Culture

In a series of three separate studies looking at how changes in multiple dietary and other lifestyle factors relate to long-term weight gain, Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers found that modest changes in specific foods and beverages, physical activity, TV-watching, and sleep duration were strongly linked with long-term weight gain. Changes in diet, in particular, had the strongest associations with differences in weight gain.

The study appears in the June 23, 2011, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Heart bypass surgery is considered the gold standard for most patients with left main coronary artery disease, one of the most serious types of heart disease and one that affects thousands.

But a new UCLA study reports favorable long-term outcomes for lower-risk patients with this condition who underwent angioplasty with medication-coated stents, rather than bypass surgery.

Patients with normal left ventricular function who undergo elective unprotected left main coronary artery (ULMCA) percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug-eluting stents (DES) had favorable outcomes according to new research. Results of the multicenter, retrospective study are reported in the June issue of Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI).

Pay plays a relatively small role in a nurse's decision to stay at or leave a job in a nursing home, according to new research from Rice University, the University of Pittsburgh and Baylor College of Medicine. In a comprehensive study of certified nursing assistants, researchers found that attitudinal factors such as job satisfaction and emotional well-being are better predictors of turnover in long-term care facilities.

BOULDER—Everything has its price, even the weather. New research indicates that routine weather events such as rain and cooler-than-average days can add up to an annual economic impact of as much as $485 billion in the United States.

The study, led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), found that finance, manufacturing, agriculture, and every other sector of the economy is sensitive to changes in the weather. The impacts can be felt in every state.

CHICAGO --- Caring for patients in a medical intensive care unit in a hospital and flying a 747 are complicated tasks that require tracking thousands of important details, some of which could get overlooked. That's why the pilot has a checklist and a copilot to make sure nothing slips by.

Bicycle-related head injuries fell significantly in the months after mandatory helmet legislation came into effect in NSW, and recent calls for a repeal of the laws should be rejected, new research based on hospital admissions data shows.

The injuries fell by up to 29% after the laws were introduced in 1991, according to the study by researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the Sax Institute, published in the high impact journal Accident Analysis and Prevention.

Scarlet fever has revealed unusual high infect rate in Hong Kong this year. So far, 466 children were infected and 2 of them dead. Scarlet fever is caused by Streptococcus pyogenes, a gram-positive pathogen that can be transmitted via skin wound and airborne droplet.

A small, retrospective study determined that percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was safe in patients with significant coronary artery disease (CAD) who were referred for liver transplantation. Larger studies are needed to determine the effectiveness of angioplasty in patients with end-stage liver disease (ESLD). Details of the study are available in the July issue of Liver Transplantation, published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

(June 22, 2011) – HOBOKEN, NJ – A recent study published in Panminerva Medica reveals that a Pycnogenol® and Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) combination (PycnoQ10®) taken by stable heart failure patients as an adjunct to medical treatment naturally strengthens the heart, increasing the blood volume ejected with each beat. As a consequence, the oxygen-rich blood supply to the organs improves, and patients become more physically energetic. Furthermore, blood pressure, heart rate and respiratory rates were improved among patients.

Thousands of patients in Scotland who are particularly vulnerable to adverse drug events (ADEs) were prescribed high-risk medications by their GPs which could potentially cause them harm, according to research published on BMJ.com today.

Researchers from the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Florida have announced the discovery of a bone fragment, approximately 13,000 years old, in Florida with an incised image of a mammoth or mastodon. This engraving is the oldest and only known example of Ice Age art to depict a proboscidean (the order of animals with trunks) in the Americas. The team's research is published online in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Only about 10 percent of patients with a certain type of heart attack who need to be transferred to another hospital for a PCI (procedures such as balloon angioplasty or stent placement used to open narrowed coronary arteries) are transferred within the recommended time of 30 minutes, according to a study in the June 22/29 issue of JAMA.

In a study that included nearly 14,000 patients with rheumatoid arthritis or psoriasis, the use of certain disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs was found to lower the risk of diabetes, according to a study in the June 22/29 issue of JAMA.

BOSTON, MA – Individuals with systemic inflammatory conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and psoriasis, experience a 1.5 to 2-fold increased rate of cardiovascular disease. Previous research suggests that inflammation and insulin resistance, linked with these conditions, likely accelerate the development of cardiovascular risk and diabetes.