Medical News

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An experimental chemotherapy drug that failed to treat colon cancer may arrest the development of the disease, according to a team of UC Irvine researchers.

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Managed care is shaping up to be a hot issue in this fall's congressional elections. Contact these University of Michigan researchers for accurate information and informed opinion on cost and quality issues related to managed care.

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Women stroke victims get to the hospital and are evaluated more slowly than men, making them less likely to receive treatment.

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Unexplained dizziness or loss of balance in older people is caused by brain abnormalities, not just normal aging.

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Multiple sclerosis relapses can be shortened when treated with an oral, high-dose steroid known as methylprednisolone.

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Each year 20 million Americans are affected by kidney and urological diseases, while 150,000 develop acute kidney failure. The current treatment for kidney failure is dialysis --a sometimes painful and always costly stop-gap measure that is not a cure-- or kidney transplant

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The effectiveness of antidepressants is mainly in the placebo effect of treatment, not in the medication itself, according to a new study by a University of Connecticut psychologist. Seventy-five percent of the response to medication for depression was a result of the patient being in treatment.

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Mayo Clinic Health Oasis, www.mayohealth.org, has added more free services for people who use the Internet to find answers to their questions about health and medicine. Along with this expansion, the site also has been redesigned. One new feature called "Headline Watch" will cover the weekís news-making medical stories.

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Six thousand pharmaceutical scientists and researchers are gathering in San Francisco for the *Bridging Gaps Within Drug Discovery and Development* Annual Meeting of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), November 15-19, 1998.

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The JAMA paper reports on the HERS study, designed to determine whether hormone replacement therapy (HRT) reduces risk for non-fatal heart attack or death from coronary heart disease in post-menopausal women with established heart disease.

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Studying a descendant of the 1918 influenza virus that killed at least 20 million people worldwide, University of Wisconsin-Madison virologists discovered a new molecular trick some viruses use to transform from dangerous to deadly.

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In an autopsy study of Alaska Natives, researchers have found the strongest link yet between heart disease and Chlamydia pneumoniae (C. pneumoniae), a common bacterium responsible for chronic lung infections. The findings were reported in today's Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

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A new study finds that about one in four doctors of patients with advanced congestive heart failure misjudge their patients' wishes about being resuscitated should they go into cardiac arrest.

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The strongest link yet between a common lung infection, Chlamydia pneumoniae, and heart disease has been found in a study of Alaska natives. This study is the first to show that the individuals were infected with the bacteria before heart disease was diagnosed.

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Do Children with ADHD Need Medication to Control Their Behavior? News Briefing at the 106th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in San Francisco: Monday August 17, 1998 at 9:00 AM

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Researchers from the University of Michigan's School of Public Health outline three obstacles policy-makers may encounter as they consider new laws and other measures designed to curb the cost of health care.

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Politics, Economics and Ethics Merge in Occupational Health Controversy.

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1. New occupational disease, Flock Worker's Lung, is described in this issue. 2. Not all patients with small tumors found by Sigmoidoscopy need a colonoscopy. 3. People with mild, chronic Hepatitis C do not need immediate treatment.

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In a recent issue of the medical journal Cancer, Creighton researchers published an article proving that people who have hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal carcinoma (HNPCC, also known as the Lynch syndrome) have a significantly better survival rate than those who develop sporadic colorectal cancer.

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When platelets in the bloodstream clump together as a clot, they can trigger a heart attack or a stroke or mask cancer. A Johns Hopkins University scientist is working on ways to disable platelets' unhealthy habits while preserving their ability to halt blood loss.

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Just as a cardiac pacemaker helps maintain a steady heartbeat, a new bladder pacemaker helps men and women with debilitating bladder problems regain control of this vital function, according to UCSF Stanford Health Care physicians, who pioneered the technology.

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"Being too busy, not being old, is what leads people to make mistakes in taking their medications," says Denise C. Park, a psychologist at the U-M Institute for Social Research.

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For the first time, researchers have published scientific data documenting novel, serious but reversible neuropsychological effects of exposure to waterways infested with Pfiesteria toxins.

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The administration of continuous intravenous (IV) sedation keeps ICU patients on mechanical ventilation far longer than is necessary, according to a new report in the August issue of CHEST, the journal of the American College of Chest Physicians.

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Damaging noise levels in the medical intensive care unit that often reach the level of a noisy subway ride were reduced significantly through behavioral modification sesssions for the staff, according to a study published in theaugust issue of CHEST, journal of the American College of Chest Physicians.

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The first consensus statement on the management of the most common reason patients seek medical attention--the cough--was published today by the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP).

