Expert Available to Comment on Heart Device Approval
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On Monday, April 21, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the HeartMate II device, a heart-assisting technology that can help heart failure patients remain alive until they can receive a heart transplant.
In the wake of this approval, the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center’s Francis Pagani, M.D., Ph.D., is available to speak about this device, other heart-assisting devices now in use or in clinical trials, and related issues.
Cancer survivors have low levels of physical activity and high levels of obesity
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A new study reveals that many cancer survivors are inactive and obese, which may negatively affect the control of their disease. The findings, which come from a study of cancer survivors in Canada, show that a cancer diagnosis does not appear to prompt significant behavior change and that interventions to increase physical activity and promote better eating habits among cancer survivors are warranted. The study is published in the June 1, 2008 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.
Obesity and physical inactivity are known to be detrimental to health, and in cancer patients, studies have linked these factors to negative outcomes including disease recurrence, cancer-specific death and reduced quality of life. However, few studies have looked at the prevalence of physical activity and obesity in populations of cancer survivors.
To determine this prevalence and compare it to individuals without a history of cancer, Kerry S. Courneya, Ph.D. of the University of Alberta in Edmonton analyzed data from the 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey consisting of computer-assisted interviews of more than 114,000 adults. Survey participants reported their cancer history, height and body weight (to calculate body mass index), and participation in various leisure time activities.
Biology of Reproduction highlights
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For young male offspring who suffer a dominant mother, a brother may be on the way to help bear the burden. And all because of follicular testosterone. A growing body of evidence suggests a maternal influence on sex determination: dominant human females conceive more sons. Grant et al., in an article on p. 812 of the May issue of Biology of Reproduction, find that the sex of bovine embryos positively correlates with pre-ovulatory follicular testosterone. How exposure of oocytes to follicular testosterone may influence the ability of a metaphase II egg to be preferentially inseminated by a Y-bearing sperm remains a mystery. What is known is that chronic stress elevates testosterone in females (but not males). So if you would like your next sibling to be a sister, don’t aggravate your mother.
Sex of Bovine Embryos May Be Related to Mothers’ Preovulatory Follicular Testosterone. V. J. Grant, R. J. Irwin, N.T. Standley, A. N. Shelling, and L. W. Chamley. Biol Reprod 2008; 78:812-815. Published online in BOR Papers-In-Press 9 January 2008; DOI 10.1095/biolreprod.107.066050
Genetic variant mimics effect of heart failure medications
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A genetic variation, found predominantly in African Americans, protects some people with heart failure, enabling them to live longer than expected. That’s the conclusion of a research team led by investigators at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore and the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The researchers found that the genetic variation acts just like beta-blockers, a class of drugs used to treat chronic heart failure. Study results will be available in the online version of Nature Medicine, on April 20, 2008.
In the study, the researchers found that African American heart failure patients with the genetic variation had a natural protection against death and the need for a heart transplant that is the same as the protection provided by beta-blocker therapy. Those patients who were given beta-blockers did not experience additional benefits from the medications because their own “genetic beta blockade” was already protecting them.
The researchers say their discovery adds to the accumulating evidence that genetic differences contribute to the way people respond to medications, and should encourage the use of genetic testing in clinical trials to identify people who can benefit from therapy tailored to their personal genetic makeup. “This is a significant development in our understanding of why some African American patients appear to not respond to beta-blockers in the same way as Caucasian patients,” says one of the study’s co-authors, Stephen B. Liggett, M.D., professor of medicine and physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and director of its cardiopulmonary genomics program. “In this case, it seems that this genetic variation is a good thing, mimicking drugs that are frequently used to treat heart failure,” says Dr. Liggett.
Major discovery in the treatment of aortic valve stenosis
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A team of scientists from the Université de Montréal and the Montreal Heart Institute Research Centre, led by Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif, has completed an important study that show how a new type of medication can lead to an improvement in the aortic valve narrowing.
This type of treatment based on raising high-density lipoproteins (HDL), the so-called good cholesterol level in patients suffering from aortic valve stenosis, could potentially transform the treatment approach of this disease, notably by avoiding open heart surgery. Study results have been published on-line in the British Journal of Pharmacology.
Aging Men Can Reduce Health Risks Through Physical Activity
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Our results suggest that moderate to vigorous physical activity may reduce the risk of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) or lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) by as much as 25% relative to a sedentary lifestyle. Although the strength of the association appears to be greater with higher levels of activity, there was a non-significant trend toward a protective effect with even light physical activity. Adjustment for multiple confounders in the studies included in this analysis underscores the independence of the protective effect of physical activity on the BPH/LUTS complex.
The notion that physical activity and other modifiable lifestyle factors may alter the risks and severity of BPH and LUTS challenges traditional etiological paradigms and intimates the need for the development of new pathogenic models for the BPH/LUTS disease complex. The assumption that BPH and LUTS are relatively immutable consequences of aging—driven by a combination of genetic predisposition, androgens, and estrogens—underpins prior models. While genotype and hormones are important components, the relationship of physical activity with BPH/LUTS demands consideration of additional modulators of these processes.
It is possible that physical activity influences prostate growth pathways through alterations in hormone levels. However, we believe a more likely explanation is that physical activity exerts beneficial effects through improved cardiovascular health.
