Findings from a study published in the September/October issue of Annals of Family Medicine suggest that low educational level should be included in coronary heart disease (CHD) treatment guidelines.
Finding that patients who have not finished high school have a 2.4 percent higher risk of dying of coronary heart disease than those with more schooling, Kevin Fiscella, M.D., M.P.H. and colleagues suggest that educational level of less that 12 years should be incorporated into the curr
Results from a University of Pittsburgh study evaluating intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for breast cancer indicate that IMRT results in a lower dose of radiation to healthy breast tissue when compared to standard radiation. The findings were presented today at the 46th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) in Atlanta.
“More than 70 percent of breast cancer patients receive ionizing radiation therapy to treat their disease
Kills more cells than high-dose radiation
A new study shows that lower doses of radiation elude a damage detection “radar” in DNA and actually kill more cancer cells than high-dose radiation. With these findings, scientists believe they can design therapy to dismantle this “radar” sensor allowing more radiation to evade detection and destroy even greater numbers of cancer cells.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center tested the low-dose radiation strategy on cu
Postmenopausal women are weaker, as measured by grip and pinch tests, than women who have not entered menopause, according to a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. However, the researchers found that physical activity protected women from losing strength as they progress through menopause.
Researchers at Rush University Medical Center and the University of Chicago Hospitals followed a racially mixed group of 563 Chicago-area women for five years. Strength tests d
A three-year study to validate a test to detect the recurrence of bladder cancer has been initiated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), at 12 centers* across the United States and Canada. This test was conceived and is being conducted by NCI’s Early Detection Research Network (EDRN). By examining genetic changes in DNA obtained through urine samples, the test, if successfully validated, will provide a sensitive and non-invasive method of
Parasite genes reveal modern and archaic humans made contact
A University of Utah study showing how lice evolved with the people they infested reveals that a now-extinct species of early human came into direct contact with our species about 25,000 years ago and spread the parasites to our ancestors.
The study found modern humans have two genetically distinct types of head lice. One type is found worldwide and evolved on the ancestors of our species, Homo sapiens. The second
A new study from Johns Hopkins suggests that routine widening of the vagina, a procedure known as an episiotomy, does not reduce the risk of injury to infants during a complicated birth, such as when a baby’s shoulders are stuck in the birth canal after the head is already out. Instead, physicians can proceed directly to physical maneuvering of the infant, thereby avoiding unnecessary trauma to the mother and, at the same time, averting injury to the baby. An episiotomy should only be perfor
A new study finds that most malaria deaths among U.S. travelers between 1963 and 2001 were preventable.
The study is published in the Oct. 5, 2004, issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, a peer-reviewed medical journal published in Philadelphia by the American College of Physicians.
Although indigenous transmission of malaria was eradicated from the United States in the late 1940s, every year about 1,500 malaria cases occur in the United States. Most infections occur in peop
Emotionally draining jobs bring few monetary rewards if the employment does not require great intellectual demands, a new University of Florida study finds.
Friendly waiters, angry bill collectors and nurturing child-care workers are among the many American workers who experience emotionally charged encounters that require shows of empathy or other feelings but have little recompense, said John Kammeyer-Mueller, a UF management professor and one of the study’s researchers.
A study by Cornell University researchers finds that when young adults are served larger portions from one week to the next they overeat by almost 40 percent. Eating larger portions over time could account for the growth of the American girth over the past 20 years, the researchers say.
“The more food we served to the college-student volunteers in our eating study, the more they ate,” says David Levitsky, professor of nutritional sciences and of psychology at Cornell. “Since we k
CT-guided radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is effective in easing the symptoms of lung tumors that cannot be removed by surgery, and enhancement pattern and changes in the size of the tumor as shown on CT are the most important factors for determining whether that ablation has been successful, according to a pair of independent studies in the October 2004 issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.
For the first study, researchers from Caserta’s S. Sebastiano Hospital in Ita
A study published today in the American Gastroenterological Association’s journal Gastroenterology concludes that patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who require long-term insulin therapy are at a significantly increased risk for colorectal cancer.
Results of this retrospective cohort study, conducted on 24,918 people with type 2 diabetes, suggest that those who received more than three years of insulin therapy during the follow-up period of the study have more than three t
GVG may reduce addictive effects of ’huffing’
A new study by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory suggests that vigabatrin (a.k.a. gamma vinyl-GABA or GVG) may block the addictive effects of toluene, a substance found in many household products commonly used as inhalants. These results broaden the promise of GVG as a potential treatment for a variety of addictions. The study will be published in the December 1, 2004 issue of Syn
A new study shows that a history of smoking affects survival in patients with cancer of the head and neck. Patients who had smoked fewer than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime were three times more likely to have better overall survival, disease-specific survival, and recurrence-free survival compared with patients who had a current or previous history of regular smoking. There are approximately 38,000 new cases of head and neck cancer cases in the U.S. each year, the vast majority of which occur
Researchers at Purdue University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have completed a mathematical analysis showing that it isn’t quite possible to build a so-called “perfect lens,” but the underlying theory still makes it feasible to design better imaging systems.
A perfect lens would be able to focus light more narrowly than conventional lenses, making it possible to etch finer electronic circuits and create more compact and powerful computer chips. Such lenses also m
Arsenic trioxide – a highly poisonous substance best known as an effective weed killer or pesticide and notorious for being a favourite ’weapon’ of choice in murder mystery novels, is being re-invented as a treatment for a rare type of leukaemia.
It is already licensed as an orphan drug (the term for drugs intended to treat rare conditions) for patients who have relapsed after initial therapy for acute promyeloctytic leukaemia (APL).
But now, a research team led by Dr.
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