Seven Cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Associated with Transplanted Human Tissue
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Seven cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) associated with transplanted human tissue have occurred in the UK over a period of 33 years, reveals a study published ahead of print in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
The seven cases of the fatal neurodegenerative disease were reported to the UK CJD surveillance system.
This monitors all cases of CJD arising sporadically, genetically, and as a result of infection from contaminated food products (variant form) or surgery (iatrogenic).
Drowsy driving risks surprise US researchers
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Drowsiness behind the wheel is a more significant safety problem on U.S. roads than previously thought, although cell phone use is the most common distraction for drivers, new research showed on Thursday.
Driver distraction was the cause of most auto crashes and near crashes in a year-long study of 241 drivers in the Washington, D.C., area conducted for federal safety regulators by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.
The most surprising finding, researchers said, was the accident rate among drowsy drivers. They were at least four times more likely to crash or narrowly escape an accident than rested motorists, the data showed.
China confirms 12th human bird flu death
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A man in central China has died of bird flu, the official Xinhua news agency said on Thursday, reporting the country’s twelfth H5N1 virus death since November.
There have been more than 30 outbreaks in poultry in a dozen provinces over the past year in China, making it one of the countries worst-hit by a virus that has spread with surprising speed this year, with outbreaks in more than 30 countries.
Epidemiologists fear that bird flu could mutate to a form where it could pass easily among humans, potentially triggering a pandemic in which millions could die.
Alzheimer’s up on 2004 list of US death causes
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Americans are living longer, healthier lives and only the mortality rate from Alzheimer’s disease is increasing among the top 10 causes of death, the U.S. federal government reported on Wednesday.
Alzheimer’s disease moved to seventh place from eighth place among the leading causes of death in 2004, passing influenza and pneumonia, the National Center for Health Statistics reported.
“The life expectancy of Americans in 2004—77.9 years—is the highest it has ever been,” the NCHS said in a statement.
Multifaceted quit-smoking program works well
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A comprehensive smoking cessation program involving counseling, support and a tailored medication regimen can help even highly stressed individuals quit, new study findings show.
The program, the New York City Fire Department’s “Tobacco Free with FDNY,” was offered free-of-charge to FDNY rescue workers and family members in the aftermath of the 2001 World Trade Center collapse.
Its effectiveness suggests that “medication alone is not as effective as medication with a social support mechanism,” study author Dr. David J. Prezant, chief medical officer of the New York City Fire Department’s Office of Medical Affairs, told Reuters Health.
Many people with arthritis skip exercise
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People with arthritis are even less likely than the average American to get enough—or any—exercise, a large U.S. study shows.
Among more than 27,000 adults in a national health survey, those with arthritis were less likely to be exercising at levels recommended by health experts: at least 30 minutes of moderate activity, like brisk walking, or 20 minutes of more vigorous exercise, on most days of the week.
“People with arthritis are not meeting physical activity recommendations made at the federal level and by experts in the arthritis field,” study co-author Dr. Jennifer Hootman, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said in a statement.
Preeclampsia a risk factor for future stroke
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Pregnant women who develop preeclampsia—a condition that includes abnormally high blood pressure—are known to run the risk of having a stroke during pregnancy, but researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now report that preeclampsia is also a risk factor for stroke in the future.
Dr. David W. Brown and colleagues in Atlanta used data from the Stroke Prevention in Young Women Study to assess the association of preclampsia with stroke in women between the ages of 15 and 44. The team identified 261 cases of stroke among nonpregnant women in the study group and compared them with 416 randomly chosen “controls” who had not had a stroke.
There was a history of preeclampsia in 15 percent of the women with stroke and in 10 percent of controls, the investigators report in the medical journal Stroke.
Signs of long-term problems seen in teens’ dieting
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Teenagers who go on diets or take unhealthy measures to lose weight may end up gaining pounds in the long run, according to a new study.
What’s more, researchers found, these teens seem likely to get trapped in a pattern of unhealthy eating, extreme weight-loss tactics and, in some cases, overt eating disorders.
Among more than 2,500 teenagers in the study, those who said they were trying to control their weight were three times more likely than their peers to be overweight five years later. They were also at greater risk of having a binge-eating disorder, or to be vomiting or using diet pills, laxatives or diuretics in an effort to lose weight.
Study shows results of tight glucose control
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Here’s what we know about controlling blood glucose (blood sugar) in people with diabetes: It’s not easy, but it can be done. It requires vigilance and resolve. And it can save your life.
