Dr. Eddy's Clinic Blog

Health Tip: Teens and Sleep

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:49:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- Teenagers need to get plenty of sleep -- between 8 1/2 and nine hours every night -- to feel good and keep their bodies healthy.

Pay attention to these warning signs, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, that you may not be getting enough shuteye:

Difficulty getting out of bed in the morning.

Problems focusing.

Falling asleep at school during class.

Feeling depressed, irritable, moody or sad.

Relationship Violence Common Among College Students

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:51:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- Violence between partners, friends and acquaintances is common before and during college, a new study shows.

Researchers surveyed 910 undergraduates aged 17 to 22 (57.1 percent female) at three urban college campuses to detect this trend.

Among the findings:

407 (44.7 percent) of respondents said they experienced violence either before or during college, including 383 (42.1 percent) who said they were victims and 156 (17.1 percent) who said they were perpetrators.
53 percent of women and 27.2 percent of men reported being victims.
Rates of being a perpetrator or victim were higher before college than during college.
More than half (130 of 227 reports) of violent incidents during college involved a partner, rather than a friend or acquaintance.
Emotional violence was most common before college (21.1 percent), while sexual and emotional violence were equally common during college (12 percent and 11.8 percent).
Men were more likely to commit sexual violence, while women were more likely to commit physical violence.

"In conclusion, all forms of relationship violence are prevalent among male and female college students; almost half of students had experienced relationship violence at some point in their lives, more than one-third had experienced violence before college, and one-quarter had experienced violence during college," wrote Christine M. Forke, of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Emotional violence was the most common form of violence at all ages.

"While emotional abuse frequently is not a focus of violence prevention, it can cause poor outcomes and may predispose victims to other forms of violence. Therefore, educational efforts focusing on healthy relationships should begin during childhood," the researchers wrote.

The study is published in the July issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers advice about health and safety in college.

Do You Need to Wear Sunglasses?

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:37:00 +0000

Three important light questions that most people are confused on.

Worldwide War Deaths Underestimated

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 06:54:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- Wars around the world have killed three times more people over the past half-century than previously estimated, a new study suggests.

The finding supports the notion of armed conflict as a "public health problem" whose instability leads not only to violent deaths, but to indirect deaths from infectious disease and other causes, experts add.

"War kills more people than we had previously thought," said lead researcher Ziad Obermeyer, a research scientist at Brigham & Women's Hospital, in Boston. "And that has to be taken into account when we're looking historically, and it's important for people and policy makers to know when they're looking at the consequences of the war. It's important that there's an awareness of how many people actually die."

In the study, Obermeyer's group compared data on war deaths from eyewitnesses and the media from 13 countries over the past 50 years with peacetime data in the United Nations World Health Surveys, which was collected after the end of the wars.

This method avoids problems collecting data during active combat, and also reduces counting deaths twice or exaggerating the number, Obermeyer said.

The researchers estimate that 5.4 million people died from 1955 to 2002 as a result of wars in 13 countries. These deaths range from 7,000 in the Democratic Republic of Congo to 3.8 million in Vietnam.

According to Obermeyer, the estimates are three times higher than those of previous reports. Data from this new study also suggests that 378,000 people worldwide died a violent death in war each year between 1985 and 1994, compared with 137,000 estimated at the time.

The biggest differences were seen in Bangladesh, where 269,000 people died during that country's struggle for independence, compared with previous estimates of 58,000, the report shows. In Zimbabwe, the researchers estimate that 130,000 people have died in times of conflict, compared with earlier estimates of 28,000.

The findings are published in the June 20 online edition of the British Medical Journal.

According to the authors, current methods of collecting data on those killed during war are plagued by biases that produce inaccuracies and underestimate the number of people actually killed. This can lead to widely varying casualty estimates. For example, in Iraq, a report published in the medical journal The Lancet in 2006 estimated that 650,000 Iraqi civilians had been killed by that time since the start of the war -- a claim disputed by the White House, whose own estimates put the death toll at 30,000.

In their study, Obermeyer's team drew on several sources to try to more accurately estimate the number of military and civilian deaths from recent wars. Their estimates do not include people who died during the war from starvation, sickness or other conditions indirectly caused by war.

"There is a notion in political thought that the number of deaths due to war has been declining in recent years," Obermeyer noted. "That is attributed to a lot of different things, but among them technological innovations like 'smart' bombs and different strategic priorities. This idea appears to be supported by media reports. But what we are finding is these reports are not a reflection of reality."

Contemporary media reports of deaths are not to be fully trusted, Obermeyer addeds. "The reason we should be skeptical of media reports is that they are subject to political pressures and cannot always be verified," he said. "These numbers can be pushed up or down, depending upon what kind of political pressure is being exerted."

Richard Garfield, a professor of clinical international nursing at Columbia University in New York City and the author of an accompanying editorial in the journal, said that even this method underestimates the number of people killed in wars.

"Even though the data on war deaths is not very good, it is much better . . . in poor developing countries -- where virtually all wars now are -- than it was 10 or 20 years ago," Garfield said.

However, all deaths because of war are not being counted, Garfield said, since even Obermeyer's team left out the more indirect deaths from starvation, infectious disease and other illnesses, and forms of injury not directly linked to armed combat.

"We are counting more of the violent deaths, but we only irregularly address indirect deaths, which may be far greater than combatant deaths," he added.

More information
The Iraq Coalition Casualty Count offers their tally of lives lost in the current Iraq conflict on their Web site.

Is My Son’s Blue Tongue a Danger to His Health?

