Culture

A new UCSF analysis of tobacco industry documents shows that Philip Morris USA manipulated data on the effects of additives in cigarettes, including menthol, obscuring actual toxicity levels and increasing the risk of heart, cancer and other diseases for smokers.

Tobacco industry information can't be taken at face value, the researchers conclude. They say their work provides evidence that hundreds of additives, including menthol, should be eliminated from cigarettes on public health grounds.

Linagliptin (trade name: Trajenta®) has been approved since August 2011 to improve blood glucose control ("glycaemic control") in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus whose elevated blood glucose levels are inadequately controlled by diet and exercise. It is an option for patients who do not tolerate or should not take the usual treatment with the drug metformin. Moreover, linagliptin can be added if treatment with metformin alone is not sufficient.

Abiraterone (trade name: Zytiga®) has been approved since September 2011 for men with metastatic prostate cancer that is no longer responsive to hormone therapy and progresses further during or after therapy with the cytostatic drug docetaxel. In an early benefit assessment pursuant to the "Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products" (AMNOG), the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined whether abiraterone offers an added benefit compared with the present standard therapy.

A large percentage of patients with mild-to-moderate asthma have persistently non-eosinophilic disease which may not respond to currently available anti-inflammatory treatments, according to a new study.

WASHINGTON – January 5, 2011 – The new edition of America Speaks, a compilation of public opinion polls commissioned by Research!America, demonstrates increasing public support for research and innovation to improve health, create jobs and boost the economy. However, nearly 60% of Americans don't believe we are making enough progress in medical research, and 54% don't believe the U.S. has the best health care system in the world.

Children could learn valuable lessons in responsible citizenship, such as making moral judgements and informed choices, through taking part in philosophical dialogue, according to researchers at the University of Strathclyde.

NEW YORK -- A study by Columbia Business School Professor Emi Nakamura, Chazen Senior Scholar at The Jerome A. Chazen Institute of International Business at Columbia Business School and David W. Zalaznick Associate Professor of Business, Finance and Economics, featured in the Journal of Econometrics, found that retailer characteristics are crucial determinants of heterogeneity in pricing dynamics, in addition to product characteristics.

INDIANAPOLIS —– Although personal health records are now securely accessible online to a large and growing number of individuals, little research has been conducted on opinions about their ease of use.

An increasing number of abdominal gunshot and stab wounds are being treated without the need for unnecessary operations, according to a study in the January Trauma Supplement published by BJS, the British Journal of Surgery.

Researchers from The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, USA, and the Aga Khan University in Pakistan reviewed nearly 26,000 patients with penetrating abdominal gunshot or stab injuries from the American College of Surgeons' National Trauma Data Bank.

From cable TV news pundits to red-meat speeches in Iowa and New Hampshire, our nation's deep political stereotypes are on full display: Conservatives paint self-indulgent liberals as insufferably absent on urgent national issues, while liberals say fear-mongering conservatives are fixated on exaggerated dangers to the country.

A new study from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln suggests there are biological truths to such broad brushstrokes.

Hyperglycemia, or having high glucose levels in the blood, is a common, serious and costly health care problem in hospitalized patients. Today, The Endocrine Society released a clinical practice guideline (CPG) providing recommendations for practical and safe glycemic targets and describing protocols and system improvements required to achieve glycemic goals for hospitalized patients in a non-critical care setting.

January 04, 2012-PORTLAND, Ore. — When patients with diabetes experience interruptions in health - insurance coverage, they are less likely to receive the screening tests and vaccines they need to protect their health. A new study finds that this is true even when patients receive free or reduced-cost medical care at federally funded safety net clinics.

The study was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health and findings published online in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

The incidence and prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are increasing with time and in different regions around the world, according to a new study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association.

Durham, N.C. – Patients treated for acute heart attacks in the United States are readmitted within 30 days more often than in other countries, a finding explained in part by significantly shorter initial hospitalizations, according to an international study led by researchers at Duke University Medical Center.

CHICAGO – In an analysis of data from more than 15 countries that included the U.S., Canada, Australia, and many European nations, patients in the U.S. who experienced a ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI; a certain pattern on an electrocardiogram following a heart attack) were more likely to be readmitted to the hospital at 30 days after the heart attack than patients in other countries, according to a study in the January 4 issue of JAMA.