Culture

INDIANAPOLIS -- Important clues to the prevention and management of delirium, a condition affecting an estimated 7 million hospitalized Americans, are being ignored, according to a study from the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University School of Medicine.

NEW YORK -- A study conducted by Columbia Business School's Prof. Asim Ansari, William T. Dillard Professor of Marketing, Marketing, and Oded Koenigsberg, Barbara and Meyer Feldberg Associate Professor of Business, Marketing, alongside Florian Stahl, Assistant Professor, Department of Business Economics, University of Zurich, creates models that identify and predict how multiple relationships form in social networks. The research was recently featured in the Journal of Marketing Research.

New York, NY, November 17, 2011—Premiums for employer-sponsored family health insurance increased by 50 percent from 2003 to 2010, and the annual amount that employees pay toward their insurance increased by 63 percent as businesses required employees to contribute a greater share, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report that examines state trends in health insurance costs. The report finds that health insurance costs are outpacing income growth in every state in the country.

A survey of more than 33,000 Italian high school students reveals that both underweight and overweight teens consume 20 to 40% more illegal drugs than their normal-weight peers.

Further analysis showed that the relationship between these two factors was largely mediated by psychosocial factors such as self-esteem, parents' educational level, and friendships.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – People with a history of stroke or diabetes who were given clot-busting drugs to break up blood clots after stroke fared better than those who did not receive the drugs, according to a study published in the November 16, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

SALT LAKE CITY – While previous studies have linked vitamin D deficiency to an increased risk for cardiovascular disease, new research at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute shows that too much vitamin D can lead to the onset of a dangerous heart condition known as atrial fibrillation.

Physical activity will definitely lower children's chances of developing cardiovascular disease down the road, but physical inactivity will not necessarily increase it. Findings from a recent Queen's University study shows different kinds of sedentary behaviour may have different consequences for young people's health.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. –Supervised exercise was shown to be more effective than stenting or medication for improved walking ability in patients with peripheral artery disease. The findings from a national study were reported today at the 2011 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions meeting. Rhode Island Hospital is one of hospitals participating in the national CLEVER study.

MAYWOOD, Il. -- A study of burn patients has found that those who suffered the most severe smoke inhalation also had more inflammation and spent more time on ventilators and in intensive care.

The study, led by researchers at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, is published ahead of print in the journal Critical Care Medicine. It is the first to show that the severity of smoke-inhalation injury may play a role in the overall pulmonary inflammatory response.

Assessment of patient outcomes allows physicians and researchers to measure the success or failure of diagnostics and treatments that patients receive. One set of measurement tools focuses on assessing adult pain and is included in a special issue of Arthritis Care & Research, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), providing physicians and researchers with a single resource of 250 patient outcomes measurements in rheumatology.

Orlando - Collaborative research from Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has shown that psoriasis patients have an increased risk of heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular death, especially if the psoriasis is moderate to severe. Now, Penn researchers have discovered the potential underlying mechanism by which the inflammatory skin disease impacts cardiovascular health.

HOUSTON – (Nov. 16, 2011) – Cardiologists are quick to point to statistics showing that the "door-to-balloon" treatment time for heart attack patients has dropped significantly in the past few years.

But a retrospective study reveals that those who call 911 are most likely to have suffered a severe heart attack and despite receiving treatment quickly, they are still dying at unacceptable rates, say researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

A drug-coated balloon inserted in a narrowed bare metal stent is a promising therapy for restoring blood flow, according to research (Abstract 10244) presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2011.

In this study, the drug-eluting balloon reduced the development of scar tissue within existing, narrowed bare metal stents as effectively as drug-eluting stents.

In a contemporary cohort of acute heart attack patients, 70 percent of the patients were unaware they had coronary heart disease (CHD) prior to the event and 60 percent of those patients were women or young men. However, these two subgroups are less likely to qualify for aggressive preventive therapy and, therefore, do not receive preventive medications that could reduce the heart attack risk, according to a study being presented at the American Heart Association (AHA) scientific sessions in Orlando, Fla., on Nov. 16.