For the first time, UCLA researchers have developed a new evaluation tool that can predict mortality risk in patients hospitalized with heart failure. The new tool — used right at the bedside — will help clinicians quickly decide upon hospital admission which patients are at a greater mortality risk that may require higher monitoring and earlier, more intensive intervention.
Published in the February 2, 2005 edition of JAMA, the new tool utilizes the combination of three simpl
Many of the drugs commonly prescribed to treat agitation, delusions and other symptoms that can accompany dementia are not effective, researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and colleagues report this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
“Our review of 29 research studies found that drug therapies are not particularly effective for managing symptoms such as agitation, wandering and delusions that are observed in most patients with deme
From the February 2005 Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology
Researchers have identified specific asthma characteristics in children that could help determine the type of asthma treatment they will best respond to. These findings were published in the February 2005 Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology (JACI). The JACI is the peer-reviewed, scientific journal of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI). “Parents of children with asthma often ask: Is
Lawyers are often suspicious of so-called “eye-witness accounts” and rightly so. Hundreds of scientific studies in the past few decades have shown that the memories of people who observe complex events are notoriously susceptible to alteration if they receive misleading information about the event after it has taken place. In this month’s issue of the journal Learning & Memory, scientists from Johns Hopkins University report new insights into how such “false memories” are formed. This is t
According to a study published today in the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the addition of popular bone building drugs to calcium and vitamin D therapy to treat bone loss associated with Crohn’s disease is not beneficial. Moreover, the study shows that calcium and vitamin D treatment alone can improve bone mineral density (BMD) in Crohn’s patients by 3 to 4 percent per year.
“Patients with Crohn’s often suffer loss
International heart and sports medicine experts have called for a Europe-wide cardiovascular screening programme for all young athletes before they are allowed to take part in competitive athletics.
The aim is to pick up potentially life-threatening problems that put young athletes at risk and to cut the numbers collapsing and dying while participating in competitive sport.
A European Society of Cardiology consensus report[1] published (Wednesday 2 February) in Europe&#
Their research could lead to a device that would restore bladder control for the more than 200,000 Americans living with spinal cord injury or disease-related spinal cord problems
Biomedical engineers at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering have demonstrated for the first time that stimulating a specific nerve in the pelvis triggers the process that causes urine to begin flowing out from the bladder, refuting conventional thinking that “bladder emptying” requires signal
Football fans faced with a frosty pitcher of beer and a heaping platter of wings on Super Bowl Sunday often respond as if it were fourth-and-goal — they go for it.
But weight-conscious people should heed the humble rat, which stays trim by instinctively cutting calories when indulging in alcoholic drinks, say researchers at the University of Florida’s psychology department and the Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute.
Rats also know how to say no to the brew, stopp
Diffusion-weighted MRI is “extremely useful” in detecting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a close cousin of “mad cow” disease, very early in its progression–even before the onset of characteristic clinical findings, according to a new study by researchers from Showa University Northern Yokohama Hospital in Japan.
For the study, researchers analyzed nine cases of CJD in which MRI of the brain was performed during early, intermediate and late stages of the disease. At the early stage, re
Just fifteen minutes of training could make it possible for anyone to use a defibrillator to stop sudden cardiac arrest. A study published today in the journal Critical Care shows that a brief training session is all that is needed for safe and efficient use of an automated external defibrillator.
Sudden cardiac deaths affect nearly 400,000 people per year in Europe, and every day in the U.S. more than 1,200 people die from cardiac arrest before they reach hospital. In most cas
Parents of children with rare diseases appealed this week to Europe’s lawmakers to approve proposals for encouraging clinical trials involving children. The call came at a conference in Brussels organised by the European Forum for Good Clinical Practice (EFGCP). Throughout Europe, 15 million children suffer from rare diseases, said Yann Le Cam from the European Organisation for Rare Diseases, yet almost no new medicines are being produced with them in mind. “In drug development, children come l
Currently around one in five menopausal women die from heart disease. But according to new research by exercise scientists at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), this shocking statistic could be reversed if women took just 30 minutes exercise, five days a week. The findings are based on the initial results of a 12-month study of 24 60-year-old postmenopausal women.
Professor Tim Cable, Director of LJMU’s School of Sports and Exercise Sciences explained: “In the same way
Many cases of sciatica not relieved by current treatments may now be successfully diagnosed and treated using new nerve imaging technology
For the last 70 years, a damaged disc in the lower back has been widely accepted as the most common cause of sciatica – a condition where the sciatic nerve is pinched, causing pain to radiate down the leg. As a result, treatment for sciatica is based on diagnosis of a damaged disc, despite the fact that nerves cannot be viewed with routine im
Nearly 10,000 preterm births could have been prevented in 2002 if all pregnant women at high risk for a premature baby and eligible for weekly injections of a derivative of the hormone progesterone had received them, according to a new study published in the February issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
The result would have been a reduction in the overall rate of preterm birth (before 37 completed weeks gestation) in the United States of about 2 percent — from the 2002 rate of 12.1
The chemical nicotine–a main ingredient in tobacco–may hold promise in the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, give insight into therapeutic interventions for nicotine addiction and possibly complement the diagnosis of certain forms of lung cancer, according to a study in the January issue of the Society of Nuclear Medicine’s Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
Researchers are examining nicotine’s cognitive, behavioral and addictive actions, and, by looking at targets i
A recent article in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis determined that drinkers of wine benefit from its cardio-protective effects, more so than those who drink beer or other spirits, and may also live longer. The article is part of a series of papers published in an open forum on wine, alcohol and cardiovascular risk. The analysis, encompassing various international studies, further confirms the agreement among researchers that any alcohol, in light to moderate intake, puts drinkers at lowe
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