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:05:00 +0000

By Theresa Tamkins

We had a houseful of guests this weekend, and somewhere between multiple shopping trips with various relatives, we managed to come home with a box of Fruit Roll-Ups.
Heavy on the corn syrup and light on nutrition, kid-magnet products like this are usually banned at my house. Any food that turns your tongue bright blue seems just plain wrong—to me, but not to Jackson, who is 8 and thinks it’s a blast.
But do I have reason to worry, beyond the garish tongue and mostly empty calories? Last week the Center for Science in the Public Interest asked the Food and Drug Administration to ban eight artificial dyes, including three on the side of the box we bought at the grocery story (red 40, yellow 5, blue 1). You probably know CSPI: For more than 30 years they’ve been high-profile agitators against junk foods, bad nutrition labeling, additives, and more. Read More

Alcohol, Drug Counseling Benefits Teens, Too

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:46:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous offer benefits to adolescents, even if they eventually stop attending meetings, says a study that included 160 teens enrolled at two treatment centers in California.

The teens, with an average age 16, stayed from four to six weeks at the centers, which were focused on abstinence and used a 12-step model. The teens were reassessed at six months, and one, two, four, six, and eight years after they left the centers.

"We found that most of the youth attended at least some AA/NA meetings post-treatment," John F. Kelly, associate director of the MGH-Harvard Center for Addiction Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, said in a prepared statement.

"Those patients with severe addiction problems and those who believed they could not use alcohol/drugs in moderation attended the most. The NA and AA focus on abstinence/recovery probably resonates better with these more severely dependent individuals who also typically need ongoing support," said Kelly, who's also an assistant professor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

While many of the study participants eventually stopped going to AA/NA meetings, they seemed to benefit from their time with the organizations.

"We found that patients who attended more AA and/or NA meetings in the first six months post-treatment had better longer term outcomes, but this early participation effect did not last forever -- it weakened over time," Kelly said.

"The best outcomes achieved into young adulthood were for those patients who continued to go to AA and/or NA. In terms of a real-world recovery metric, we found that for each AA/NA meeting that a youth attended, they gained a subsequent two days of abstinence, independent of all other factors that were also associated with a better outcome."

Kelly noted that even a little exposure to AA/NA can go a long way.

"During the first six months post-treatment, even small amounts of AA/NA participation -- such as once per week -- was associated with improved outcome, and three meetings per week was associated with complete abstinence. This suggests youth may not need to attend as frequently as every day, sometimes recommended clinically, to achieve very good outcomes," Kelly said.

The study was published online in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research and was expected to be in the August print issue.

More information
The Nemours Foundation has more about teens and alcohol.

Seizures Likely Sign of Brain Injury After Stroke

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Fri, 30 May 2008 05:05:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- Stroke patients who suffer seizures are more likely to die within 30 days than stroke patients who don't have seizures are, a new study shows.

Seizures may be a sign of significant brain injury and may occur in patients who've suffered any type of stroke. This study found that the overall incidence of seizures within 24 hours of a stroke is 3.1 percent. Patients with intracranial hemorrhages (bleeding within the brain) have a higher rate of seizures (8.4 percent) in the first 24 hours after stroke. Overall, there was a 30 percent mortality rate within the first 30 days of a stroke.

The researchers also investigated any racial differences in post-stroke seizures and found that, even though blacks are known to have higher rates of both seizures and strokes, there were no racial differences in seizure incidence or death rates.

"Patients with seizures in the setting of acute stroke may constitute a target population for the development of drugs that may prevent seizures," study author Dr. Jerzy P. Szaflarski, said in a prepared statement.

"Because patients with stroke have high incidence of immediate and long-term seizures and epilepsy, they constitute a population where seizure prevention with anti-epileptic drugs can be studied," Szaflarski said.

The study was published in the June issue of Epilepsia.

More information
The American Stroke Association has more about stroke effects.

Group B Strep Down Among Newborns, Up Among Adults

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Sat, 10 May 2008 12:41:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- Instances of Group B streptococcus, a major cause of serious infections, have dropped by about 25 percent among week-old infants, but rose by almost 50 percent among most adults during a recent six-year period, according to a new study.

Group B strep is the leading cause of sepsis and meningitis in the first week of life. Prevention strategies put in place during the 1970s have helped quell the condition, called early-onset disease. However, an estimated 21,500 cases of invasive disease and 1,700 deaths were traced to the disease during 2005, according to the study, published in the May 7 issue of Journal of American Medical Association.

Group B streptococcus can also cause invasive disease in older infants, pregnant women, children and young adults with underlying medical conditions and older adults. An increase in disease incidence among non-pregnant adults has been previously documented in past decades.

The new study, which examines data on laboratory-confirmed invasive group B streptococcal disease in 10 states from 1999 to 2005, found 14,573 cases of the disease overall. Of those, 1,232 cases where early-onset disease.

Incidence decreased among week-old infants by 27 percent after the early-onset disease prevention guidelines were revised in 2002. Incidence remained flat among babies age 7 days to 89 days and pregnant women.

Among those age 15 to 64 years, Group B strep increased 48 percent. Occurrence of the disease increase by 20 percent among those 65 years or older experienced a 20 percent increase.

The proportion of patients who died was highest in the oldest age groups.

All strains of Group B strep tested were vulnerable to the antibiotics penicillin, ampicillin, and vancomycin, but 32 percent and 15 percent were resistant to erythromycin and clindamycin, respectively.

The study's authors concluded that group B streptococcus vaccination trials for mothers should become a priority, followed by vaccine development to help the elderly and younger adults with chronic underlying conditions.

More information
The Group B Strep International has more about Group B streptococcus .

