Asthma Symptoms Linked to Soot from Diesel Trucks in So. Bronx
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Soot particles spewing from the exhaust of diesel trucks constitute a major contributor to the alarmingly high rates of asthma symptoms among school-aged children in the South Bronx, according to the results of a five-year study by researchers at New York University’s School of Medicine and Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
Over the course of the study, asthma symptoms, particularly wheezing, doubled among elementary school children on high traffic days, as large numbers attend schools in close proximity to busy truck routes because of past land-use decisions.
The South Bronx has among the highest incidences of asthma hospital admissions in New York City, and a recent city survey of asthma in the South Bronx’s Hunts Point district found an asthma prevalence rate in elementary school of 21 percent to 23 percent. The South Bronx is surrounded by several major highways, including Interstates 95, 87, 278 and 895. At Hunts Point Market alone, some 12,000 trucks roll in and out daily.
Stroke symptoms common among undiagnosed patients
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More than one in six people who have never been diagnosed with a stroke or with a transient ischemic attack (TIA) have experienced stroke symptoms, according to a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
A TIA is an episode in which the blood flow to the brain is briefly interrupted, causing stroke-like symptoms that usually last only a few minutes. On the other hand, in strokes the brain blood flow is blocked to a greater extent, leading to more serious deficits, permanent disability or death.
“Coupled with previous reports showing a substantially increased risk of a subsequent stroke in those with stroke symptoms and a substantial prevalence of ‘silent stroke’ according to MRI, our findings suggest that these commonly reported symptoms may be mild strokes that failed to reach the threshold for clinical diagnosis,” lead author Dr. Virginia J. Howard, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and colleagues note.
Breast reconstruction not as safe for obese women
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Women who are significantly obese are much more likely to experience complications from breast reconstruction surgery following mastectomy compared with normal weight and overweight women, research indicates.
“Obese women need to understand that they are going to have more complications from breast reconstruction surgery,” Dr. Elisabeth K. Beahm told Reuters Health. “There may be instances where they should delay breast reconstruction until they have lost some weight to a more acceptable body mass index (BMI)—not that they have to become thin, but until they get into a safer weight category,” she said.
Breast cancer undertreated in elderly patients
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Breast cancer diagnosis is delayed in elderly patients, due in large part to the underuse of mammography, and these patients are also not treated as aggressively as their younger counterparts, findings from a new study show.
The results, appearing in the Archives of Surgery, confirm the findings of previous reports. However, in contrast to prior studies, the current research took place in a community hospital setting, where, as the investigators point out, the majority of cancer patients are treated.
Searching a tumor database maintained at a community hospital, Dr. David A. Litvak and Dr. Rajeev Arora, from Michigan State University in Lansing, identified 354 patients who were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1992 and 2002 and were at least 70 years of age.
Pramlintide improves blood sugar levels diabetics
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Pramlintide treatment, taken with insulin, improves blood sugar fluctuations after meals and also reduces weight in patients with type 1 diabetes, according to a report in the Diabetes Care.
Pramlintide, sold in the United States under the trade name Symlin, helps regulate blood-sugar levels by slowing down gastric emptying, suppressing glucagon secretion and reducing food intake, the authors explain.
Dr. Orville Kolterman from Amylin Pharmaceuticals, San Diego, California and colleagues assessed the safety, efficacy, and tolerability of pramlintide in 296 patients with type 1 diabetes. Also referred to as juvenile diabetes, type 1 diabetes results from the inability of the pancreas to make enough insulin to process levels of sugar in the blood.
Arthritis drugs have similar risks and benefits
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The two main types of drugs used to treat osteoarthritis offer the same pain-relief benefits and pose a similar risk of causing heart attacks, according to a government review.
Naproxen is the single exception, carrying a lower risk of heart attack than the 25 other drugs included in the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) analysis.
Non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen, represent one type of drug used to treat osteoarthritis, while the other group is a newer type of NSAID, known as COX-2 inhibitors, and includes drugs such as Celebrex.
Vitamin D may help slow breast cancer
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High levels of vitamin D may help slow the progression of breast cancer, researchers suggested on Tuesday.
In a small study of women with the illness they found that patients with early breast cancer had higher levels of the vitamin than those with more advanced disease.
“Vitamin D levels are lower in women with advanced breast cancer than in early breast cancer,” said Dr. Carlo Palmieri of Imperial College London. “It lends support to the idea that vitamin D has a role in the progression of breast cancer,” he told Reuters.