A recent study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has answered one of the most important questions about diabetes: Can glucose control lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes? The answer is yes - intensive glucose control can reduce the risk by more than half. From 1983 to 1989, the NIH-sponsored Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) randomly assigned a large number of people with diabetes to an intensive or conventional treatment group. Those in the intensive group were held to a stricter level of glucose control and were required to self-monitor their own glucose levels throughout the day. The DCCT ended in 1993 after conclusively demonstrating that intensive control better protected against damage to the eyes (retinopathy), kidneys (nephropathy), and nerves (neuropathy).
New guidelines for treating severely injured patients
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If someone is injured in an automobile collision or is severely burned, emergency room physicians across the country would probably take similar steps to stabilize each condition. But subsequent treatment in the intensive care unit or operating room is less well established and may vary significantly.
That is likely to change based on the work of an interdisciplinary team of dozens of scientists and physicians funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). Drawing from the best available evidence, the team is developing a series of standard procedures for the care of severely injured patients. The guidelines will describe how to implement the most successful treatment protocols in the clinic and will include summaries of each procedure ready to print on 3-by-5 index cards for quick bedside reference.
The team’s first article—on mechanical ventilation—appeared in the September 2005 issue of the Journal of Trauma: Injury, Infection, and Critical Care. Planned future topics will cover resuscitation, prevention and treatment of venous blood clots, diagnosis of ventilator-associated pneumonia, blood sugar control, nutritional support, transfusion thresholds, and sedation. The team chose to cover aspects of care for which practices vary the most and those that have the greatest potential to influence patient outcomes.
Wal-Mart offers to help fix US health care
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Wal-Mart Stores Inc., at the center of debate over corporate responsibility for health care, said on Tuesday that it wants to use its cost-cutting expertise to help make the U.S. health care system more efficient.
Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, has become a lightning rod for labor unions, environmentalists, anti-sprawl groups and others who contend that the retailer pays poverty-level wages, pushes employees onto government-funded Medicaid health insurance, and devours green space for its massive stores.
Maryland recently passed legislation that requires Wal-Mart to spend more on employee health care, and similar bills have been proposed in dozens of other states as they try to defray rising costs.
Teens not learning lesson from mom’s skin cancer
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Teenagers whose mothers have been diagnosed with skin cancer are not much more likely than their peers to protect themselves effectively from the sun, a new study shows.
Having a parent with skin cancer increases a person’s own risk of the disease, Alan C. Geller of the Boston University School of Medicine and colleagues note in the medical journal of Pediatrics.
For the more-treatable basal cell and squamous cell cancers, risk is at least doubled, while having a family history of melanoma, the most deadly type of skin cancer, increases risk from two- to eight-fold. This means effective sun protection is even more important for individuals with a family history of skin cancer, Geller and his team write.
U.S. FDA plans tracking of drug safety reviews
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration needs a way to track the hundreds of internal safety reviews completed each year about drugs already on the market, an agency official said on Tuesday.
Dr. Paul Seligman said building such a system would be one of his priorities as he takes the newly created position of associate director for safety policy and communication in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
Analysts in the FDA’s Office of Drug Safety provide about 600 reports a year about potential concerns from marketed prescription drugs to officials in another office, the Office of New Drugs.
Smoking May Cause Far More Cancer Deaths in Asian Americans than Recognized
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Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese American males living in California die of cancer at three times the rate of South Asian females in California, whose cancer mortality rate is one of the lowest in the world.
According to a new study by UC Davis Cancer Center researchers, such disparities between genders and Asian and Pacific Islander ethnic groups can be explained almost entirely by tobacco smoke exposure—suggesting that if smoking were eliminated, Asian and Pacific Islander Americans all would have very low cancer mortality rates, with minimal variation from group to group.
“Among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, non-lung cancer death rates, like lung cancer death rates, correlate very closely with their smoke exposures,” said Bruce N. Leistikow, associate professor of public health sciences at UC Davis and a leading expert on the epidemiology of smoking-related illnesses. “If all Asian and Pacific Islander Americans had as little smoke exposure as South Asian females in California, our work suggests that their cancer mortality rates across the board could be as low as that of the South Asian females.”
Engineers Creating Small Wireless Device to Improve Cancer Treatment
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Engineers at Purdue University are creating a wireless device the size of a rice grain that could be implanted in tumors to tell doctors the precise dose of radiation received and locate the exact position of tumors during treatment.
Researchers at Purdue’s Birck Nanotechnology Center have tested a dime-size prototype to prove the concept and expect to have the miniature version completed by the end of summer, said Babak Ziaie (pronounced Zee-Eye-Eee), an associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
“Currently, there is no way of knowing the exact dose of radiation received by a tumor,” Ziaie said. “And, because most organs shift inside the body depending on whether a patient is sitting or lying down, for example, the tumor also shifts. This technology will allow doctors to pinpoint the exact position of the tumor to more effectively administer radiation treatments.”
