Body

1. Young Adults With Prehypertension Are More Likely to Have Coronary Artery Calcium and Atherosclerosis Later in Life

Current measures of hospital mortality, especially when derived from administrative data, are limited as a performance measure. Researchers from the Ottawa Health Research Institute and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto suggest other ways to measure performance in this analysis of the hospital standardized mortality ratio. More comprehensive measures based on detailed clinical data and other measures are necessary, although this will require additional resources.

PHILADELPHIA, July 15, 2008 – Prehypertension during young adulthood is common and is associated with subsequent coronary atherosclerosis, according to a study published in today's issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

Hospitals' efforts to improve patient safety rely on several methods of monitoring and evaluating the occurrence of adverse events: including incident reports from members of the health care team, automated surveillance of clinical data, and review of medical records. A group of Massachusetts researchers report in the July 15 Annals of Internal Medicine that surveying patients about their experiences can provide additional important information.

ARTICLE #1 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Detecting flu viruses in remote areas of the worldJournal of the American Chemical Society

Scientists are reporting a new method that uses sugar molecules instead of antibodies to detect influenza.

(Photo Credit: Courtesy of Cynthia Goldsmith, CDC)

DALLAS – July 14, 2008 – Global warming is likely to increase the proportion of the population affected by kidney stones by expanding the higher-risk region known as the "kidney-stone belt" into neighboring states, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center and UT Dallas have found.

Better treatments have improved survival in people with coronary heart disease, but the quality of those extra years may be less than ideal, according to research reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A new vision screening device, already shown to give an early warning of eye disease, could give doctors and patients a head start on treating diabetes and its vision complications, a new study shows.

The instrument, invented by two scientists at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center, captures images of the eye to detect metabolic stress and tissue damage that occur before the first symptoms of disease are evident.

Innovative North Carolina Program Improves Patient Care and Saves an Estimated $160 Million in Medicaid Costs Annually

Community physicians in North Carolina may have found a way to narrow the gap between rising health care costs and declining health outcomes. In this special report, the authors describe how an innovative system of community health networks led by local primary care physicians is improving quality of care and saving the state at least $160 million in Medicaid costs annually.

Antibodies stick to HIV particles, preventing them from infecting other cells and triggering their destruction by immune cells. This antibody response starts out strong in HIV-infected individuals but eventually peters out. To find out why, scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases examined the cells that make the antibodies, known as B cells.

Older adults who have hip or knee replacement surgery for severe osteoarthritis may take several weeks to recover but appear to have excellent long-term outcomes, according to a report in the July 14 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Using data from clinical encounters and drug prescriptions over three years, researchers have devised a model to predict emergency hospital admissions in the following year in individuals age 40 and older, according to a report in the July 14 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

More than one-third of Medicare beneficiaries appear to be accompanied by family members or companions during medical encounters, according to a report in the July 14 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Such medical visit companions may be associated with improved patient satisfaction, especially among beneficiaries in poor health.

Visual impairment may be associated with an increased risk of suicide through its indirect negative effect on health, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Hispanic patients with diabetes appear to have less frequent eye examinations than the national average for Hispanic individuals, and many are not aware of the potential ocular complications of diabetes, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.