Enzyme Test for Bladder Cancer May Promote Early Diagnosis
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Measuring levels of the enzyme telomerase in urine may be a simple, inexpensive, and accurate way to detect bladder cancer early, according to investigators here.
About 20% of bladder cancer patients die each year, but chances of survival are good when the disease is diagnosed and treated in the early stage, the investigators said.
Kids’ Vaccine Makes Elders Healthier
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Give children a pneumococcal vaccine, and their parents and grandparents may be healthier, according to researchers here.
The widespread use of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV-7) for children under the age of five has caused a dramatic decline in invasive pneumococcal disease among those 50 and older, according to Catherine Lexau, Ph.D., of the Minnesota Department of Health.
Cardiac regeneration using stem cells may heal hearts even years after heart attacks
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Left ventricular function and exercise capacity increased, while the area of heart muscle damage shrank, in 18 patients given infusions of their own bone marrow stem cells up to eight years after a heart attack, according to a new study in the Nov. 1, 2005, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
“This new therapy is able to treat until now irreversible heart complaints and function disturbances in patients with chronic coronary artery disease after myocardial infarction, even many years after heart attack. Therefore there is hope for this large amount of patients with previous myocardial infarction and non-treatable complaints,” said Bodo E. Strauer, M.D. from the Heinrich-Heine-University in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Extra Nerve Fibers May Heighten Female Pain Perception
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Women appear to have a greater density of nerve receptors than men, suggesting that they are constitutionally more sensitive to pain, researches here reported.
Women averaged double the number of receptors compared with men in a certain area of facial skin, according to a study conducted by Bradon J. Wilhelmi, M.D., and colleagues at the Plastic Surgery Institute of the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.
New AAAAI Guidelines Stress Flexibility in Asthma Therapy
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Rather than a rigid treatment regimen determined by an initial assessment of disease severity, asthma therapy should be flexible, responding to changes in symptoms.
So suggest new guidelines from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) that emphasize the dynamic nature of the disease.
China says no human bird flu, French trio tested
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A girl with flu-like symptoms has died in a Chinese village where a bird flu outbreak had been reported, a Hong Kong newspaper said on Thursday, but Beijing said it had received no reports of human cases of the virus.
Three people on a French island off Africa were being tested on Wednesday in what appeared to be the first suspected human cases outside Asia of bird flu, which experts fear could mutate to spread easily from human to human and become a pandemic.
Roche withholds Tamiflu in US to stop hoarding
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Drug maker Roche Holding AG has temporarily suspended deliveries of its Tamiflu antiviral drug to the United States in order to prevent a run on stocks by consumers fearing a pandemic caused by bird flu.
Roche said it had halted deliveries of the drug to pharmacists in the United States and Canada until the start of the flu season over concerns that consumers could deplete stocks by hoarding the drug at home.
Chronic stress linked to recurrent yeast infection
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Women who suffer from frequent vaginal yeast infections show biochemical signs of being under chronic stress, a Swedish study has found.
Dr. Sophia M. Ehrstrom, of the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, and colleagues, reporting in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, note that the problem of recurrent yeast infections is on the rise.
Bird flu drugs fly off shelves in flu-fearing HK
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Worried residents and companies in Hong Kong are sweeping bird flu drugs off pharmacy shelves as the deadly virus spreads in poultry and wild birds in mainland China and parts of Europe.
The worry in Hong Kong is understandable. The H5N1 virus made its first known jump to humans in the city in 1997, when it killed six people. SARS, which killed nearly 300 people here in 2003, is also fresh in people’s minds.
Survey reveals how kids cope with stress
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Of 875 middle school-age children who were polled recently on how they handle stress, one quarter admitted to having hurt themselves on purpose when stressed or upset. The 9- to 13-year-olds who admitted to having hurt themselves when stressed said things like—“I banged my head against the wall on purpose” or “I pinched myself really really hard.”
“What this means to me,” Dr. D’Arcy Lyness told, “is that emotion can be so strong that it is overwhelming and kids don’t know how to handle it and they sometimes blame themselves. Hurting themselves is a way to take it out on them.”
Cholesterol-lowering diet helpful in pregnancy
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Pregnant women who stick to a cholesterol-lowering diet may reduce their risk of delivering prematurely, Norwegian investigators report.
“These results indicate that dietary intervention in pregnancy can modify cardiovascular risk factors in pregnancy and may result in health benefits for mother and child,” Dr. Janette Khoury from the National Hospital in Oslo and colleagues write in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Most asthma drugs OK to use during pregnancy
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With the exception of steroid pills, asthma medications taken during pregnancy do not appear to impair the growth of the unborn baby, researchers in California report.
“These data are reassuring for clinicians from the standpoint of adhering to treatment guidelines and provide appropriate treatment of asthma for women who are pregnant with respect to fetal growth,” said Dr. Christina D. Chambers from UCSD Medical Center, San Diego.
Urine test accurately detects bladder cancer
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A simple and accurate urine test can detect bladder cancer early and may be especially useful for smokers and others prone to the disease, Italian researchers reported on Tuesday.
The test for the enzyme telomerase in urine was found to be accurate 90 percent of the time in men, after the cancer diagnoses were confirmed with standard invasive examinations of the bladder and urinary tract. The test also detected the disease in early stages.
Fresh bird flu outbreak in China, India on alert
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Fears of avian flu spreading deepened on Wednesday after China reported another outbreak in poultry while India said it was testing blood samples from 10 dead migratory birds.
There has been a spate of fresh cases in Asia and on the eastern edge of Europe ahead of the winter, when experts say the deadly H5N1 strain thrives best.
HIV program shows promise for low-income teens
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HIV prevention programs that involve more of a teenager’s everyday world may have a particularly strong influence over behavior down the road, researchers have found.
Their study, of 12- to 17-year-olds living in low-income housing developments, found that a “community-level” HIV prevention program was especially effective at keeping kids from having sex, as well as encouraging condom use among those who did.