Health Tip: Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Fri, 02 May 2008 10:32:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- No one knows precisely why people get cancer, and there's no surefire cure.

But if you maintain a healthy lifestyle, you can help reduce your risk. Here are some suggestions, courtesy of AARP:

Eat a healthy diet, including plenty of whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Limit intake of red meat, saturated fats, smoked and salt-cured foods, and foods preserved with nitrates.

Get regular exercise of 30 minutes or more at least five days a week.

Maintain a healthy body weight.

If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation.

Wear sunscreen and avoid prolonged exposure to direct sun during the midday hours.

Get screened for cancers for which you may be most susceptible.

Melanomas on Scalp and Neck More Deadly

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:17:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- The most deadly melanoma skin cancers occur on the scalp and neck, says a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) study.

Researchers analyzed 51,704 melanoma cases in the United States and found that patients with scalp or neck melanomas died at 1.84 times the rate of patients with melanoma elsewhere on the body, including the face or ears.

The five-year survival rate for patients with scalp-neck melanomas was 83 percent, compared with 92 percent for patients with melanomas at other sites. The 10-year survival rate was 76 percent for scalp-neck melanomas and 89 percent for other melanomas.

The findings confirm that melanoma patient survival rates differ depending on where the cancer first appeared, the researchers said. The study was published in the April issue of the Archives of Dermatology.

Doctors need to pay close attention to the scalp when examining patients for signs of skin cancer, said senior author Dr. Nancy Thomas, an associate professor of dermatology in the UNC School of Medicine and a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

"Only 6 percent of melanoma patients present with the disease on the scalp or neck, but those patients account for 10 percent of melanoma deaths. That's why we need to take extra time to look at the scalp during full-skin examinations," Thomas said in a prepared statement.

There has been debate about whether scalp and neck melanoma is more deadly primarily because it's diagnosed later than melanomas in other locations, but this study indicates that the presence of melanoma on the scalp or neck is, in itself, an indicator of poorer patient prognosis.

"We think there's something different about scalp and neck melanomas. This gives us directions for research to look at tumor cell types in those areas at the molecular level and to see if there are differences. I'm interested in identifying the mutations that drive malignancy," Thomas said.

The patients included in study were non-Hispanic white adults in nine states who were first diagnosed with invasive melanoma between 1992 and 2003. Patients with scalp-neck melanomas were more likely to be male and were an average age of 59 years, compared to 55 years for those with other melanomas.

Scalp-neck melanomas were thicker (0.8 millimeters) than other melanomas (0.6 millimeters) and more likely to be ulcerated. The study also found that lymph node involvement was more common in cases of scalp-neck melanomas.

More information
The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about melanoma.

Melanoma and skin cancer is usually a concern for adults who have basked in the sun for years. However, as Nancy Johnson reports, young children are also at risk as cases of melanoma in children has doubled in recent years. This medical segment focuses on the warning signs of Melanoma and ways to reduce risk.

Chronic Exposure to Solvents Disturbs Brain's Wiring

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:22:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- Long-term exposure to solvents in products such as paints and dry cleaning agents may cause disturbances in the brain's wiring, researchers report.

These abnormalities play a role in a condition called chronic solvent-induced encephalopathy (CSE), the Dutch team conclude in the April issue of the Annals of Neurology.

People with CSE experience problems with memory, attention and psychomotor function long after exposure to solvents has ceased, according to background information in the study. Cases of CSE, a recognized occupational health problem, are increasing in a number of western nations.

This study found that disturbances within the brain's frontal-striatal-thalamic (FST) circuitry are related to the clinical characteristics of CSE, as well as to the severity of exposure to solvents.

The study included 10 CSE patients who'd been exposed to solvents and had mild to severe cognitive impairment, 10 people who'd been exposed to solvents but had no CSE symptoms, and 11 people with no exposure to solvents and no CSE symptoms.

All the participants underwent a number of tests, including MRI and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scans to assess their FST circuitry.

The CSE patients had reduced striatal dopamine D2 receptor (D2R) binding ratios, which were predictive of impaired psychomotor speed and attention, and were also linked to solvent exposure severity, the study authors found. Dopamine receptor density is believed to play a role in psychomotor speed.

The 10 people who were exposed to solvents but had no CSE symptoms showed similar reductions but to a lesser extent. Both groups showed reduced levels of choline (which plays a role in neurotransmission) in the frontal grey matter of the brain.

The results indicate that certain parts of the FST circuitry are affected in CSE patients and in workers who've been exposed to solvents but don't have any CSE symptoms, the study authors said.

"A better understanding of the nature, severity and specificity of these suspected biological markers may further validate diagnostic procedures, this reinforcing medical and social recognition, and underlining the importance of prevention," wrote Ieke Visser, of the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, and colleagues.

More information
The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about CSE.

Boston Trial to Test New HIV/AIDS Vaccine

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 07:24:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- A new HIV/AIDS vaccine designed to overcome the problem of preexisting immunity to common vaccine vectors is being tested in an early clinical trial at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

Preexisting immunity is believed to be a major problem in developing nations.

There will be 48 healthy volunteers taking part in the trial of the vaccine, which consists of a replication-incompetent, recombinant adenovirus serotype 26 (rAd26) vector encoding an HIV-1 envelope gene.

Each volunteer will receive either two or three immunizations, and then be monitored to assess the safety of the vaccine and its ability to trigger an immune response.

The rAd26 vaccine was developed by the Integrated Preclinical/Clinical AIDS Vaccine Development (IPCAVD) program, sponsored by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The program brings together academic and industry researchers to accelerate development of promising HIV/AIDS vaccine candidates.

