Asthma: Epidemiology, etiology and risk factors
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An article http://www.cmaj.ca/press/cmaj080612.pdf on the epidemiology, cause and risk factors of asthma is the first in a special report on asthma in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) http://www.cmaj.ca designed for clinical practitioners. This review looks at risk factors for persistent asthma at different ages, including prenatal, infancy, childhood and adulthood.
Genetics, environment and host characteristics are risk factors for asthma. The significant increases in the incidence of asthma and geographic variation in prevalence rates support the idea that the environment plays a large role in the current asthma epidemic. As well, environmental triggers may affect asthma differently during various life stages and risk factors may change over time.
The report comes from the researchers conducting the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Study, a multicentre Canadian study involving 5000 pregnant women with the aim of better understanding the development of allergy and asthma in children.
Understanding the implications of prenatal testing for Down syndrome
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With new prenatal tests for Down syndrome on the horizon promising to be safer, more accurate, and available to women earlier in pregnancy, the medical community must come together and engage in dialogue about the impact of existing and expected tests, argues a new leading article published Online First by Archives of Disease in Childhood. Authored by Brian Skotko, MD, MPP, clinical genetics fellow at Children’s Hospital Boston, the article shows a steady decrease in the number of babies being born with Down syndrome since the introduction of prenatal testing and poses the question: “As new tests become available, will babies with Down syndrome slowly disappear?”
Research reviewed by Skotko showed a 15% decrease in births of babies with Down syndrome between 1989 and 2005 in the United States. In the absence of prenatal testing, researchers would have anticipated the opposite - a 34% increase in births - due to the trend of women waiting longer to have children; known to increase the chances of having a baby with Down syndrome.
Green tea component may help preserve stored platelets, tissues
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In two separate studies, a major component in green tea, epigallocatechin-3-O-gallate (EGCG), has been found to help prolong the preservation of both stored blood platelets and cryopreserved skin tissues. Published in the current double issue of Cell Transplantation (18:5/6), now freely available on-line at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct, devoted to organ preservation and transplantation studies from Japan, the two complimentary studies have shown that EGCG, known to have strong anti-oxidative activity, can prolong platelet cell “shelf life” via anti-apoptosis (programmed cell death) properties and preserve skin tissues by controlling cell division.
Dr. Suong-Hyn Hyon, lead author on both studies and associate professor in the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences in Kyoto, Japan, says that EGCG, a green tea polyphenol, is a known anti-oxidation and anti-proliferation agent, yet the exact mechanism by which EGCG works is not yet known. However, some of the activity of EGCG is likely to be related to its surface binding ability.
Enhanced platelet preservation
Inner Workings of Molecular Thermostat Point to Pathways to Fight Diabetes, Obesity
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Inner Workings of Molecular Thermostat Point to Pathways to Fight Diabetes, Obesity, According to Penn Study
Best known as the oxygen-carrying component of hemoglobin, the protein that makes blood red, heme also plays a role in chemical detoxification and energy metabolism within the cell. Heme levels are tightly maintained, and with good reason: Too little heme prevents cell growth and division; excessive amounts of heme are toxic.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered a molecular circuit involving heme that helps maintain proper metabolism in the body, providing new insights into metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes.
Vaccines could halve sickle-cell deaths in Africa
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In Africa, children with sickle cell anemia develop bacteremia -bacterial infection of the blood - at rates up to 30 times higher than in children without sickle cell anemia.
However, actions as simple as vaccinating against the bacteria that cause bacteremia using vaccines readily available in developed countries could save the lives of thousands of children with sickle-cell anemia in Africa, researchers said on Thursday.
Sickle-cell anemia affects millions of people worldwide, but more than 80 percent of cases are in Africa, where around 200,000 children are born with the disease every year. It is a genetic disease in which red blood cells deform into a sickle shape. These sickled cells cluster together, blocking blood flow and causing pain, vulnerability to infections and organ damage.
A drink or two hours before driving ups crash risk
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Watch out for that glass of wine at meals or those two beers you had when celebrating your friend’s birthday. Research now suggests that having as little as a drink or two within six hours before getting behind the wheel of a car increases the risk of being involved in an accident.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Italy’s minister of agriculture, Luca Zaia, said that “two glasses of wine cannot be the cause of a traffic crash,” Dr. Stefano Di Bartolomeo told Reuters Health via E-mail. “Our findings show just the opposite—the increase in risk is significant already after 1-2 glasses.”
Di Bartolomeo, from the Università degli Studi di Udine, and fellow researchers in Italy looked at the effects of alcohol use and meal consumption in 326 drivers admitted to the emergency room for treatment after a crash. All had also been driving during the six to 18 hours before the crash.
Drug-resistant influenza becoming a trickier target
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Viruses resistant to antiviral medications are a growing problem, according to a study in The Netherlands.
“After monitoring antiviral resistance patterns during three subsequent influenza seasons in the Netherlands, we described the unpredictable nature of the emergence of antiviral resistance patterns.” Dr. Marcel Jonges told Reuters Health, referring to his team’s report in the September issue of Antiviral Research.
“This means,” he continued, “that effective treatment or prophylaxis of influenza is becoming more and more complicated, since hospitals and nursing homes cannot base appropriate antiviral therapy on national influenza surveillance drug susceptibility data.”