Gene mutation raises autism risk, study finds
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U.S. researchers said on Monday they had identified a genetic mutation that raises the risk of autism and could also explain some of the other symptoms seen in children with autism.
Although autism and similar disorders can clearly run in families, theirs is the first study to find a definitive genetic link to the disorder, which affects as many as 1 in 175 U.S. children.
Dr. Pat Levitt and colleagues at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, studied 743 families in which 1,200 family members were affected by autism spectrum disorders, which range from fully disabling autism to Asperger’s syndrome.
Parkinson’s disease impacts brain’s centers of touch and vision
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Movement disorder affects more than just motor control
Although Parkinson’s disease is most commonly viewed as a “movement disorder,” scientists have found that the disease also causes widespread abnormalities in touch and vision Ð effects that have now been verified using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain. The new findings, by scientists at Emory University School of Medicine and Zhejiang University Medical School in Hangzhou China, will be presented on Oct. 17 at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Atlanta.
Scientists studying Parkinson’s disease (PD) previously have focused on the brain’s motor and premotor cortex, but not the somatosensory or the visual cortex. But Emory neurologist Krish Sathian, MD, PhD, and colleagues had earlier discovered, through tests of tactile ability, that PD patients have sensory problems with touch. They designed a study using fMRI to investigate the brain changes underlying these sensory abnormalities.
Early heart attack survival worse for women
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Gender does not influence long-term heart attack survival, according to findings published in the European Heart Journal. However, in the short-term, while still hospitalized for the heart attack, women are more likely to die than men.
“Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of death in women in western society, and currently more women die of cardiovascular disease than men,” Dr. Vernon V. S. Bonarjee, of the University of Bergen, Stavanger, Norway, and colleagues write. Although the frequency of heart attack increases sharply with age, women are less likely to develop a heart attack than are men at any age.
The researchers examined the short- and long-term gender-related differences in survival among high-risk patients with heart attack. A total of 5,477 subjects were followed for an average of 2.7 years.
Overtraining not linked to altered brain chemistry
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Athletes who overtrain their bodies do not seem to have changes in brain levels of serotonin, suggesting that serotonin alterations don’t cause the depression and other symptoms these athletes commonly develop.
This finding suggests that the depression that may occur in overtrained athletes may be a unique variant and may need to be treated as such, the researchers report in the International Journal of Sports Medicine.
Athletes who push their bodies too hard, or “overtrain,” can end up with a host of physical and mental symptoms that take months or even years to recover from. The effects include heart rhythm disturbances, disabling muscle and nerve pain, stomach pain and ulcers, insomnia despite heavy fatigue, and depressive symptoms.
Computer-Driven System Reduces Patient Mechanical Ventilation Time Significantly
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For patients with acute respiratory failure, a computer-driven system can significantly reduce the duration of mechanical ventilation and length of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU), as compared with the traditional physician-controlled weaning process.
The study, which was conducted in five medical-surgical ICUs in Barcelona, Brussels, Créteil, Geneva and Paris, appears in the second issue for October 2006 of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.
Warnings to be placed on all booze in the UK
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In an attempt to deal with the problem of binge drinking, the British government wants health warnings to be printed on all wine bottles, cans and bottles containing alcohol.
The government is looking at ways of making the drinks industry place labels on bottles and cans with details of the dangers of alcohol, as part of a campaign to tackle Britain’s growing booze culture.
Apparently officials are in negotiations with the drinks industry over the plan, which could mean warnings similar to those on cigarette packets could also appear on all wine, beers and spirits within the next two years.
Childhood cancer survivors more at risk of chronic health problems as adults
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According to a new study adult survivors of childhood cancer can expect to suffer from one or more chronic health problems years after their cancer has been cured.
Advances in the treatment of pediatric cancer means that almost 80 percent of children diagnosed with the disease will become long-term survivors; but cancer treatments themselves carry risks, as in order to cure the deadly disease, quite toxic therapies are needed.
Dr. Kevin Oeffinger, director of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s Program for Adult Survivors of Pediatric Cancer, in New York City, conducted a collaborative study on adult survivors of childhood cancer by working with researchers from more than two dozen cancer centers throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Research holds promise for herpes vaccine
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A study by a Montana State University researcher suggests a new avenue for developing a vaccine against genital herpes and other diseases caused by herpes simplex viruses.
In a study published earlier this year in the Virology Journal, MSU virologist William Halford showed that mice vaccinated with a live, genetically-modified herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) showed no signs of disease 30 days after being exposed to a particularly lethal “wild-type” strain of the virus.
