Automated external defibrillators, reliability and clinical benefits
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The FDA frequently issues safety advisories for automated external defibrillators (portable electronic device used to restore regular heart beat in patients with cardiac arrest) and accessories, although the number of actual device malfunctions appears to be relatively small, according to a study in the August 9 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.
Sudden cardiac death is a leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for nearly 330,000 deaths annually. Successful resuscitation of persons with cardiac arrest depends on prompt emergency care, with early defibrillation a key component to improved survival. The use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and their increasingly widespread distribution in public places, including many airports, sports arenas, and shopping centers, has resulted in the saving of innumerable lives, according to background information in the article. AEDs are easy to use, but are technically complex devices that occasionally malfunction. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for the safety and oversight of medical devices in the United States, and occasionally issues recalls and safety alerts (collectively referred to as “advisories”), a number of which have involved AEDs. Little is known about the reliability of AEDs.
GenoMed’s West Nile virus trial endorsed by expert
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GenoMed has announced the endorsement of its trial for West Nile virus encephalitis by an authority in Emergency Medicine, Dr. Neal Handly.
Dr. Handly is Associate Director of Research for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine and a Fellow of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Handly chairs the Academy’s Subcommittee on Information Technology.
Diabetes may worsen liver encephalopathy
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In patients with cirrhosis of the liver due to infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV), the presence of diabetes is associated with earlier onset and greater severity of liver or “hepatic” encephalopathy, according to results of a prospective study.
Hepatic encephalopathy is a complication of cirrhosis of the liver. Toxic substances like ammonia that accumulate in the blood and impair the function of brain cells are believed to be contributing factors.
Dr. Samuel H. Sigal and colleagues theorize that diabetes predisposes a cirrhotic patient to hepatic encephalopathy and its exacerbation by increasing ammonia levels as a result of delayed emptying of contents of the stomach and slowed intestinal motility contributing to bacterial overgrowth. Constipation often precedes the development of hepatic encephalopathy.
Car seats may make it hard for baby to breathe
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Infant car seats are important safety devices but a new study suggests that these devices may make it hard for baby to breath. The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, found that healthy term infants placed in car seats or car beds can develop low oxygen levels.
“Car seats may need to be remodeled,” Dr. T. Bernard Kinane, of Mass General Hospital for Children, Boston said. “We need to find out why babies have problems in both devices,” he stressed. “It may be related to the tightness of the harness.”
Kinane and colleagues compared oxygen levels in 67 healthy term infants placed in either a car safety seat or a car bed within the first week of life. “Most infants are transported in car seats,” Kinane explained. “If babies have problems with breathing, we place them in car beds.”
Study backs lower PSA threshold for black men
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African-American men with early nonpalpable prostate cancer have greater tumor volume than white men with similar prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels, a study shows. This suggests that the threshold for PSA should be lowered in black men.
The widely used PSA blood test is used to look for early signs of prostate cancer. The traditional PSA cut off value is 4 ng/mL.
Based on the current findings, this value should be lowered to 2.5 ng/mL in African-American men “to increase the likelihood of finding cancers that are highly curable,” Dr. Curtis A. Pettaway from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas told Reuters Health.
Barr CEO says amending Plan B drug bid
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Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. will amend its plans to limit nonprescription sales of its morning-after contraceptive by age, but cannot be held responsible if pharmacists disregard the restrictions, Chief Executive Bruce Downey said on Wednesday.
Downey said the drugmaker would incorporate ideas from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has said the Plan B drug could be made available without a doctor’s note for women at least 18 years old if kept behind pharmacy counters.
The FDA said Barr, in order to win agency clearance, must come up with a rigorous plan for making sure younger girls cannot buy the product without a prescription.
NY police targeted with suspected anthrax letter
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Two police officers were taken to a hospital on Wednesday after opening an envelope that contained a suspicious white powder, the New York Police Department said.
The two police officers worked in the mail screening facility at police headquarters in downtown Manhattan and opened an envelope that contained an “undetermined white powder,” said police department spokesman Paul Browne.
They underwent decontamination at a hospital as a precautionary measure in case the powder turned out to be anthrax, Browne said.
S.Africa seeks to clamp down on sexual offences
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South Africa will introduce a new law to broaden the legal definition of rape in a bid to clamp down on widespread sexual offences President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday were a blight on 12 years of democratic gains.
The latest draft of the law comes as South Africa marked the 50th anniversary of a historic anti-apartheid protest by thousands of women, held up as a pivotal moment in the democracy and women’s liberation movements.
The year’s event has put the spotlight on domestic violence and rape in a country that has one of the world’s highest instances of sexual violence.