Postpartum Baby Blues Impact Majority of New Moms
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Tracy Perkins Rodriguez, 36, thought her life was finally on the upswing. When her husband returned from his third tour of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, the couple purchased their dream home and promptly became pregnant with the child they had always hoped to conceive together. However, as Rodriguez entered her third trimester of pregnancy, she began feeling tired with little enthusiasm for everyday life.
“Before my last trimester of pregnancy, I was an upbeat person who was always on the go,” Rodriguez said. “After I delivered my baby and returned home, I began crying every day and found that I no longer had energy to get out of bed and leave the house.”
Rodriguez is not alone. Postpartum blues impact more than 80 percent of women who give birth. Symptoms include temporarily feeling sad and weepy or anxious and moody. Other signs include being angry at the baby, husband or other children.
Officials: India patent refusals to help treat AIDS
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India’s rejection of patent applications on two life-saving HIV/AIDS drugs last week has been welcomed by health officials, who say it will ensure wider access to the medicines.
India has the world’s third highest caseload, with 2.5 million infections, behind Nigeria and South Africa.
India’s Patent Office rejected applications for leading antiretroviral drug tenofovir, manufactured by U.S. biotechnology group Gilead, and darunavir, which is made by Ireland’s Tibotec Pharmaceuticals, officials said.
Vietnam birth trend may fuel sex work, trafficking
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The ratio of boys born in Vietnam compared with girls has grown at an unusually rapid pace in recent years and could lead to a rise in sex work and trafficking, the United Nations said.
The sex ratio at birth was 112.1 male births per 100 female births in 2008, up from an estimated 106.2 in 2000, the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) said in a report.
With growth since 2006 of one percentage point per year, the ratio might cross the 115 mark within three years, it said.
New CDC guidelines stress quick treatment for H1N1
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Patients who have flu-like symptoms and are having trouble breathing should get quick treatment with the antiviral drugs Tamiflu or Relenza, even before getting a flu test, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
And doctors should consider setting up a system so that patients most likely to become severely ill from flu have a prescription on hand so they can just call up if needed to get the go-ahead to take the drugs if they develop symptoms, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
“Treatment should not wait for laboratory confirmation of influenza because laboratory testing can delay treatment and because a negative rapid test for influenza does not rule out influenza,” the CDC says in updated guidelines, available at http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/recommendations.htm.
Contraband cigarettes account for 17 percent of all brands consumed by adolescent smokers
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Consumption of contraband cigarettes amongst adolescent daily smokers in Canada accounts for 17% of all cigarettes smoked by this age group, and rises to more than 25% in Ontario and Quebec. This behaviour may be undermining tobacco-prevention strategies, as they focus on taxation and minimum age restrictions to curb and prevent smoking, states an article http://www.cmaj.ca/press/cmaj090665.pdf in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) http://www.cmaj.ca.
The study looked at data from 41 886 high school students in grades 9 to 12 from public and private elementary and secondary schools in all 10 provinces who participated in Canada’s 2006/2007 Youth Smoking Survey. From the selected schools, 61% of eligible students participated.
Among the students in grades 9 to 12, 5.2% were daily smokers and 13.1% of these reported cigarettes from First Nations reserves as their usual brand. Smokers of these cigarettes reported significantly higher smoking levels compared with other smokers – 16.8 vs. 11.9 cigarettes per day.
Study finds US prison system falls short in treating drug addiction
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Almost a quarter of a million individuals addicted to heroin are incarcerated in the United States each year. However, many prison systems across the country still do not offer medical treatment for heroin and opiate addiction, despite the demonstrated social, medical and economic benefits of opiate replacement therapy (ORT).
According to new research from The Miriam Hospital, Brown University and their affiliated Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights, just half of all federal and state prison systems offer ORT with the medications methadone and buprenorphine, and only in very limited circumstances. Similarly, only twenty-three states provide referrals for some inmates to treatment upon release from prison. These policies are counter to guidelines issued by both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which say prisoners should be offered ORT for treatment of opiate dependence.
The study’s findings are published online by Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
Scientists find three new gene links to Alzheimer’s
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Scientists have found three new major genetic links to Alzheimer’s, affecting up to 20 percent of people with the brain-wasting disease, and said on Sunday it was the most significant such discovery in 15 years.
Two large studies found that the three new genes join the better-known APOE4 gene as significant risk factors for the most common cause of dementia.
“If we were able to remove the detrimental effects of these genes through treatments, we could reduce the proportion of people developing Alzheimer’s by 20 percent,” Julie Williams, a professor of Neuropsychological Genetics at Britain’s Cardiff University, told a news conference in London.
Piece from childhood virus may save soldiers’ lives
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A harmless shard from the shell of a common childhood virus may halt a biological process that kills a significant percentage of battlefield casualties, heart attack victims and oxygen-deprived newborns, according to research presented Sunday, September 6, 2009, at the 12th European meeting on complement in human disease in Budapest, Hungary.
Introducing the virus’s shell in vitro shuts down what’s known as the complement response, a primordial part of the immune system that attacks and destroys the organs and vascular lining of people who have been deprived of oxygen for prolonged periods, according to researchers at Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters (CHKD) and Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS), in Norfolk, Va.
The complement response kicks in after the victim has been revived, in what is known as a reperfusion injury. It does its work slowly but unrelentingly, killing soldiers, infants or heart attack victims over the course of days.