The vaccine, the first HIV-1 vaccine candidate to emerge from the IPCAVD program, is made by Dutch biotechnology company Crucell Holland B.V.

The approach used in developing the rAd26 vaccine enables researchers to circumvent preexisting immunity to serotype 5, the virus responsible for the common cold. This virus has recently shown limitations as an HIV-1 vaccine vector.

"The rAd26 vector does not regularly occur in the human population, and human antibodies to this vector are rare. The rAd26 vector therefore is efficacious in eliciting good T and B (immune) cell responses," Jaap Goudsmit, chief scientific officer at Crucell, said in a prepared statement.

About 33.2 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS, and there were 2.7 million new infections reported in 2007.

More information
Currently, there is no vaccine to protect against HIV/AIDS. The American Academy of Family Physicians offers tips for preventing HIV infection.

Testosterone Therapy May Reduce Bone Loss in Older Men

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 08:35:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- Injections of testosterone appear to improve bone density and reduce bone loss in older men who have low testosterone levels and may help to prevent osteoporosis, a new study suggests.

Testosterone therapy has been used to improve bone strength and muscle mass in some men. However, the hormone treatment is controversial, because it has been associated with increasing the risk of prostate cancer and high levels of red blood cells. And other potential effects of long-term use of testosterone therapy aren't known.

"These preliminary data show beneficial effects of testosterone therapy on bone turnover markers in older men with low-to-normal testosterone concentrations using both continuous and monthly cycled testosterone replacement," lead researcher E. Lichar Dillon, of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, said in a prepared statement. "The effects of sex hormones on markers of bone formation are complex, but this is an important step in understanding how the process works."

Preliminary study results were expected to be presented April 7 at the American Physiological Society's annual meeting, during the Experimental Biology 2008 conference, in San Diego.

For the study, Dillon's team studied 13 men, ranging in age from 60 to 85. During the five-month trial, the men were either given weekly injections of testosterone, weekly injections of testosterone every other month, or a placebo.

The researchers found that men receiving testosterone had reduced bone turnover, compared with men on a placebo. While the effects of testosterone therapy over the long term aren't clear, the researchers said they believed the treatment would be beneficial by preserving bone mass and preventing osteoporosis.

One expert said the study was too small to prove or disprove the value of testosterone therapy in preventing bone loss and, perhaps, preventing osteoporosis.

"This small, short-term study indicates that men with low levels of testosterone respond to appropriate replacement as far as turnover markers indicate," said John Eisman, director of the Bone and Mineral Research Program at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, in Sydney, Australia.

While calling the study "too small and too short to provide any insight into fracture-risk reduction or safety outcomes," Eisman said it does complement research he has done. "Our study showed that men with testosterone in the lowest quartile of the population had much higher risk of osteoporotic fractures," he said.

A large, long-term trial testing whether testosterone can prevent osteoporosis in men is needed to settle the question, Eisman said.

More information
To learn more about men and osteoporosis, visit the U.S. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.

Eating Less May Hinder Immune System

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:14:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- You may no longer need to remember whether it's "starve a cold, feed a fever" or vice versa. New research suggests you should just eat.

A study of deer mice has found that reducing the amount of food the mice ate impaired their immune system. The findings are published in the May/June issue of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology.

The researchers found that decreasing the amount of food the mice ate by 30 percent significantly decreased the number of B cells in their systems. B cells produce antibodies and maintain immune memory, so an immune system lacking B cells must relearn how to fight infection and disease.

"A 30 percent restriction in food intake doesn't affect body mass and only minimally reduces activity in deer mice, but it eliminates the long-term immune protection provided by antibodies," study co-author Lynn Martin said in a prepared statement. "One wonders whether similar moderate food restriction has comparable immune effects in humans."

Martin and fellow researchers cited previous studies that had found that infections were "more frequent and tend to be chronic in malnourished children." Previous studies have also found that vaccines that provoke B cells to protect the body long-term, such as the vaccine for measles, are less effective among the malnourished.

The authors proposed that future research should be done to learn what specific features of diet (calories, protein, micronutrients) affect immune system function.

More information
The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has more on how vaccines work.

Gaps Persist in Use of Less Invasive Breast Cancer Procedure

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:11:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- The use of a less invasive form of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) during breast cancer surgery increased substantially in the United States from 1998 to 2005, researchers say. However, there are still disparities in terms of which women receive the therapy.

The study by the American Cancer Society found that non-white women, women aged 72 and older, and women living in poor areas of the country were less likely to receive the SLNB staging test than those who were white, younger, or live in more affluent areas.

In women diagnosed with breast cancer, doctors check to see if the cancer has spread from the breast tissue into neighboring lymph nodes. This can be done by removing many lymph nodes in a procedure called axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) or by removing a few lymph nodes (SLNB), which is associated with easier recovery and fewer long-term problems, according to background information in the study.

In this study, researchers analyzed national data on women who had breast cancer surgery between 1998 and 2005. Clinical care guidelines were changed in 1998 to allow surgeons to use SLNB in certain patients.

The proportion of patients who had SLNB increased from 26.8 percent in 1998 to 65.5 percent in 2005, the study found.

But the researchers also found that disparities in the use of SLNB persisted during those years. For example, in 1998, 29 percent of white women received SLNB, compared with 26 percent of black women, and 35 percent of Hispanic women. By 2005, the rates were 70 percent, 64 percent, and 67 percent, respectively.

According to clinical guidelines, SNLB should only be done in centers that have experienced teams. This study didn't examine whether the disparities in access to SLNB may be related to lack of experience at certain facilities.

