Culture

Boston, MA (November 24, 2014)--Lights flash, a siren wails and an ambulance races to help a person whose heart has stopped beating.

In most cases, a 911 dispatcher will have sent an advanced life support, or ALS, ambulance to the scene, equipped with sophisticated gear and staffed with a crew of highly trained paramedics who can deliver specialized care in the field, including intubations and IV interventions.

Unfortunately, according to a new study by health policy researchers at Harvard, those advanced techniques actually increase the patient's risk of death.

Patients who had cardiac arrest at home or elsewhere outside of a hospital had greater survival to hospital discharge and to 90 days beyond if they received basic life support (BLS) vs. advanced life support (ALS) from ambulance personnel, according to a report published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.

A commonly prescribed muscle relaxant may be an effective treatment for a rare but devastating form of diabetes, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report.

The drug, dantrolene, prevents the destruction of insulin-producing beta cells both in animal models of Wolfram syndrome and in cell models derived from patients who have the illness.

Results are published Nov. 24 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Online Early Edition.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - November 24, 2014 - Nearly all individuals in their late 60s and early 70s -- including 100 percent of men -- now qualify for and should consider starting a statin medication to reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease, under the recently released cholesterol guidelines from the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA).

Lugano/Geneva, Switzerland, 24 November 2014 - High-dose interleukin-2 can be effective in selected metastatic renal cell cancer patients pre-treated with VEGF-targeted agents, reveals research presented today at the ESMO Symposium on Immuno-Oncology in Geneva, Switzerland.

People with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea may have an intrinsic inability to burn high amounts of oxygen during strenuous aerobic exercise, according to a new study led by researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.

The study, reported in the current issue of Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, shows that people with sleep apnea, in which breathing repeatedly starts and stops during slumber, have a lower peak oxygen uptake during aerobic activity than those who do not suffer from the sleep disorder.

WASHINGTON - Teens prescribed anti-anxiety or sleep medications may be up to 12 times more likely to abuse those drugs illegally than teens who have never received a prescription, often by obtaining additional pills from friends or family members, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

The research found that incisor teeth grow quickly in the early stages of the second trimester of a baby's development, while molars grow at a slower rate in the third trimester. This is so incisors are ready to erupt after birth, at approximately six months of age, when a baby makes the transition from breast-feeding to weaning.

Weaning in humans takes place relatively early compared to some primates, such as chimpanzees. As a result, there is less time available for human incisors to form, so the enamel grows rapidly to compensate.

Research published today found that the investigational drug patiromer decreased high potassium levels and maintained normal potassium levels in patients with chronic kidney disease. The results of a multicenter trial appear in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Elevated potassium, a condition called hyperkalemia, increases the risk of death in high-risk patients and limits the use of several types of drugs, called RAAS (renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system) inhibitors, commonly used to control hypertension and cardiovascular disease and prevent kidney disorders.

Hamilton, ON (Nov. 21, 2014) - Here is what we know: If people take medications prescribed to them, they usually get better. But only about half of all patients prescribed medication take it according to directions. Here is what we don't know: We don't know how to get patients to take their medications, despite many studies looking at the issue.

OAKLAND, Calif., Nov. 21, 2014 -- Digoxin, a drug commonly used to treat heart conditions, was associated with a 71 percent higher risk of death and a 63 percent higher risk of hospitalization among adults with diagnosed atrial fibrillation and no evidence of heart failure, according to a Kaiser Permanente study that appears in the current online issue of Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology.

Patients who receive more cells get significant benefits. That's a key lesson emerging from a clinical trial that was reported this week at the American Heart Association meeting in Chicago.

In this study, doctors treated heart attack patients with their own bone marrow cells, selected for their healing potential and then reinjected into the heart, in an effort to improve the heart's recovery.

Gases don't conduct heat as well as solids do. Cellular or aerated concretes take advantage of this effect, which experts call "gas-phase insulation". The heat barrier is achieved by air encased in the cavities of the concrete. But gas-phase insulation has far greater potential than keeping our homes warm. It can also be used to protect turbine engine and waste incinerator components when subjected to intense heat. All you need to do is transfer this effect to a coating that is just a few hundred micrometers thick.

The fixed combination of canagliflozin with metformin (trade name: Vokanamet) has been approved since April 2014 for adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus in whom diet and exercise do not provide adequate glycaemic control. The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) now examined in a dossier assessment whether the new drug combination offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy. No such added benefit can be derived from the dossier, however, because the manufacturer did not present any suitable data for any of the possible subindications.

Current efforts to prevent violence against women and girls are inadequate, according to a new Series published in The Lancet. Estimates suggest that globally, 1 in 3 women has experienced either physical or sexual violence from their partner, and that 7% of women will experience sexual assault by a non-partner at some point in their lives.