Botox effective for overactive bladder: study
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The popular wrinkle treatment Botox may have more than just cosmetic applications for people with a far more pressing quality of life issue than a wish to present an unfurrowed brow in public.
Botox, or botulinum-A toxin, was highly effective in treating patients with severe overactive bladder in a clinical trial and the desired effect lasted for months, according to results presented by researchers at a meeting of the American Urological Association in Atlanta on Sunday.
Allergan Inc., which sells Botox, did not sponsor the study, which was conducted independently by researchers in urology. An Allergan spokeswoman said the company has been “seeing very positive and encouraging trends” in the use of Botox for overactive bladder in its own clinical studies.
Bird flu will not reach US soon
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Sick poultry and infected people, rather than migratory birds, are more likely to bring the H5N1 bird flu virus into the United States, although that is unlikely to happen soon, a leading virologist said.
Robert Webster from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the United States said the virus is more likely to be introduced via human activities, such as poultry smuggling.
“There is no H5N1 in the United States. And I don’t think it is going to get there this year by wild birds…maybe not even next year,” he said on the sidelines of a conference organized by Fort Dodge Animal Health, a unit of Wyeth.
Metabolic syndrome raises risk of heart failure
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The findings of a new study suggest that the metabolic syndrome is a risk factor for heart failure, and this relationship is seen with or without the presence of other known heart failure risk factors, such as previous heart attack.
Individuals with the metabolic syndrome have a cluster of heart disease and diabetes risk factors, such as excess body weight, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high cholesterol levels.
The results imply that the “metabolic syndrome provides important risk information beyond that of established risk factors for heart failure,” lead author Dr. Erik Ingelsson, from Uppsala University in Sweden, and colleagues note. They suggest that insulin resistance and higher than normal levels of insulin in the blood may underlie this increased heart failure risk in these patients.
Early violence exposure doesn’t raise future risk
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Children who witness domestic or other interpersonal violence are no more likely to become adult victims of violence than those who do not witness abuse, results of a new study suggest.
Abuse is common and many children witness abuse, co-author Dr. Amy A. Ernst, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, told Reuters Health. “Still, it’s not necessarily a correlation,” she said.
The findings of the study were presented last week at the annual meeting of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine in San Francisco.
Benadryl edges Clarinex for hay fever
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Diphenhydramine hydrochloride—more familiarly known as Benadryl—appears to be more effective than desloratadine, a.k.a. Clarinex, in relieving symptoms of moderate to severe hay fever, according to researchers.
“Benadryl provided significantly better overall allergy symptom relief than Clarinex,” investigator Dr. James T. Angello told Reuters Health. “Even more noteworthy in this study is the finding that Benadryl relieved nasal congestion just as well as it reduced allergic rhinitis (i.e., hay fever) symptoms as a whole.”
However, Benadryl caused more drowsiness than Clarinex.
Lung cancer deaths not higher in female nonsmokers
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Contrary to conventional wisdom, female non-smokers are no more likely to die of lung cancer than their male counterparts, according to a large study.
However, researchers found, that non-smoking African-American women may be at greater risk than white women, for reasons that are as yet uncertain.
Smoking is by far the top cause of lung cancer, and by comparison, few non-smokers develop the disease. But there are other factors that raise the odds of lung cancer, including chronic exposure to secondhand smoke, asbestos or radon—a radioactive chemical found in the soil and at high levels in some homes.
Cholesterol drugs may improve abnormal heart rhythm
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A study of a class of commonly used cholesterol-lowering drugs, called statins, used by patients with enlarged hearts (dilated cardiomyopathy) shows that these patients had significant reductions in mortality, which was due in large measure to an anti-arrhythmic effect.
Investigators with the multicenter Defibrillators in Nonischemic Cardiomyopathy Treatment Evaluation (DEFINITE) trial evaluated the survival benefit and effect of statin therapy on sudden cardiac death in 458 patients with cardiomyopathy. Of the total, 229 patients were randomly selected to receive an implantable cardioverter defibrillator to correct their abnormal heart rhythm. These devices are programed to detect these abnormalities, and to then deliver a shock to restore normal heart rhythm.
Overall, 110 patients were taking a statin, while 348 were not. Statins include drugs such as Lipitor, Pravachol and Zocor.
Sperm donor passes rare dangerous disease on to four children
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According to a new report in the U.S., a sperm donor may have unwittingly passed an extremely rare and dangerous genetic ailment to five children born to four couples.