"The disparities that were related to receipt of SLNB in this study are particularly important in light of the clinical advantages associated with this technique. Better outcomes have been reported for patients receiving SLNB than for patients receiving ALND," the researchers wrote.

The study was published online March 25 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

"Given America's track record of disparate care, I suppose we should not be surprised that racial and ethnic minorities were disproportionately deprived of another medial advance," Dr. Stephen B. Edge, of Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, wrote in an accompanying editorial. "However, this observation is profoundly disappointing and sobering. It is yet another call for us to redouble efforts to identify and correct the root cause of disparities."

More information
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about SLNB.

Heart Failure Raises Risks After Non-Cardiac Surgeries

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 09:19:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- Older people with heart failure face heightened odds of complications and death after non-cardiac surgeries, according to the largest study ever conducted on the issue.

"We're trying to draw attention to this major problem," said lead researcher Dr. Adrian F. Hernandez, an assistant professor of medicine at Duke University in Durham, N.C.

Heart failure, the progressive loss of the heart's ability to pump blood, is widespread among older Americans, but it sometimes is overlooked as a risk factor when surgery is needed, he said.

"Most physicians focus on whether [older patients] have coronary artery disease or have a risk of heart attack," Hernandez said. "Heart failure is by far a more important risk factor, but it doesn't usually have greater weight when they want to identify patients at risk of complications or consider how they want to treat them after surgery."

Symptoms of heart failure include shortness of breath, fatigue and swelling of the legs.

Hernandez' group published the study in the April issue of Anesthesiology. They used Medicare data on more than 159,000 people undergoing major surgery not involving the heart, such as hip replacement operations. Past estimates have put the incidence of heart failure in the older population between 5 percent and 12 percent, but the new study found the condition in almost 20 percent of those having surgery.

The study divided the participants into three groups: those with heart failure, with or without coronary artery disease; those with only coronary artery disease; and those with neither condition.

Nearly 98 percent of all those who had surgery were discharged soon afterward from the hospital. But 17.1 percent of those with heart failure had to be re-hospitalized within 30 days, compared to 10.8 percent of those with coronary artery disease and just 8.1 percent of those with neither ailment.

In the month after a surgery, 1.6 percent of those with heart failure died, compared to 0.5 percent for those with coronary artery disease and 0.3 percent of those with neither condition, the study found.

Steps can be taken to reduce the toll, Hernandez said.

"The first thing is to check on what the conditions are that might influence the patients outcomes," he said. "We have to identify therapies that lower the risk of a poor outcome and assure that all patients, when they have surgery, are carefully monitored."

Close attention should be paid to be sure that symptoms of heart failure are kept to a minimum, Hernandez said. Medications such as beta blockers and diuretics can be used to keep heart failure under control, he added.

But he noted that it's not certain how effective such measures might be in reducing risks -- only a rigorous, controlled study could answer that question definitively.

"We are planning to do such studies, but our planning is still in the early stages," he said. "We still need to identify sponsors of such a study."

One expert applauded the new research.

The increase in surgery risk due to heart failure has been noted before, but "this is a big study that involves a lot of people. It solidifies that the risk is real, and the risk is substantial," said Dr. Robert Hobbs, a staff cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic whose work covers heart failure and transplant medicine.

Measures that can be taken to reduce the risk include simply not performing surgery, if possible, on someone whose life might be endangered, Hobbs said. "If surgery is necessary for someone with heart failure, there should be targeted use of heart failure medications before the operation and an effort to avoid overloading the body with intravenous fluid during the procedure," he said.

"And we would certainly watch them more carefully in the postoperative period," Hobbs added.

More information
Learn about heart failure, its symptoms and treatment, from the U.S. Library of Medicine.

Poison Prevention Tips to Protect the Most Vulnerable

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 11:29:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- To mark National Poison Prevention Week, which concludes Saturday, the Soap and Detergent Association offers a home safety checklist for parents with young children.

Parents and caregivers should:

Install child-safety locks on cabinets that house cleaning supplies, medicines, cosmetics, chemicals and other poisons. Never assume a cabinet is too high for a child.
Keep all household products in their original packaging, which includes useful first-aid information in the event of accidental exposure or ingestion. If you purchase household products in bulk, buy a smaller size of the same product and use this container for refills.
Use child-resistant packaging properly by closing the container securely after each use.
Keep in mind that this type of packaging is child-resistant, but not child-proof, and products must still be stored out of reach of children.
Read and follow the directions on the product label. Pay particular attention to labels that include the words "Caution," "Warning," "Danger," or "Poison."
When using cleaning products, take out only what's needed for the job at hand. Store the rest in a secure location.
Don't mix household cleaning products. Doing so could release harmful vapors or cause other dangerous chemical reactions.
Don't leave cleaning buckets unattended. If a child falls into the bucket, it may not tip over and the child could drown. If the bucket is tipped, the contents could spill and come into contact with a child's sensitive skin. Immediately clean up any spills and quickly and safely dispose of rags, paper towels and related items that you used to clean up a spill.
Schedule house cleaning when children are having a nap, on a play date, or at school.
If children are present while you're cleaning, avoid any distractions. If you need to answer the door, take the child with you. If the phone rings, let the answering machine get it.
Know where to call for help. Post the Poison Control Center phone number (1-800-222-1222), along with other emergency numbers, by every land phone in your home, and enter the numbers into your cell phone's address book.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers more tips to prevent poisonings.

