Impotence drugs linked to eye damage risk - study
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Impotence drugs such as Viagra and Cialis can increase the risk of eye damage in men who have a history of heart disease or high blood pressure, researchers said on Tuesday.
In a small study, scientists at the University of Alabama in Birmingham found that men who had suffered a heart attack were 10 times more likely to have optic nerve damage if they had been taking leading anti-impotence pills.
Vertebroplasty Heals Fractures but May Cause Others
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A new Mayo Clinic study finds that vertebroplasty, a procedure used to treat painful compression fractures in the spinal vertebrae due to osteoporosis, appears to increase the risk for new fractures in adjacent vertebrae. The study also found vertebrae adjacent to fractures treated with vertebroplasty fracture significantly sooner than more distant vertebrae. Findings will be published in the January issue of American Journal of Neuroradiology (http://www.ajnr.org).
“We found there is a relationship between vertebroplasty and the development of new fractures,” says Andrew Trout, first author of the paper describing the study’s findings. “People should be made aware of the fact that despite the positive benefits of vertebroplasty, there is a risk of new fractures with this procedure.”
Flu - not the only germ threat this time of year!
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The flu hasn’t even hit hard yet this year, but it seems like everyone’s getting sick. What’s the deal?
Simply put, there are a lot more infectious invaders besides the flu to worry about. They don’t get the big headlines, but they still knock people down for days or weeks and cause thousands of deaths each winter.
Duration of anesthesia as an indicator of morbidity and mortality in office-based facial plastic sur
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The length of time patients spend under anesthesia during outpatient facial plastic surgery procedures does not appear to be linked to their risk of injury or death, according to a study in the January issue of Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery.
Several high-profile patient deaths in office-based plastic surgery facilities have led state regulatory agencies and medical boards to develop policies regarding the procedures performed at these locations, according to background information in the article. Some, including those in Pennsylvania and Tennessee, have mandated that any surgeries longer than four hours (240 minutes) be performed in an inpatient facility. However, there is little data on which regulatory bodies can base these types of decisions, the authors write. “Defining the risks and morbidity related to longer procedure duration, specifically in facial plastic surgery, has great significance because of the necessity to treat the aging face as a unit, thus appropriately combining multiple procedures” that will require longer surgeries, they report.
Women’s Silent Health Problem: Study Finds Fecal Incontinence Prevalent
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It’s a topic that is discussed so infrequently – for reasons that are easy to understand – that it may seem it isn’t much of a problem. But new research shows that fecal incontinence is prevalent among U.S. women, especially those in older age groups, those who have had numerous babies, women whose deliveries were assisted by forceps or vacuum devices, and those who have had a hysterectomy.
Many women in the study who had fecal incontinence also had another medical condition, such as major depression or diabetes, and often experienced urinary incontinence in addition to FI. The findings are reported in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
More bird flu deaths as experts seek funds
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Bird flu experts meeting in Beijing said on Tuesday the world urgently needed to amass a war chest of up to $1.4 billion to fight the deadly virus and prepare nations should a pandemic strain emerge.
Underscoring that urgency, Indonesia’s health ministry said a toddler who died on Tuesday was being tested for bird flu days after his 13-year-old sister died of the H5N1 virus, according to local tests. A surviving sister is also being tested.
Lung cancer reality may help kin quit smoking
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A Duke physician is hoping that coping with a loved one’s lung cancer will offer a “teachable moment” that helps smokers quit for good.
“This could be a time when they really would think about quitting smoking because they see the consequences in real life,” Dr. Lori Bastian, an internist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, told Reuters Health.
But while patients’ relatives have told Bastian and her colleagues that they’re thinking about quitting, they also say it’s the worst possible time to try, given the stress and anxiety of caring for a sick relative.
World Record for Number of Heart Transplants in One Year Set
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NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center performed 119 heart transplants in 2005, a one-year record for any one medical center in the history of heart transplantation worldwide.
NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia has the largest heart transplant program in the country, having performed more than 1,700 transplants since the inception of its heart transplant program in 1977.
Airborne legionnaires bug can travel miles
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The bacterium responsible for causing legionnaires disease can spread up to 6 kilometers from its source by airborne transmission, French researchers report.
Legionella pneumophila likes to live in hot water, such as in industrial cooling towers or the water systems of large buildings where it can then cause pneumonia-like infections. Now it seems that a wider area may be at risk.
US bird flu outbreak could cost insurers $133 bln
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A U.S. avian flu pandemic on the scale of one that took place in 1918 could take the lives of an estimated 1.9 million people and cost the life insurance industry $133 billion in extra death claims, according to a study released on Tuesday.
A moderate influenza outbreak, based on similar events in 1957 and 1968, could cause 209,000 deaths, according to a report released by the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.), which cites data from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That compares with a typical year when 36,000 Americans die from the flu.
Painkillers may cut risk of ovarian cancer
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Regular use of common painkillers is associated with a reduced risk of ovarian cancer, according to the results of a recent population-based study. Still, researchers say they are a long way from recommending these drugs solely for possibly preventing ovarian cancer.
In the study, women who used any NSAID—i.e., non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen or naproxen—in the preceding 5 years were 28 percent less likely to develop ovarian cancer than were nonusers. The risk reduction was strongest with aspirin—37 percent.
Altruism, better health drive patients to trials
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The opportunity to help others and the possibility of improved health are two of the factors that motivate rheumatoid arthritis patients to participate in clinical trials, new research shows.
“Consideration of these factors may facilitate the inclusion of more diverse patient populations into trials and enhance the applicability of trial results,” senior author Dr. Arthur Kavanaugh and colleagues, from the University of California at San Diego, note in the Journal of Rheumatology.
Ginger prevents postop nausea and vomiting
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Medical data suggest that at a dose of at least 1 gram of ginger is effective in preventing the nausea and vomiting that often afflicts patients after undergoing surgery.
Numerous studies have looked at a variety of agents for preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting, yet none have been accepted as a gold standard for this use, according to the report in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Drug firms eye fat profits from new obesity pills
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A marijuana joint might seem an odd starting point in the search for weight-loss secrets.
Yet a compound switching off the same brain circuits that make people hungry when they smoke cannabis looks set to become the world’s first blockbuster anti-obesity medicine, with sales tipped by analysts to top $3 billion a year.
US says two flu drugs unlikely to work
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U.S. doctors should stop using two antiviral drugs to treat this season’s influenza because the dominant strain has become resistant to the drugs, health officials said on Saturday.
The alert about antiviral pills amantadine and rimantadine applies to the seasonal influenza, not the H5N1 avian flu strain that experts fear could mutate and cause a global pandemic.
