Ebixa extends its indication to become the only drug for moderate and severe Alzheimer’s disease.
The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) announced late last night its decision to extend Ebixa’s current indication (moderately severe to severe disease) to include moderate stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Upon implementation of this approval by the European Union Commission, Ebixa will become the first Alzheimer’s drug in Europe to cover the moderate to severe
In a retrospective study looking back at a decade of surgeries, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center researchers have determined that surgery to remove metastatic disease from the diaphragm, in conjunction with other procedures to remove the primary diseased tissue in ovarian cancer patients, significantly increases survival rates. Study results were published in Gynecologic Oncology online.
“Surgeons have long believed that removing as much diseased tissue as possible is important for sur
A Michigan State University researcher and his colleagues have shown that playing violent video games leads to brain activity pattern that may be characteristic for aggressive thoughts.
In a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, 13 male research participants were observed playing a latest-generation violent video game. Each participant’s game play was recorded and content analyzed on a frame-by-frame basis.
“There is a causal link between playing the first-
Inhabitants of South-East Asia and Africa have been using papaya fruit and leaves for a long time to heal wounds and burns. Now, Russian scientists have confirmed curative properties of the exotic fruit.
The papaya-based medication accelerates healing of burn wounds, as the fruit possesses antiphlogistic and antibacterial action. That has been confirmed by the researches of Russian State Medical University. It has turned out that papaya weakens the action of enzyme excreted by p
Patients on statin treatment need not worry about cholesterol dropping too low
(Very low LDL cholesterol levels appear to be safe for heart patients on statin therapies, according to a new study in the Oct. 18, 2005, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
“There was no apparent safety concern for patients whose resultant LDL on intensive therapy was lower than current guidelines. There was a trend toward improved clinical outcomes in the lowest LDL
Authors say patients and policies should favor high-volume practitioners.
As the implantation of cardioverter-defibrillator devices to prevent sudden cardiac death becomes increasingly popular, patients are likely to get the best results when they are treated by physicians who perform the procedures frequently, according to a new study in the Oct. 18, 2005, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
“Defibrillator implantations performed by physicians w
A novel vaccine targeted to multiple HIV subtypes found worldwide has moved into the second phase of clinical testing, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced today. The study investigators plan to enroll a total of 480 participants at sites in Africa, North America, South America and the Caribbean to test the safety and immune response to the vaccine.
The experimental vaccine was developed by
Dietary supplements containing vanadium are used by body builders to help beef up muscles and by some diabetic people to control blood sugar. New research now suggests the naturally occurring but easily toxic element may help prepare the body to recover speedily from infections from gram-negative organisms such as E. coli.
In research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, scientists are trying to understand how recovery might be encouraged and why people with diab
In a continuing increase in breast cancer, one in nine women in the UK now risk contracting the disease during their lifetime.
Some scientists argue that the cause may be an increased exposure to a number of environmental chemicals, a claim taken up by campaigners in the US and the UK who urge the government to provide better health protection. However, whereas the UK government has been keen to engage people in debate about genetics, GM crops and mobile phone masts, some say it
An international team of researchers are calling for better public health campaigns to reduce the numbers affected by river blindness.
River blindness is a disease transmitted by biting flies, affecting areas such as West Africa, Nigeria, Congo, the Central African Republic and Central and South America, and causing significant health problems for at least 18 million people. The flies carry a parasite called Onchocerca volvulus, which lays microscopic worms in the human host. The
The amount of exercise may be more important than intensity to improve cardiovascular health, according to a new analysis of the first randomized clinical trial evaluating the effects of exercise amount and intensity in sedentary overweight men and women. This finding of the value of moderate exercise should be encouraging news for those who mistakenly believe only intense exercise can improve health, said the researchers who conducted the trial.
The trial, led by researchers at Duke U
Antiretroviral drugs don’t halt damage
A new UCLA/University of Pittsburgh imaging study for the first time shows the selective pattern of destruction inflicted by AIDS on brain regions that control motor, language and sensory functions. High-resolution 3-D color scans created from magnetic resonance images (MRI) vividly illustrate the damage.
Published Oct. 10 by the online Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research offers a new way to measure the
Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in most developed countries. Screening for colorectal malignancies and polyps (which frequently become cancerous) has been shown to lower the number of deaths from cancer. Most cancer societies and preventive task forces recommend regular screening for cancer of the colon.
Physicians often recommend colonoscopy for screening. Unfortunately, this procedure is uncomfortable and occasionally results in perforation of the colo
“The big three” infections AIDS, TB and malaria have caught the world’s attention but other disabling and fatal infectious diseases in Africa are being ignored, say three eminent tropical disease researchers in the international health journal PLoS Medicine.
The neglected tropical diseases, which include sleeping sickness, schistosomiasis, river blindness, hookworm, elephantiasis, and blinding trachoma, affect several hundred million people, and kill at least half a mill
Electron-beam computed tomography (EBCT) is more accurate than conventional catheter angiography for detecting a dangerous congenital heart abnormality that could cause sudden death, according to research by a Saint Louis University radiologist published last month in Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions: Journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions.
Esat Memisoglu, M.D., assistant professor of radiology at Saint Louis University School of Me
Altering the standard step-by-step procedure that takes women facing a mastectomy from diagnosis to surgery to reconstruction can improve the process and help in determining if immediate reconstruction is the best course of action, according to new research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Key to the new approach is the use of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) performed as an outpatient procedure a week or so prior to mastectomy, rather then doing the SLNB at
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