Artery Plaque Boosts Hispanics' Odds for Stroke

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 04:31:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- Hispanic Americans with even a small amount of plaque build-up in their carotid artery -- the vessel that supplies blood to the brain -- are up to four times more likely to suffer or die from a stroke compared to those with clear arteries, a new study finds.

"These results are important for developing stroke and vascular prevention programs for all, but also for certain ethnic groups such as Hispanics, who represent the fastest growing minority population in the U.S.," study author Dr. Tatjana Rundek, of the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami in Florida, said in a prepared statement.

The research included almost 2,200 men and women who took part in the multi-ethnic Northern Manhattan Study, in New York City.

Using ultrasound, the researchers found that 58 percent of the participants had carotid artery plaque, and that 25 percent of them had maximum carotid plaque thickness (more than 1.9 millimeters of plaque).

After an average follow-up of seven years, 121 of the study participants had suffered or died from ischemic stroke (blockage of blood flow to the brain), 118 had suffered or died from heart attack, and 166 had died of other vascular causes.

The researchers found that Hispanics with the thickest amounts of carotid artery plaque were three to four times more likely to suffer a stroke, heart attack, or some other type of vascular event than Hispanics with no carotid artery plaque.

The study appears in the March 19 issue of the journal Neurology.

"More research is needed though to determine why Hispanics with even small amounts of carotid plaque are particularly susceptible to vascular events," Rundek said.

This study also showed that ultrasound measurement of carotid plaque offers doctors a simple method of determining a patient's stroke risk and guiding stroke-prevention therapies.

"It is a non-invasive marker that can help doctors identify the beginning stages of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, that is also associated with increased risk of stroke," Rundek said.

More information
The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has more about atherosclerosis.

Geckos' feet inspire new high-tech bandage

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:32:00 +0000

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Lizards with hairy feet are the inspiration for a new medical product that could help surgical patients heal better and might even replace sutures some day.

Scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology say they have created a new kind of surgical adhesive, formed in a shape that, at the microscopic level, mimics the feet of geckos.

Gecko feet are a worthy model to imitate, because the lizards are masters of adhesion -- the force that makes two substances stick together on contact.

"The gecko has the amazing ability to walk up walls and hang from a single foot," said Jeff Karp, a researcher at Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. "They have hundreds of thousands of hairs on the surface of their feet and then on each one of those hairs they have these tiny nanopillars." Watch geckos' feet in action »

The nanopillars, one hundredth as thick as a human hair, provide an enormous amount of contact surface, and that leads to remarkably strong adhesion, Karp told CNN.

By copying that structure as a shape for their glue-coated polymer, the MIT scientists think they can build a material that will cling tightly to tissue.

It will be especially useful for applications inside the body, said Dr. Bob Langer, another researcher on the project, calling it "an internal Band-Aid."

"For example, it might be used in holding tissues together that normally couldn't be held together ... say, in hernia repair," Langer said. It could also be used to prevent leaks in gastric bypass operations, Karp said.

The new product will be stretchy and will stay stuck even in wet places inside the body, according to the MIT researchers. It can be adapted to different applications and could incorporate antibiotics or other drugs, they said -- like a transdermal patch worn on the inside. It will dissolve inside the body over time, and the scientists can tweak the rate at which that happens, they said.

Karp said the new bandage material could be particularly useful in laparascopic procedures, where a surgeon operates through a very small incision.

"Our surgical collaborators think that this may even replace sutures one day," he said. "Sutures are very difficult to place within laparoscopic procedures. When working in very small spaces it's difficult to tie a knot."

There are medical glues currently in use, but they have some problems, Karp said.
"Although they provide very strong levels of adhesion, they are very difficult to work with. They have poor mechanical properties, they are very brittle, and they also induce a very strong inflammatory response," he said.

The MIT researchers said the gecko-inspired bandages could be in clinical trials within two to five years.

Don't Prescribe Antibiotics for Adult Sinus Woes

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:53:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- It's extremely difficult for doctors to tell the difference between sinus infections that can be cured by antibiotics and those that can't, a new review finds.

Given the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, the study authors urge that physicians give up using antibiotics altogether for adult patients with rhinosinusitis -- even when symptoms persist beyond a week.

"Antibiotics offer little benefit for patients with acute rhinosinusitis-like complaints," wrote the research team led by Dr. Jim Young of University Hospital Basel, Switzerland. "Antibiotics are not justified even if a patient reports symptoms for longer than 7-10 days," they added in the March 15 issue of The Lancet.

The European group noted that upper respiratory tract infections are responsible for a full third of doctor's appointments in the United States, and a third of those visits end in a diagnosis of rhinosinusitis. Currently, about 80 percent of patients receive a prescription for an antibiotic.

Antibiotics are only useful against bacterial disease -- they do not fight viral infections. But how good are doctors at distinguishing between the two in the typical clinical setting?

To find out, Young's group looked at data from nine trials with a total of more than 2,500 adult patients with rhinosinusitis. Doctors in the trials used a patient's medical history or symptoms -- for example, facial pain, pus-filled nasal discharge, or a prior cold -- that have been thought helpful in distinguishing a bacterial infection from a viral one.

Unfortunately, even these symptoms failed to help doctors determine whether antibiotics were appropriate. In fact, the analysis found that 15 patients with rhinosinusitis-like complaints had to be given antibiotics before one additional patient benefited from treatment, meaning that the other 14 were getting the drugs for no real purpose, the authors wrote. The result didn't change, regardless of patient age or duration or severity of symptoms.

The findings only apply to adult patients because children were not included in the study, the researchers stressed.

However, one otolaryngologist said the study goes too far in banning antibiotics for adult cases.

