Hurricane Katrina Perspectives Detail Personal Drama and Public Tragedy
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Tales of heroes and hooligans will swirl through this storm-ravaged city for months and years to come, and the editors at the New England Journal of Medicine this week contributed seven compelling Hurricane Katrina stories.
Four of the seven are personal accounts of New Orleans physicians - three Ochsner Clinic physicians and an infectious disease specialist who was among the last evacuees from Charity Hospital.
Cardiovascular Fitness Gains Can Come Without Pain
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Side-stepping the “no pain, no gain” mantra, researchers here reported that the amount of exercise, not necessarily its intensity, can help improve cardiovascular fitness.
Duke investigators found that patients who walked at a brisk pace for about 12 miles a week matched the cardiovascular benefits for those who jogged that amount in a much shorter time.
Radical Surgery Best Option for Most Ovarian Cancer Patients
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In a retrospective study looking back at a decade of surgeries, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center researchers have determined that surgery to remove metastatic disease from the diaphragm, in conjunction with other procedures to remove the primary diseased tissue in ovarian cancer patients, significantly increases survival rates. Study results were published in Gynecologic Oncology online.
“Surgeons have long believed that removing as much diseased tissue as possible is important for survival of cancer patients,” said William Cliby, M.D., associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Mayo Clinic. “The choice of many surgeons to not resect diaphragm disease in ovarian cancer patients seemed counterintuitive, but it was based on the feeling that it might not improve survival. We sought to address this issue.”
Elevated Blood Levels of a Protein are Linked to Asbestos-Induced Cancers
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Researchers at New York University School of Medicine and Wayne State University have found a molecule that reveals the early stages of pleural mesothelioma, a chest cancer caused by asbestos. The finding opens the way to a blood test for the disease, according to a new study published in the Oct. 13 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
An estimated 7.5 million workers in the United States have been exposed to asbestos and, according to government statistics, it remains a hazard to some 1.3 million workers in construction and building maintenance.
Blood test may detect asbestos-related lung cancer
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Researchers have identified a protein that could help in the early detection of a rare but deadly chest cancer caused by asbestos exposure, a study said on Wednesday.
The finding, reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, could lead to a test for the disease, which is usually detected at a stage when treatments are ineffective and patients only live for another 8 to 18 months.
Training parents aids autistic kids’ language
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Training parents to better communicate with their autistic preschoolers can spur children’s language development, according to a study of one such training program.
Though parental training courses are a growing part of managing autism spectrum disorders, there has been little evidence from clinical trials that the approach aids children’s language, behavior and social skills.
Official Pakistan quake death toll now 25,000
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The number of people who died in the earthquake that devastated northern Pakistan at the weekend stands at 25,000 and is expected to rise, the government said on Thursday.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said 15 to 20 percent of the area hit by Saturday’s 7.6 magnitude quake, including the Neelam and Jhelum Valleys in Pakistani Kashmir, has not been reached to check casualty figures.
Breastfeeding may reduce infant’s risk of eczema
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Infants who consume breastmilk for four months or longer after birth have a reduced risk of being plagued by the dry skin or itchy rash characteristic of eczema by the time they are 4 years old, new study findings suggest.
“Early onset of eczema or asthma is a burden not only for the child but also for the family. As such, our results are promising,” study author Inger Kull, of Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm, told Reuters Health.
Roche outsources some stages of Tamiflu production
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Roche Holding AG, the Swiss company that produces the most effective antiviral drug available for avian flu, is outsourcing some stages of its production but would not surrender patents on it.
The Swiss firm is under pressure to increase production of the antiviral treatment Tamiflu amid fears of a shortage in the event of a bird flu pandemic.
Yahoo shuts chat rooms promoting adult-child sex
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Yahoo Inc., the online media company, has agreed to shut down Internet chat rooms designed to promote sex between adults and children.
The agreement with the attorneys general of New York and Nebraska is the first to institute systemwide controls over chat rooms likely to be frequented by child predators.
EU finds no bird flu in Romania
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Bird flu has not been detected in Romania, European Union veterinary experts said on Wednesday, confirming that the highly contagious disease has not yet reached Europe.
“The disease situation amongst poultry and wild birds ... the available epidemiological data and the laboratory results at present do not confirm the presence of avian influenza,” the European Commission said in a statement after a meeting of EU member state vets.
New Surgical Treatment For Severe Depression
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Treatment-resistant depression is a severe form of the illness that affects 20% of patients with Depression.
A team of psychiatrists and neurosurgeons at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Medical Center is the first in the area to offer implantation of a device recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating patients with treatment-resistant depression.
High blood glucose impairs coronary vasodilation in diabetics
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In the heart muscle of type 1 diabetics, high blood glucose is a significant contributor to poorly opening vessels, or poor vasodilation, according a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Even administration of high levels of insulin, which usually enhances vasodilation, can’t counteract the negative effect of high glucose on the heart.
“Since it is typical for type 1 diabetics to periodically experience insulin deficits or increased blood glucose, we systematically isolated the effect of insulin and glucose to see which had a greater effect on dilation of blood vessels in these patients.”
Midlife Obesity Linked With Increased Dementia Risk
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Individuals who were obese at midlife had an increased risk for dementia later in life compared to individuals of normal weight, according to an article in the October issue of the Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Obesity is on the rise all over the world and is related to vascular diseases, which may be linked to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), according to background information in the article. However, the link between obesity and dementia risk has not been extensively studied and long-term follow-up studies performed thus far have yielded somewhat conflicting results.
Diagnostic test maker receives report on HIV tests from China clinical trials
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Calypte Biomedical Corp. (HIV) announced that it has received the final clinical trial report from the Chinese Centers for Disease Control (Chinese CDC) confirming the performance of the five Calypte HIV tests that were evaluated earlier this year.
Three rapid HIV tests, Aware HIV-1/2 BSP, Aware HIV-1/2 OMT, and Aware HIV-1/2 U were evaluated in these studies. These tests employ, respectively, blood, oral fluid, and urine samples. In addition, the Calypte HIV-1 Serum Western blot and the HIV-1 Urine Western blot tests were evaluated for their performance in various Chinese provinces and populations. The clinical trial was performed by the Chinese CDC.