Gates gives $500 million to Global AIDS, TB fund
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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said on Wednesday it was giving $500 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, by far its biggest grant to the fund, which says it sorely lacks cash.
The money, to be given over five years, is the largest private donation to the fund, founded nearly five years ago to serve as the primary financing vehicle for efforts to fight the HIV pandemic, tuberculosis and malaria.
The fund has always struggled to persuade rich nations to contribute.
Indian health groups welcome new rural HIV push
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Indian health groups welcomed a government plan that was announced this week to involve tens of thousands of rural politicians in the fight against an HIV/AIDS epidemic, which has made deep inroads in the countryside.
India recently overtook South Africa as the country with the most number of people living with HIV/AIDS, according to the United Nation’s AIDS agency, and nearly 60 percent of the 5.7 million people infected with the virus live in rural areas.
On Tuesday, ministers and officials attending a national meeting of mayors and district council chiefs called upon local leaders in rural areas to join the anti-AIDS campaign.
Vision: stimulating your attention
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By using simultaneous brain stimulation and activity recording to track the influence of one brain region on another, researchers have developed a new method for boosting brain function that may have implications for treatments of brain disorders and for improving vision.
The findings are reported by Christian Ruff, Jon Driver, and their colleagues at University College London and appear in the August 8th issue of Current Biology, published by Cell Press.
In their new work, the researchers used trans-cranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to trigger a chain of activity in specific parts of the brain, while the activity was measured with a scanner. In this way, they were able to show that stimulating a particular region of the frontal cortex that is normally involved in generating eye movements can change activity in visual cortex, almost as though an eye movement had been made (even though the eye itself stayed still).
Oxy-Q may help prevent colon cancer
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A pilot clinical trial demonstrates that Oxy-Q, a proprietary pill by Farr Laboratories, LLC that combines the active components of turmeric and onions, reduces both the size and number of precancerous colon polyps.
The unique blend of curcumin, found in turmeric, and quercetin, found in onions and green tea, used in the study can only be found in Oxy-Q.
Five patients, three men and two women ranging in age from 22 to 54, with a genetic form of precancerous lesions in the bowel (familial adenomatous polyposis or FAP) were treated with Oxy-Q over a period of six months. The average number of polyps reduced was 60.4 percent and average size diminished by 50.9 percent. Both the size and the number of polyps were reduced significantly which may indicate that Oxy-Q could help prevent colon cancer in these patients.
Variability in Certain Gene Associated With Increased Risk of Parkinson Disease
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Variability in the SNCA gene is linked with a greater susceptibility for Parkinson disease, according to a study in the August 9 issue of JAMA.
Parkinson disease is a common neurological condition associated with increased illness and shortened life expectancy. The origin of Parkinson disease remains elusive, but genetic factors may be important, according to background information in the article. One of the most promising leads in the genetics of Parkinson disease is the potential role of the alpha-synuclein (SNCA) gene. Studies have revealed several SNCA mutations that cause Parkinson disease, but large-scale studies have been lacking.
Demetrius M. Maraganore, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minn., and colleagues with the Genetic Epidemiology of Parkinson’s Disease (GEO-PD) Consortium, conducted a study to examine several issues, including whether allele-length (one of a number of alternative forms of the same gene occupying a given position on a chromosome) variability in the dinucleotide repeat sequence (REP1) of the SNCA gene is associated with Parkinson disease susceptibility. The researchers performed a collaborative analysis of individual-level data on SNCA REP1 and flanking markers in patients with Parkinson disease and controls. Study site recruitment, data collection, and analyses were performed between April 4, 2004, and December 31, 2005. Eleven participating sites of a global genetics consortium provided clinical data for 2,692 cases and 2,652 controls.
Family’s weight comments cause girls lasting harm
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Girls whose families criticize their weight or eating habits may develop lasting problems with body image and self-esteem, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that of 455 college women with poor body image, more than 80 percent said their parents or siblings had made negative comments about their bodies during childhood.
Many believed the comments reflected a general lack of love and support or were even part of a pattern of emotional abuse—with some saying family members also called them “ugly,” “stupid” or “lazy.”
Researchers discover how genes and diet interact to cause birth defects
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Expectant mothers may someday get a personalized menu of foods to eat during pregnancy to complement their genetic makeup as a result of new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Researchers used transparent fish embryos to develop a way to discover how genes and diet interact to cause birth defects.
“By the time most women know they are pregnant, the development of the fetus’ organs is essentially complete,” said Bryce Mendelsohn, co-author and an M.D./Ph.D. student in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Washington University School of Medicine. “Since we currently do not understand the interaction between genetics and nutrition, the goal of this research was to understand how the lack of a specific nutrient, in this case copper, interacts with an embryo’s genetics during early development.”