"This study should not convey the message that antibiotics are not indicated for all patients with sinusitis," Dr. Jordan S. Josephson, of Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said in a statement. He believes that while the drugs are certainly ineffective against viral sinusitis, they can offer patients with acute bacterial infections "significant symptom relief and improvement."

Josephson notes the study does not address "the 30-plus million Americans that suffer from chronic sinusitis." He said the evidence is clear that many patients with these longer-term sinus problems do benefit from antibiotic therapy.

However, the new findings mirror those of a study published last March in the Archives of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery. That study found that U.S. doctors are consistently overprescribing antibiotics for sinus infections.

But even the physician who led that research doesn't see how the problem can be eliminated.

That's because when it comes to treatments for sinus trouble, antibiotics are the best of a bad lot, said Dr. Donald A. Leopold, chairman of the department of otolaryngology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

"We as physicians don't have very good medications for chronic rhinosinusitis," he said. "The only other drugs in contention are topical steroids, and they are not great. As a group, I suggest we are frustrated at not having good drugs. It would be great if we had better medications for this chronic inflammation."

Another factor is what patients demand, Leopold said. "Many patients call up and ask for specific antibiotics," he said. "The patients know these names. They have been marketed to them, so they know the drugs are available. And antibiotics do give some relief."

According to the Archives of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery report, two national studies showed that Americans made more than 17 million visits to health-care facilities for sinus infections between 1999 and 2002. At least one antibiotic was prescribed in nearly 83 percent of cases of acute rhinosinusitis and in nearly 70 percent of cases of the chronic, longer-running version of the condition, in which symptoms persist for at least 12 weeks.

Doctors understand that overprescribing antibiotics can lead to a dangerous microbial resistance to the drugs. But it's hard to preach that wisdom to someone with a drippy, hurting sinus who wants immediate relief, Leopold acknowledged. Because more effective drugs are lacking, "patients are desperate, physicians are desperate, and it is not a happy situation," he said.

Consider the case of the working physician called on to treat such a patient, said Dr. Neil L. Kao, vice chairman of the rhinitis/sinusitis committee of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. He happens to be just such a working physician, in private practice in Greenville, S.C.

There are ways to determine whether a sinus infection is bacterial, Kao said. One is to do endoscopy, running a tube into the nose to obtain a sample of mucus from the sinus. Another is nasal cytology, examining a swab from the lining of the nose. A third is to take an X-ray.

"The problem with all of these is that they are expensive and time-consuming," Kao said. "The differences between symptoms caused by an allergy, bacterial infection, viral infection and a common cold are few. For us, even specialist doctors, when you see someone with acute nasal symptoms, it is hard to tell the cause. And the truth is that most of the people diagnosed with sinusitis go to primary-care doctors."

Public awareness about antibiotic resistance is increasing, but most people suffering from cough, drip, lack of sleep and other sinus symptoms are likely to come in demanding an antibiotic, Kao said.

And so the physician often makes the practical choice of giving what the patient wants, with a chance of relief, over the more abstract issue of antibiotic resistance, he said.

More information
For more on sinus infections, head to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Gulf War Illness Strongly Linked to Chemical Exposure

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 12:08:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- A new scientific review finds a strong association between exposure to certain chemicals and the Gulf War illness suffered by many veterans.

The class of chemicals, known as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs), are found in pesticides, nerve agents and in pills given to soldiers to protect against nerve agents. The review, which was conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, looked at 115 papers on the topic.

"Some of this has been stated for a while," said Joy Ray Miller, an assistant professor of pharmacy practice at the Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy at Texas A&M Health Science Center. "This article pulls it all together. It's definitely something to be aware of for our future veterans and for the military that's out there now. There are so many variants in the article that we can't really say as a matter of fact that [AChEIs cause the symptoms], but I think there are enough coincidences going on that we can have a pretty good understanding that maybe we should do something differently."

Veterans of the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War have a higher rate of "chronic multi-symptom health problems" than either non-deployed military personnel or those deployed in other regions. In fact, 26 percent to 32 percent of personnel deployed to the Persian Gulf during this period have chronic health problems, a range that may actually understate the magnitude of the problem, according to the study, published in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Symptoms of the syndrome include fatigue, mood-cognition problems and musculoskeletal symptoms.

Although the exact causes remain unknown, evidence is mounting to suggest that exposure to organophosphate and carbamate acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs), including pyridostigmine bromide (PB), pesticides and nerve agents, may be responsible.

The authors of this paper looked at epidemiological studies assessing the link between these chemicals and symptoms observed in Gulf War vets.

Many of the studies reported a link between exposure to AChEI and chronic symptoms.
An estimated 250,000 personnel received the carbamate pyridostigmine bromide (PB) as a pretreatment for potential exposure to nerve agents. Those who took more pills had a higher incidence of symptoms.

Also, an estimated 41,000 service members may have been overexposed to pesticides, which were used to control vector-borne disease, and 100,000 personnel may have been exposed to low levels of sarin nerve agent after the demolition of the Khamisiyah munitions depot in Iraq.

The symptoms are akin to those suffered by agricultural workers exposed to AChEIs, said the study authors, as well as symptoms suffered by victims of the sarin terrorist attacks in Japan.

Exposure to AChEIs could also be linked to the higher rate of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, in Gulf War veterans. Sporadic ALS has been associated with exposure to agricultural chemicals.

And men and women with the Gulf War symptoms were more likely to have lower concentrations and activity levels of enzymes which work to clear AChEIs from the system. Genetics may impact the way the body processes these chemicals, specifically the actions of these related enzymes.