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Gender differences in worrying or rumination may be one of the reasons that by age 18 females have twice the rate of depression as males.

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The Council for Responsible Nutrition urges FDA to re-evaluate its proposed approach to structure/function statements for dietary supplements and issue a guidance document rather than a formal rule.

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People's preference for salt may have been imprinted while they were still in their mothers womb. University of Washington researchers have found a link between people's salt preference and the level of morning sickness experienced by their mothers when they were pregnant.

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Today, the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) is releasing a new publication, the CRN Reference on Evaluating Botanicals.

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Shame, denial and fear of others' reactions keep many abused women from confiding in their physicians, a Johns Hopkins study among Baltimore women has found.

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A single brain chemical can switch the direction of nerve messages in the brainís cerebral cortex, Stanford researchers have found. The chemical, called acetylcholine, acts through inhibitory circuits to turn on nerve cells that send messages horizontally across the cortex and to turn off nerve cells that send messages vertically.

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Douglas Robertson can push a key on his computer and produce a life-size, plastic foam model of a patient's hip socket as easily as he can print a research abstract---and the hip model is virtually letter perfect.

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GLMA's 16th Annual Symposium will be held August 27-29 in Chicago at the Chicago Hilton and Towers. GLMA can provide background information on, and can arrange interviews for articles related to, these plenaries and workshops.

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The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association's 16th Annual Symposium, the premiere venue for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) medical information, will be held in Chicago Aug. 27-29. More than 500 LGBT physicians and medical students are expected for the three-day conference, which will explore "Prescriptions for Living Well: Medicine's Impact on the LGBT Life Cycle."

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Gulf War veterans have died or been hospitalized at excessive rates since the war, a UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas researcher reports in the Aug. 15 American Journal of Epidemiology.

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All sexually active adolescent females should be tested by family doctors not once but twice a year for chlamydia infection, a significant preventable cause of pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility in women in the United States, say Johns Hopkins researchers.

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Doctors identify 40 strategies to prevent low back injury--the single most frequent injury requiring days off work--in the 1998 Labor Day CheckList.

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Two studies by researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and the University of British Columbia in Canada have shown that roughly half the HIV-infected injection drug users studied who were eligible for lifesaving antiretroviral therapy were not receiving it. Both reports appeared in the August 12 issue of JAMA.

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With its new World Wide Web site, medical news from the American Heart Association will be more accessible than ever. AHA Journals Online (http://www.ahajournals.org) goes online August 11, provides full text and graphics for the five AHA journals.

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People with high blood pressure have elevated blood levels of collagen, a protein, which may help explain why these individuals are at risk for heart failure as well as kidney and other organ failure.

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Individuals with high blood pressure should not only put away the salt shaker, but eat more fruits, vegetables and fat-free or low-fat dairy products, according to a statement from the American Heart Association.

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Citizens who make a concerted effort to restrict teenagers' access to tobacco can significantly influence youth smoking rates in their community, according to a University of Minnesota study that will be published in the August issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

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The American Psychiatric Association applauded Representatives for urging Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) to establish a special task force to review the state and federal health care delivery system for the mentally ill.

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Temperature may be a key cue for setting the biological clocks that govern the daily ebb and flow of activity in most animals and plants, Dartmouth Medical School geneticists have found.

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A study in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report reports a decline in deaths from congestive heart failure (CHF) for people 65 years of age and older between 1988 and 1995. The drop was greatest for black adults - 3 percent per year for black men and 2.2 percent per year for black women. However, CHF, affecting 4.9 million, is the leading cause of admission to hospitals.

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Until now, patients who suffered oral or facial deformities due to trauma or congenital disorders have had to wear a metal device implanted into the jaw from the outside of the face in order to correct the problem. Surgeons at Temple University Hospital are among the first to offer patients a distraction device implanted completely inside the mouth that helps to regrow destroyed bone, essentially growing a new jaw for the patient.

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Gallstones or Undissolved Pills? Study Finds That Most Pills Will Show Up on X-rays Radiation for Brain Tumors Does Not Cause Cognitive Decline Molecular Techniques Identify Dangerous Invasive Strep Bacteria

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Egg and sperm cells form through meiosis, a delicate process in which mistakes can later cause birth defects. Stanford researchers have now found that a key event in meiosis -- a genetic shuffling called recombination -- is started by the same protein in two very different organisms, yeast and worms.

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Researchers report that women who exhibit large increases in blood pressure and heart rate during mental stress may develop accelerated atherosclerosis in the carotid arteries, the vessels that carry blood to the brain.