Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders. Pharmaceutical and surgical therapies for PD are available and can alleviate the symptoms and complications. Unfortunately, despite these therapies, the disease relentlessly progresses. A new study in the journal Value in Health presents a detailed overview of the current decision-analytic models used to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of therapeutic options in Parkinson’s disease.
Lead author Uwe Sieb
If you frequently take over-the-counter pills or prescription medication to make your headaches go away, you might get relief—temporarily. But the frequent use of headache medications to make the pain of a headache disappear could trigger chronic daily headache (CDH), according to recent commentary appearing in Headache Currents. Numerous studies have highlighted similar conclusions about the overuse of medication, giving further weight to the expert opinions from Drs Fred Sheftell and Marcello Big
The closer hospitals adhere to national guidelines for treating potential heart attack patients, the greater the decline in their mortality rates, according to a analysis of treatment patterns at 315 U.S. hospitals by Duke Clinical Research Institute researchers.
The analysis is among the first of its kind to definitively link hospital’s improvement in use of guideline-recommended treatments with concomitant reductions in hospital death rates. These findings should provid
Got mosquitoes? Thanks to a new Web-based mapping system, you soon will be able to see if West Nile encephalitis or some other mosquito-borne disease is in your neighborhood.
The Knowledge Engineering Lab in the department of entomology at Texas A&M University is heading up the project to develop the statewide Mosquito Spatial Information Management System. The real-time system — that will be available through the Internet — will map disease occurrence, epidemiology and control
Bretylium’s unique effects may point to new concept of heart attacks
An “old” drug has unique benefits for patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI; commonly known as heart attack), a finding that may contribute to a new understanding of how heart attacks develop, according to an article in the September/October American Journal of Therapeutics.
In the definitive report, Marvin Bacaner, M.D., University of Minnesota, describes the effects of the antiarrhythmi
SLU Cardiologist Was First in Missouri to Investigate the Device
The concept is simple: to halt deterioration of the heart muscle, wrap it in a mesh-like net to prevent further enlargement in patients with heart failure. It’s like a jacket for the heart.
New research results from Saint Louis University and other institutions across the country found the “heart jacket” technique helped patients feel better and reduced the likelihood that they would need a heart t
U of MN study finds dinner table atmosphere is also important
It’s not only the routine of sitting down to dinner as a family, but the importance, structure, and atmosphere of family meals that may help steer adolescent girls from eating disorders. University of Minnesota researchers found that girls who ate regular family meals in a structured and positive environment were less likely to exhibit extreme weight control behaviors such as diet pill use, vomiting, and chronic d
In the treatment of coronary artery disease, a sirolimus drug-coated stent causes less inflammation than bare metal stents, according to preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association annual meeting by Loyola University Health System, Maywood, Ill.
“Inflammatory response is a sign of advancing heart disease, so the less inflammation the better,” said lead author Dr. Fred Leya, professor of medicine/cardiology, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.
Treatment with high-dose immunoglobulin G (IgG) during pregnancy lessens the severity of hemochromatosis (NH), a rare, devastating gestational disease with abnormal iron accumulation in the liver and severe liver injury that almost always results in fetal death or acute liver failure in newborns.
In an article in the Nov. 6 issue of The Lancet, researchers Peter F. Whitington, M.D., and Judith U. Hibbard, M.D., described the effectiveness of treating mothers with IgG in reducing l
Changes associated with reduced risk of heart attack and stroke
Clinical study results presented today in New Orleans, Louisiana, during the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2004 proceedings, have shown that the drug pioglitazone (ACTOS®, Takeda) significantly reduced the thickness of the carotid (neck) artery in patients with type 2 diabetes. By contrast, no change in carotid thickness was seen in a group of patients who received glimepiride, an older drug for typ
The incidence of cardiac tamponade, an infrequent but potentially fatal event following a heart attack, has not increased despite the widespread use of clot-busting and blood-thinning medications, according to an new analysis by Duke Clinical Research Institute investigators. Since bleeding is the major side effect of such medications, researchers said concerns with increased rates of tamponade existed.
Cardiac tamponade occurs when fluids or blood fill the pericardium, the tough s
MEDIA INVITATION
Wednesday 1st December, London – Institute of Child Health
Both obesity and type 2 diabetes have become global epidemics over recent decades bringing, in their wake, a number of metabolic symptoms and cardiovascular disease risk factors. Both of these disorders, however, are just the tip of the iceberg, being just two manifestations of the metabolic syndrome (see notes) which has been suggested to affect 25% of the population in countries such as the UK and
Clinical eating disorders have one of the highest mortalities of any psychiatric ca tegory. They can be long lasting and life blighting. However, too often they are thought of by the general public, and sometimes even by health care professionals, either as trivial and perhaps glamorous or as rare and extraordinary.
A team of Leicester researchers is keen to correct these misconceptions and to portray eating disorders as important, serious, ordinary – and treatable. Getting better
While patients hospitalized for a heart attack have long been treated with morphine to relieve chest pain, a new analysis by researchers from the Duke Clinical Research Institute has shown that these patients have almost a 50 percent higher risk of dying.
The researchers call for a randomized clinical trial to confirm their analysis. Meanwhile, they advise cardiologists to begin treatment with sufficient doses of nitroglycerin to relive pain before resorting to morphine. In thei
Starting beta-blocker treatment within 24 hours of cardiothoracic surgery provides significant recovery benefits according to new research in The Annals of Pharmacotherapy. Beta-blockers shortened hospital stays by 2.2 days and reduced atrial fibrillation, a dangerous heart rhythm, by 17.3%. These important findings were released early at The Annals of Pharmacotherapy’s Articles Ahead of Print (www.theannals.com) and will appear in the journal’s December print issue.
In
Respiratory sensor may provide new tool for emergency responders
Researchers have created a tiny device that can monitor a victim’s breathing in emergency situations by effectively shrinking an operating room machine into a small, disposable tool that can be carried to a disaster site.
NSF-supported researchers at Nanomix, Inc., in Emeryville, Calif., have created a transistor that fuses carbon nanotubes, polymers and silicon into a capnography sensor — a human
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