid from invalid claims, reviewing legal trends and employment laws, and identifying best institutional practices for protecting both health care providers' and patients' rights.
Non-Hispanic black adults in the US have on average the best hearing in the nation, a new study shows, with women hearing better than men in general. Overall, the nation's hearing health remains about the same as it was 35 years ago, despite massive changes in society and technology.
Use of the anti-depressant fluoxetine did not help patients with anorexia nervosa who had restored their body weight maintain that weight or reduce their risk of relapse, according to a study in the June 14 issue of JAMA.
Two studies comparing the use of manual chest compression vs. an automated chest compression device during resuscitation for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest produce contrasting findings, according to the studies in the June 14 issue of JAMA.
Vaginal infections result in more trips to see a doctor for women than most other conditions, leading to roughly 10 million office visits annually. Most women will have an infection in her genital region at least once in her lifetime, but a recent survey revealed that many women do not fully understanding these infections and they often go untreated.
Certain variants of a simple sugar ameliorate Alzheimer's-like disease in mice, according to a new study by Canadian researchers. Although the studies are still in the early stages, the findings could lead to new therapies that prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease.
For patients who have experienced a stroke, learning to walk again can be challenging, but even with rehabilitation, walking correctly is even more difficult. Often times these patients never regain the ability to walk the way they did prior to their stroke. But physical therapists are conducting a study to develop a technique that will help these patients walk correctly again with the ultimate goal of changing clinical practice in physical therapy.
A worsening epidemic of sophisticated anti-malarial drug counterfeiting in southeast Asia and Africa is increasing the likelihood of drug-resistant parasites, yielding false-positive results on screening tests and risking the lives of hundreds of thousands of malaria patients, mostly children, researchers say.
Researchers led by the Georgia Institute of Technology are developing novel analytical chemistry techniques to detect and quantify the contents of counterfeit anti-malarial drugs and other fake pharmaceuticals. The manufacture and distribution of these fake medications is a growing problem in third-world countries, where the mosquito-borne illness malaria is widespread.
New research shows that at least two thirds of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) do not receive lung function testing that is recommended for the accurate diagnosis and effective management of the disease, suggesting that the majority of patients are diagnosed with COPD based on symptoms alone.
A pediatric research team has used commercially available gene chips to scrutinize all of a patient's chromosomes to identify small defects that cause genetic diseases. Because currently used genetic tests usually cannot detect these abnormalities, the new research may lead to more accurate diagnosis of congenital diseases, including puzzling disorders that lead to mental retardation.
Up to 30 percent of those diagnosed with epilepsy don't actually have the disorder. They have psychological nonepileptic seizures, or psychogenic seizures, that are caused by psychological conditions, not by the abnormal electrical activity in the brain that causes epileptic seizures.
A relaxation technique known as transcendental meditation may decrease blood pressure and reduce insulin resistance among patients with coronary heart disease, according to a report in the June 12 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Drinking coffee may be related to a reduced risk of developing the liver disease alcoholic cirrhosis, according to a report in the June 12 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
The number of mutations in a gene previously found to be associated with early-onset Parkinson's disease may influence the age at which the condition develops; even individuals who carry just one mutated copy may be more susceptible to Parkinson's disease, according to a report in the June issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Abnormal glucose metabolism, which occurs when the body has difficulty processing sugar (glucose) into energy, is twice as common among patients with chronic nerve dysfunction of unknown cause than among the general population and may be a risk factor for the condition, according to a study posted online today that will appear in the August 2006 print issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Mental retardation does not lessen the likelihood that a patient will benefit from a kidney transplant, a new study suggests. A survey of published cases worldwide found that the one-year survival rate for people with mental retardation who received kidney transplants was 100 percent, and the three-year survivor rate was 90 percent. That's comparable to national survival rates for the overall population.
Harvard Medical School researchers have discovered one way that a hardy disease-causing bacteria could be surviving in the lungs of chronically infected cystic fibrosis (CF) patients.
New insights into how a subpopulation of helper T-cells provides immunity and promotes survival following infection with an AIDS-like virus offer a new means of predicting an AIDS vaccine's effectiveness, a discovery that could help scientists as they test these vaccines in clinical trials.
Breathing problems in premature babies can be reduced by giving repeat doses of corticosteroids during pregnancy, according to a major international study led by researchers at the University of Adelaide.
Contrary to the popular cliché, "Not tonight, I have a headache," new research suggests that not all headache sufferers avoid sexual activity. In fact, migraine sufferers reported higher levels of sexual desire than those with other types of headaches, according to researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and colleagues.
Ellen Daley, PhD, is living a researcher's dream. She and her colleagues stand on the forefront of a veritable medical milestone and a major public health initiative -- a newly approved vaccine that will prevent certain strains of cancer-causing HPV, and, in turn, can virtually eradicate cervical cancer.
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