OAK BROOK, Ill. – Whole-body MRI may serve as a valuable noninvasive tool for assessing the risk of heart attack and stroke in diabetic patients, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology.
Diabetes is a metabolic disease characterized by an increased concentration of glucose in the blood. There are 347 million diabetic patients worldwide, and the World Health Organization projects that diabetes will be the seventh leading cause of death by 2030.
As the Tobacco End Game conference takes place in New Delhi, India, this week, The World Heart Federation today calls on countries worldwide to follow the example set by nations such as Finland, New Zealand, and Scotland to set a target year to end tobacco use in their populations. Ending tobacco use in this sense means reducing population smoking levels to 5% or below, as well as implementing further measures in the international tobacco control treaty 'The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.'
Reviewing the objectives of the Affordable Care Act and analyzing the likely outcomes in light of the imperfect hand of the U.S. health care market, J.B. Silvers, PhD, a health care economist at Case Western Reserve University, concludes it is unlikely the potential for higher value care efficiently provided in the best location at a fair competitive price will be fully realized.
Karin B. Nelson, M.D., scientist emeritus at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health, and her colleagues from the University of Sydney, the University of Western Australia and Sydney Adventist Hospital in Australia examined the degree to which four specific risk factors contributed to cerebral palsy and young infant death.
WASHINGTON and NEW YORK—A new study by researchers at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS) finds no evidence that primary care physicians provide "second-class" care to Medicaid, uninsured and other patients who rely on the nation's safety-net system. The study, which appears in the September issue of the journal Health Affairs, challenges previous claims that the care provided to low-income and vulnerable patients is substandard.
Boston, MA -- Blacks are more likely than whites to sleep less than seven hours a night and the black-white sleep disparity is greatest in professional occupations, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). "Short sleep" has been linked with increased risk of health problems, including obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and death. The researchers also found that black professionals had the highest prevalence of short sleep and white professionals had the lowest prevalence.
In the battle to reduce childhood overweight and obesity, several in-home factors have been identified as reducing those risks – participation of children in regular family dinners, getting enough sleep and less time watching television or other "screen time." A new study appearing in JAMA Pediatrics describes how a home-based program that helped at-risk families improve household routines was able to slow weight gain in a group of young children.
In one of the first studies of its kind, a joint UCLA/RAND Corporation study addressed the prevalence and cost of critical care therapies provided in intensive care units (ICU) that were perceived by physicians as "futile."
Reported in the Sept. 9 online issue of JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers found that the majority of patients received appropriate care, but 11 percent of patients received treatments during their ICU course that their physicians perceived to be futile. The study took place at a single health care system.
Critical care treatment for patients that was perceived to be futile was common and cost an estimated at $2.6 million at one academic medical center during a three-month period, according to a report published by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.
Undervaccination with the diptheria, tetanus toxoids and acelluar pertussis (DTaP) vaccine appears to be associated with an increased risk of pertussis (whooping cough) in children 3 to 36 months of age, according to a study by Jason M. Glanz, Ph.D., of the Institute for Health Research at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, Denver.
"Undervaccination is an increasing trend that potentially places children and their communities at an increased risk for serious infectious disease," according to the study.
TORONTO, Sept. 9, 2013 – Men were more likely to develop a physical illness than women during a 10-year period studied by researchers at St. Michael's Hospital.
Monday, September 9, 2013, Cleveland: Most patients who report statin intolerance, including muscle aches and other side effects from the cholesterol-lowering drugs, can actually tolerate drugs from this class on subsequent trials, according to research from Cleveland Clinic recently released online and forthcoming in the September issue of the American Heart Journal. The study is the largest ever to examine the effects of re-challenging statin-intolerant patients.
INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 9, 2013 — The first study under realistic field conditions has found reassuringly low levels of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in crops irrigated with recycled sewage water, scientists reported at the 246th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 9, 2013 — Even though the Great Recession officially ended more than three years ago in the U.S., lingering effects continue to impact careers for thousands of scientists. Advancing those careers for chemists and other scientists is the topic today of a special presidential symposium at the 246th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society.
HEIDELBERG -- A preclinical study led by researchers in the United States has found that a new oral drug shows early promise for the treatment of muscular dystrophy. The results, which are published today in EMBO Molecular Medicine, show that VBP15 decreases inflammation in mice with symptoms similar to those found in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The authors found that the drug protects and strengthens muscle without the harsh side effects linked to current treatments with glucocorticoids such as prednisone.