Mammograms benefit women up to the age of 75 and 3-yearly screening intervals are best
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Berlin, Germany: Breast cancer screening is effective, appropriate and reduces deaths from the disease in women aged up to 75 years old according to new research in over 860,000 women aged 70-75 presented today (Friday) at the 6th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-6) in Berlin. In another study of nearly 100,000 women aged 50-62, also presented at EBCC-6 today, researchers found that the best interval for screening was every three years – a finding that counters arguments that women should have mammograms more frequently.
Many countries that run breast cancer screening programmes offer it to women aged between 50 and 70. However, in 1998 in The Netherlands, the programme was extended to women aged up to 75. The results presented today suggest that this is an appropriate upper age limit and saves lives without causing substantial harm by subjecting older women to over-diagnosis and over-treatment.
This is the first study to provide firm support for the idea that offering mammograms to women up to the age of 75 is effective, as, until 1998, very few women were screened at this age.
Standard chemo works better against metastatic BRCA1/2 breast cancer than against sporadic tumors
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Berlin, Germany: The first study to investigate the effects of chemotherapy on metastatic breast cancer in women with the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation has shown that standard chemotherapy works better in these patients than in women without the BRCA1/2 mutation.
The authors of a study presented today (Thursday) at the 6th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-6) in Berlin found that women with BRCA2-associated breast cancer had a significantly higher response rate, a longer time without the disease progressing, and a longer overall survival when treated with anthracycline-based regimens than did women with sporadic breast cancers that were not associated with BRCA1/2.
Women with BRCA1-associated breast cancer also did better than women with sporadic breast cancer, but the rates were not statistically significant.
Korea culls 3 million birds as flu spreads fast
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South Korea said on Thursday it had culled 3 million farmed birds and confirmed three more outbreaks of bird flu, as the country grapples with its worst avian influenza outbreak in four years.
In just two weeks South Korea has confirmed 15 cases of the deadly H5N1 strain, raising alarm as the highly virulent virus is spreading at its fastest rate since the country reported its first case in 2003.
The farm ministry said on Thursday it had seven new reports of suspected bird flu outbreaks at poultry farms in North and South Jeolla provinces, some 320 km (200 miles) south of Seoul, where the first bird flu recurrence for a year was reported earlier this month.
Premature baby’s fate depends on more than age
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Four factors beyond gestational age influence whether an extremely premature baby will survive and grow up healthy, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.
Girls, babies that weigh more and babies that do not have a twin all survived premature birth better, as did babies whose mothers were treated with steroids to hasten the development of the lungs, the researchers reported in The New England Journal of Medicine.
These factors also lowered the risk of neurodevelopmental problems such as blindness, hearing loss, thinking problems and cerebral palsy.
Mid-life high cholesterol raises Alzheimer’s risk
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High cholesterol levels in your 40s may raise the chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease decades later, according to a study underscoring the importance of health factors in middle age on risk for the brain ailment.
The study involving 9,752 people in northern California found that those with high cholesterol levels between ages 40 and 45 were about 50 percent more likely than those with low cholesterol levels to later develop Alzheimer’s disease.
The findings were presented on Wednesday at a meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Chicago.
Sickened pork workers have new nerve disorder
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Eighteen pork plant workers in Minnesota, at least five in Indiana and one in Nebraska have come down with a mysterious neurological condition they appear to have contracted while removing brains from slaughtered pigs, U.S. researchers and health officials said on Wednesday.
They said the illness is a new disorder that causes a range of symptoms, from inflammation of the spinal cord to mild weakness, fatigue, numbness and tingling in the arms and legs.
“As far as we are aware it is a brand new disorder,” said Dr. Daniel Lachance of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who presented his findings at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in Chicago.
Tiny magnets used in anti-cancer gene therapy
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Tiny magnets have been used to deliver anti-cancer gene therapy in mice in a development that could make the treatment much more effective, scientists said on Thursday.
The idea behind gene therapy is to replace faulty genes. But the approach has had mixed success because of the difficulty of getting genes to the right part of the body.
One option is to use viruses to carry genes, but this increases the risk of triggering an immune system reaction.
Chemotherapy effects on brain may be a myth
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“Chemofog” - impairments in memory and in thinking, or “cognition,” that have been attributed to chemotherapy—was not seen in two studies of women being treated for breast cancer, according to a presentation at the 60th annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Chicago..
In Melbourne, Australia, Dr. David G. Darby of CogState Ltd, where a cognitive assessment test bearing its name was developed, and colleagues, used the test to evaluate the changes in cognitive function in breast cancer patients. CogState Ltd. is an international, publicly held company that sells diagnostic tools.
The researchers tested 30 women with breast cancer, and 30 “control” subjects matched by age, before each cycle of chemotherapy and 28 days after the last cycle. Both groups of women also provided a subjective assessment of their cognitive function and feelings of depression and anxiety at each evaluation.
Aerobic Exercise Boosts Older Bodies and Minds, Review Suggests
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Aerobic exercise could give older adults a boost in brainpower, according to a recent review of studies from the Netherlands.
“Aerobic physical exercises that improve cardiovascular fitness also help boost cognitive processing speed, motor function and visual and auditory attention in healthy older people,” said lead review author Maaike Angevaren.
Around age 50, even healthy older adults begin to experience mild declines in cognition, such as occasional memory lapses and reduced ability to pay attention. Convincing evidence shows that regular exercise contributes to healthy aging, but could the types of exercise a person does influence his or her cognitive fitness?