The case has served to highlight gaps prevalent in the screening process.
The very rare disease, severe congenital neutropenia, can be fatal in children if untreated but it’s very rarity means that sperm banks do not screen for it.
Vegan diet lowers odds of having twins
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Women who eat a vegan diet—a strict vegetarian diet that excludes all animal products including milk—are one fifth as likely as other women to have twins, a U.S. researcher reported on Saturday.
Hormones given to cattle to boost their milk and meat production might be related to these findings, said Dr. Gary Steinman, an obstetrician specializing in multiple-birth pregnancies at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York.
Steinman compared twin births rates among women who ate a regular diet, vegetarians who included dairy products, and vegan women.
Slovak doctor says solar flares could raise strokes
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Human beings may be at higher risk of strokes in years when the explosions on the sun peak, according to a neurologist who studied the records of 6,100 patients in Slovakia.
Dr. Michal Kovac said he found a spike in strokes and brain hemorrhages in the town of Nove Zamky in southern Slovakia in years when solar flares—bursts of energy stronger than a million nuclear bombs combined—are most abundant.
Kovac says his work, recently published in the Bratislava Medical Journal, builds on studies that show parts of the human body respond to fluctuations in the earth’s geomagnetic field caused by sun storms.
Merck cancer vaccine faces Christian-right scrutiny
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Merck & Co. Inc.‘s vaccine to prevent the world’s most prevalent sexually transmitted infection sailed through a panel of U.S. health experts, despite early fears of opposition from the Christian Right that it might lead to promiscuity and a false sense of security.
The drugmaker’s efforts to educate Christian groups while touting the vaccine’s top selling point—prevention of cervical cancer—helped win them over.
But Merck may ultimately find itself at loggerheads with those same groups as it seeks to make the vaccine mandatory for school admission, a step considered key for widespread acceptance and one that many of the groups oppose.
Internet searches: Librarians do it better
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Cancer patients seeking timely, accurate, unbiased information on the Internet about a disease and its treatment might do well to enlist the help of a professional librarian.
According to a study reported today at the Medical Library Association’s annual meeting in Phoenix, cancer patients are more likely to find what they are looking for with a librarian-mediated search instead of “going it alone.”
Over the last five years, Ruti Volk, a professional librarian and manager of the Patient Education Resource Center (PERC) at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, and colleagues have done about 2,100 searches for cancer patients. After each mediated-search, patients are asked to complete an evaluation on the information provided to them.
Cancer Survivors Face Emotional Challenges after Successful Treatment
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Your bout with cancer—or maybe a battle royal—is over. You beat the disease, withstood the treatment. You’re a survivor.
But after treatment, many women find themselves dealing with emotional fallout—fear of recurrence, depression, body changes, loneliness, and changing relationships—to name a few.
The June issue of Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource offers steps to deal with life’s chapters after cancer:
Cochlear Implantation In Both Ears May Improve Speech Perception
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A new study suggests that sequential bilateral cochlear implantation, or the placement of cochlear implants in both of a child’s ears through separate surgeries, has the potential to improve speech perception abilities in quiet and in noise. Cochlear implants are electronic devices that have the potential to restore partial hearing to the deaf.
Background: Binaural or two ear hearing enables optimal performance of the human auditory system. In normal hearing subjects binaural hearing is directly associated with improved speech understanding in quiet and in noise, as well as improved sound localization ability, when compared to listening with a single ear. Unilateral (hearing in one ear) and/or bilateral hearing loss may deprive individuals of these binaural mechanisms. Because of its widely recognized advantages, hearing professionals have for many years endeavored to provide effective binaural hearing to individuals with hearing impairment whenever technology has allowed.
Closure of holes in heart important treatment for young stroke patients
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Placement of devices to close holes in the heart is a successful treatment for young stroke patients, finds a study involving three medical centers.
No major complications were reported from the 45 patients included in the study, leading physicians to determine that closure of patent foramen ovales (PFOs) and atrial septal defects (ASDs) with transcatheter devices is a safe surgical alternative for children and young adults who have had a stroke. Most patients who underwent device closure procedures for PFOs or ASDs remained symptom-free months afterward.
Published in the May issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, the retrospective medical record study involved patients from Mayo Clinic Rochester, the University of Parma in Italy, and Loyola University Medical Center in Illinois, who had been treated between January 1999 and August 2005. Included were patients younger than 35 who had undergone percutaneous closure (through the skin) of PFO or ASD and who had at least one presumed stroke.
