Culture

Adding computed tomography (CT) scans to standard screening procedures may help emergency room staff more rapidly determine which patients complaining of chest pain are having a heart attack or may soon have a heart attack, and which patients can be safely discharged, according to a study funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health.

In response to a study published in the August issue of Health Affairs regarding declining medical imaging use in recent years, the American College of Radiology (ACR) released a statement explaining that physician education efforts and quality assurance steps have resulted in more efficient use of imaging, but that arbitrary Medicare cuts are damaging patient access to care.

The ACR also cited a December 2011 Health Affairs article that shows Medicare imaging cuts may have resulted in physical harm to patients.

Almost half of the tropical forest reserves in a new study are ineffective, according to results published in the journal Nature by William Laurance, research associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute now at James Cook University in Australia and more than 200 co-authors.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Although erectile dysfunction (ED) has been shown to be an early warning sign for heart disease, some physicians – and patients – still think of it as just as a natural part of "old age." But now an international team of researchers, led by physicians at The Miriam Hospital, say it's time to expand ED symptom screening to include younger and middle-aged men.

Complex, multi-system diseases like myotonic dystrophy – the most common adult form of muscular dystrophy – require physicians and patients to identify which symptoms impact quality of life and, consequently, what treatments should take priority. However, a new study out this month in the journal Neurology reveals that there is often a disconnect between the two groups over which symptoms are more important, a phenomenon that not only impacts care but also the direction of research into new therapies.

How can Hollywood think that smoking in movies has a negative effect on children but not sex? Welcome to the Land of Rationalization. Yet the data show it does and young people who watch more sexual content from movies also tend to engage in more sexual behavior and begin sexual activity at an earlier age, according to a University of Missouri researcher's study. This would seem to be common sense.

Akron, Ohio, July 25, 2012 – Arrogant bosses can drain the bottom line because they are typically poor performers who cover up their insecurities by disparaging subordinates, leading to organizational dysfunction and employee turnover.

Follow-up exams for patients with celiac disease are often inadequate and highly variable, according to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA).

Local weather patterns temporarily influence people's beliefs about eglobal warming, according to political scientists at New York University and Temple University. The article in the Journal of Politics found that those living in places experiencing warmer-than-normal temperatures at the time they were surveyed were significantly more likely than others to say there is evidence for global warming.

To win a second term in office, President Obama needs to persuade voters that he is one of them and recapture some of the charisma that help propel him to the top four years ago. However, this is clearly a challenge given the economic difficulties facing many Americans - and he no longer has the advantage of an opponent crippled by taking public financing, which allowed Obama to outspend McCain 2:1, which does a lot for charisma.

HACKENSACK, N.J. (July 25, 2012) — Researchers from John Theurer Cancer Center at HackensackUMC, one of the nation's 50 best hospitals for cancer, played leading roles in three separate multi-center studies with the new proteasome inhibitor carfilzomib published in Blood, a major peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Carfilzomib is a novel, highly selective proteasome inhibitor, a type of medication that blocks the actions of certain proteins (proteasomes) that cancer cells need to survive and multiply. Carfilzomib is also known by its branded name Kyprolis™.

Newport, R.I., July 25, 2012 - Migraine can be a disabling neurological disorder, often aggravated by accompanying nausea. Stimulation of the acupoint PC6 Neiguan, an approach to controlling nausea adopted by traditional Chinese medicine, has never been documented by published clinical studies in medical literature for the control of migraine-related nausea, until now.

Having a stroke or mini stroke has a much more profound effect on women than men when it comes to their quality of life, according to research published in the August issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing.

Swedish researchers at Danderyd Hospital, Stockholm, asked all patients attending an out-patient clinic over a 16-month period to complete the Nottingham Health Profile, a generic quality of life survey used to measure subjective physical, emotional and social aspects of health.