Patients needing second-time or “re-do” heart surgery have a new safer alternative. New findings show that an “off-pump” surgical procedure is performed safely and has improved outcomes for patients than traditional methods.
Due to a newly standardized approach and enhanced technology, doctors can perform this controversial surgery and eliminate the damaging effects of using a heart bypass machine. Off-pump surgery, also known as the “beating heart” method, is performed while the he
While Parkinson’s disease typically brings to mind symptoms such as tremors and slow movement, researchers have found that nearly half of all Parkinson’s patients also suffer from depression. While it might seem natural that someone who has a disease such as Parkinson’s might become depressed, it’s not so simple, says neurologist Irene Richard, M.D., of the University of Rochester Medical Center.
“Many patients assume that’s it’s normal to feel this way
Nanomedicines already bringing clinical benefits to thousands
“Nanotechnology” is a newly fashionable field but in the world of drug development it is certainly not new, Professor Ruth Duncan of the Welsh School of Pharmacy, Cardiff University has told the British Pharmaceutical Conference (September 27-29).
The first nanomedicines are already bringing clinical benefit to thousands of patients, said Professor Duncan in her Conference Science Chairman’s address.
“Pr
A new guideline from the American Academy of Neurology evaluates treatments for postherpetic neuralgia. The guideline is published in the September 28 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The guideline recommends tricyclic antidepressants, gabapentin, lidocaine patch, and opioids for treating the pain of postherpetic neuralgia.
Postherpetic neuralgia is characterized as pain that persists more than three months after an individual has exper
The scientist who identified the target for several drugs used to treat sleeping sickness and Chagas’ disease has just discovered that antimonial drugs used to treat Leishmaniasis attack the same target.
And, he is “highly optimistic” that research on the parasite molecule “trypanothione”, and enzymes that use trypanothione, will lead to a drug that will cure all three tropical diseases.
Professor Alan Fairlamb at the University of Dundee has worked out how the sulphur
Patients now living insulin free and off dialysis
Due to refined surgical techniques and advances in anti-rejection therapy, transplant surgeons at the University of Pittsburgh’s Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute (STI) are able to successfully perform a higher volume of kidney-pancreas transplants – more than 22 kidney-pancreas transplants in the past three months – which yields a shorter wait time on the transplant list, a better graft survival and quicker recovery. “Pe
If you missed your morning coffee and now you have a headache and difficulty concentrating, you might be able to blame it on caffeine withdrawal. In general, the more caffeine consumed, the more severe withdrawal symptoms are likely to be, but as little as one standard cup of coffee a day can produce caffeine addiction, according to a Johns Hopkins study that reviewed over 170 years of caffeine withdrawal research.
Results of the Johns Hopkins study should result in caffeine withdraw
Genetic predictive test clears way for targeted drug treatment
An international team of scientists and cancer specialists has identified which patients with the deadly form of brain tumours called glioblastomas are likely to live longer if they are treated with temozolomide, and which patients are likely to get only marginal, if any, benefit. The genetic predictive test on tumour biopsies to identify who will benefit from the drug could be carried out fairly easily in any genetics la
Pregnant women are at higher risk for the occurrence or worsening of restless legs syndrome (RLS), a movement disorder that affects up to 10 percent of the general population, according to a study reported in the September 28 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Researchers in Milan, Italy, recently concluded a large and detailed epidemiological study on RLS during pregnancy and six months postpartum that demonstrates at least one in four
Scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a pair of rapid-fire tests for botulinum toxin, a feat that could underpin new technologies to thwart bioterrorism and spur the development of agents to blunt the toxic action of the world’s most poisonous substance.
Writing this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the Wisconsin group, led by UW-Madison physiologist Edwin R. Chapman, describes the development of two assays for
Research has shown that the drug tamoxifen citrate not only helps prevent recurrence of breast cancer, but it also can keep the deadly disease from occurring in the first place in some women.
But a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study indicates it’s unlikely that tamoxifen will ever be given widely to women to prevent breast cancer. That’s because the drug would avert only a maximum of 6 percent to 8.3 percent of breast tumors in eligible women, UNC School
Doctors and researchers have discovered that it is possible to reduce excessive drinking among Accident & Emergency (A&E) casualties through simple interventions such as offering appointments with alcohol health workers.
According to research, published yesterday in The Lancet, the team discovered that by offering patients in A&E who had been drinking excessively the chance to visit an alcohol health worker, it was possible to reduce excessive drinking, and limit subsequent furthe
The first large scale comparative study of the mental health of assisted living residents has found a higher rate than expected of a range of mental health problems in this rapidly growing population.
The study which, appears in the October issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, reports that two thirds of 2100 assisted living residents studied exhibited mental health problem indicators. Half suffered from dementia and a quarter exhibited indicators of depression.
Among men without heart disease but who have significant cardiac risk factors, a poor performance on an exercise treadmill test is associated with more than doubling of the risk for a heart attack or other coronary heart disease event, according to a report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Exercise treadmill testing is not generally recommended as routine screening for people with no history or symptoms of heart disease. This is the first study to evaluat
A specially adapted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner can help physicians remove brain tumors and all of the residual cancer during one surgical procedure, according to a study published in the October issue of the journal Radiology. Using intraoperative MR-guidance, surgical strategy was changed in one out of four cases.
“Imaging during surgery provides intraoperative quality control. It presents valuable information during the procedure that allows the surgeon an opportu
In the midst of crammed slums in the Nicaraguan district of Matagalpa, aid workers are hunting house-to-house for hidden killers, their search guided by high-resolution satellite imagery supplied through an ESA-backed project.
Their targets are blood-sucking reduviid insects, generally known as ’kissing bugs’ because they emerge from their hiding places each night to bite human skin where it is thinnest – around the mouth and eyes. Growing up to five centimetres long, the kissing bug
Feedback
