About one out of 30 chemotherapy orders at three ambulatory infusion clinics had errors, and one in 50 orders had a serious error, according to a study appearing in the December 1, 2005 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The study, performed at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, found most but not all errors were detected before they reached the patient. None was life-threatening or caused patient harm. Still, an accompanying editorial says the study undersco
Folk and herbal remedies are often used in the hope that they will prevent the common cold or reduce the severity and duration of symptoms. Yet, few of these compounds are evaluated scientifically.
In this study Predy and colleagues randomized 323 study subjects to receive a proprietary ginseng ( Panax quinquefolius ) preparation or a placebo and followed them for 4 months during the winter (September to April). Using predetermined criteria to determine if subject-reported symp
Early nerve damage caused by repetitive strain injuries can trigger “sick worker” syndrome — characterized by malaise, fatigue and depression, and often mistaken for poor performance, according to a study by Ann Barr, Ph.D., and Mary Barbe, Ph.D., at Temple University’s College of Health Professions. The study, “Increase in inflammatory cytokines in median nerves in a rat model of repetitive motion injury,” is published this month in the Journal of Neuroimmunology.
Repetitive strain
In the first study of its kind, researchers at Saint Louis University have demonstrated that immunization with a new vaccine could potentially prevent more than a million cases of pertussis (whooping cough) each year in adolescents and adults.
Most children are protected from pertussis by a series of vaccines in early childhood. But the vaccine protection wanes after a decade or so, leaving adolescents and adults susceptible to the bacterial infection.
“It’s a miscon
UCSF scientists have illuminated a key step in a signaling pathway that helps orchestrate embryonic development. The finding, they say, could lead to insights into the development of stem cells, as well as birth defects and cancers, and thus fuel therapeutic strategies.
The study, reported in Nature (Oct. 13, 2005), focuses on the Hedgehog family of signaling molecules, which play a central role in directing development of the early embryo’s growth and spatial plan, as well as
Cardiac arrests, however, appear more common in senior centers
A greater percentage of high schools had automated external defibrillators (AEDs) — devices that can be used to treat cardiac arrest victims — than senior centers, despite the fact that cardiac arrests appear more common in senior centers, according to a study by University of Iowa researchers.
The study, published in the October issue of the medical journal Prehospital Emergency Care, raises questions abou
Although exercise can trigger asthma attacks in some people, a new review of studies has found that exercise improved cardiopulmonary fitness in people with asthma.
“It’s safe for patients with asthma to exercise regularly,” according to lead reviewer Felix S.F. Ram, M.D., of Massey University in New Zealand. “In our study, those who did showed an increased ability to take up oxygen. They improved their ventilation, which led to improved cardiopulmonary fitness. We found n
Cocaine causes specific alterations in the brain’s circuitry at a genetic level, including short-term changes that result in a high from the cocaine, as well as long-term changes seen in addiction, researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
Such findings suggest possible new directions for treatments for addiction to the drug, they said.
In a study available online and in the Oct. 20 issue of Neuron, UT Southwestern researchers used rodents to pinp
White-tailed deer, it seems, are homebodies.
That is the upshot of an intensive study of the traveling behaviors of 173 radio-collared white-tailed deer in south central Wisconsin. The new results, which surprised researchers by revealing how little deer move about the landscape, are important because they may help researchers and wildlife managers better understand how chronic wasting disease (CWD) spreads.
“They are using small home ranges and not traveling long distan
Your eyes are what you eat, too – consuming foods rich in omega-3, such as tuna, may reduce risk by 68 percent
More than eight million people in the United States, predominantly women, suffer from dry eye syndrome, a painful and debilitating eye disease. In the first study of its kind to examine modifiable risk factors, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Schepens Eye Research Institute (SERI) found that the amount, type and ratio of essential fatty acid
Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), a disorder that is indicated by distinct facial characteristics, growth retardation, and poor intellectual and attentional function, can occur when mothers drink alcohol heavily during pregnancy. A new study in the October issue of The Journal of Pediatrics shows that prenatal alcohol exposure can also affect an infant’s visual acuity or sharpness of vision.
Sandra W. Jacobson, Ph.D. and colleagues from Wayne State University and University of
Treating breast cancer with MammoSite® resulted in a low risk of complications and was generally well tolerated, according to a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study presented today at the 47th annual meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) in Denver.
MammoSite, a type of breast brachytherapy (bray-kee-therapy), uses a single catheter inserted into the breast following lumpectomy, or surgical removal of a tumor, to deliver a
A new type of silicone breast implant, currently available to women who agree to be part of a clinical study, offers breast augmentation and reconstruction patients more natural looking breasts with a low complication rate, according to a recent study in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The new gel implants will be the next type of silicone implant produced by manufacturers if the U.S. Food and Drug Administ
In a new study of cichlid fish descended from others caught in East Africa’s Lake Tanganika, scientists have made some surprising observations about how those animals respond to changes in their environments known as “social opportunities.”
Dr. Sabrina S. Burmeister, assistant professor of biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s College of Arts and Sciences, and colleagues found that subordinate male fish underwent a radical and rapid transformation when more d
If successful, moxifloxacin could be first new treatment for TB in more than 40 years
A Johns Hopkins infectious disease expert will lead two international studies of the effectiveness of the antibiotic moxifloxacin as a new treatment for tuberculosis, the highly contagious bacterial disease that kills more than 2 million people worldwide each year and is the leading cause of death of people living with HIV and AIDS. Moxifloxacin is currently approved in more than 100 countri
Combined therapy is good for BAD
A new research study published in the October issue of Cancer Cell identifies a molecular switch that integrates cell survival signals from multiple intracellular signaling pathways. The finding has substantial clinical significance, as mutations in these cell survival-signaling pathways are associated with many human cancers, and a better understanding of how these pathways converge to regulate the delicate balance between cell proliferation and cel
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