"They're giving certain people so many of these nerve agent pills or pesticides, and [the authors] say that some people metabolize them and some not," Miller said. "Are we really giving a toxic dose apart from the genetics? What are they giving and have they really tested the amounts that they're giving? Are we overdosing?"

More information
There's more on Gulf War syndrome at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Older Men With Low Testosterone Face Greater Depression Risk

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 03:59:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- Low testosterone levels in older men are associated with an increased risk of depression, an Australian study says.

Between 2001 and 2004, researchers at the University of Western Australia in Perth studied 3,987 males aged 71 to 89. The men provided demographic and health information and were tested for depression and cognitive difficulties. The researchers also checked the men's testosterone levels.

The 203 men who met the criteria for depression had significantly lower total and free (not bound to proteins) testosterone levels than those who weren't depressed. After controlling for other factors, such as cognitive scores, education level and body-mass index, the researchers concluded that men in the lowest quintile (20 percent) of free testosterone were three times more likely to have depression compared to those in the highest quintile.

The findings were published in the March issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
While more research is needed to determine how low hormone levels may be linked to depression risk, the study authors believe it may be caused by changes in the levels of neurotransmitters or hormones in the brain.

"A randomized controlled trial is required to determine whether reducing prolonged exposure to low free testosterone is associated with a reduction in prevalence of depression in elderly men," the researchers wrote. "If so, older men with depression may benefit from systematic screening of free testosterone concentration, and testosterone supplementation may contribute to the successful treatment of hypogonadal (with low hormone levels) older men with depression."

Between 2 percent and 5 percent of people are affected by depression at any given time, according to background information in the study. Women are more likely than men to be depressed, but that difference disappears at about age 65. A number of previous studies have suggested that sex hormones may be a factor.

More information
The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has more about men and depression.

That 'Sex Talk' With Your Kids Should Be Ongoing

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:53:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- Parents may not want to hear this, but new research suggests it's not a good idea to just have that one big "sex talk" with your kids.

Instead, the study recommends that you encourage an ongoing dialogue about sex with your children -- even if it makes you uncomfortable -- so your kids are less likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors.

"It's important that parents set a foundation early on in talking with their kids about sex so that it becomes part of the norm in their household," said study lead author Steven Martino, a behavioral scientist at RAND in Pittsburgh. "As children grow and have experiences, you want them to feel it's natural to talk to their parents. When asked where they'd like to get their information, kids say from their parents more than anyone else."

Martino said he realizes that some parents feel uncomfortable talking about sex with their children. And, he said, it's OK to let your children know that you're uncomfortable, but explain that it's such an important topic that you need to talk about sex anyway.

Martino's study included 312 teens and their parents. Both parents and adolescents completed baseline questionnaires, and the researchers had the teens complete their surveys in private rooms and assured them that their parents would not be given any of the information they provided.

The parents were then randomly divided into two groups, with half attending an eight-week worksite-based parenting intervention class called "Talking Parents, Healthy Teens," designed to improve communication with their teens. The other parents just completed the survey and received no intervention.

Follow-up surveys were completed at one week, three months and nine months after the intervention began. The surveys were designed to assess 22 sex-related topics, such as the consequences of sex, how to make decisions about when to have sex, how to say no if you didn't want to have sex, how well condoms prevent sexually transmitted diseases, and more.

The researchers then assessed the breadth of communications -- how many of those 22 subjects the parents had discussed with their teens, and how often.

They found that when teens and their parents had more conversations -- repetition -- teens reported feeling closer to their parents and felt they could talk more openly with their parents about sex and other topics. A greater breadth of communication was associated with a perceived ease of discussing sex between parent and child, according to the study.

Results of the study were published in the March issue of Pediatrics.

"You can't just have the big sex talk once. Discussions need to be ongoing," said Dr. Lea deFrancisci Lis, a child psychiatrist at New York University's Child Study Center in New York City.

DeFrancisci Lis pointed out that, like most studies, this one didn't establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship. "We can't say that kids whose parents talk about sex openly with them will have less sex," she said. "But, research has shown an association between parents who are more open and kids who wait longer to have sex, have less teen pregnancy and less sexually transmitted diseases, so communication is really important."

Both experts recommend starting to talk about sex at a young age, properly naming the body parts. DeFrancisci Lis said that when a new sibling is on the way, that's a great time to discuss where babies come from. For parents who are really uncomfortable talking about sex, books can help open discussions, she said.

Martino added that watching TV or movies with your child can provide teaching situations and may make the dialogue feel more natural. The same goes for some of the lyrics in teen music, he said.

More information
To learn more, visit 4parents.gov.

Newborn Screening Suggests Decline in Cystic Fibrosis

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 03:21:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- The incidence of cystic fibrosis may be decreasing, and a more severe form of the disease caused by one particular gene also appears to be on the decline.

Those are the two main findings from a Massachusetts study that found the overall incidence of cystic fibrosis dropped from between 25 and 35 babies a year before 2003 to less than 20 babies each year for most years after 2003.

The study also found that the incidence of a severe form of the disease, caused by the genotype ΔF508/ΔF508, also dropped dramatically. Before 2003, at least 10 babies were born with this form of cystic fibrosis each year. In 2003 and beyond, only about five babies were born annually with this type of cystic fibrosis in the Massachusetts area, according to the study.

"The most severe genotype has dropped out dramatically. The new mix has some severe genotype, but overall, it's a milder group of kids, though not everyone has mild disease," said one of the study's authors, Anne Marie Comeau, deputy director of the New England Newborn Screening Program in Jamaica Plain, and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester.

The findings were published as a letter in the Feb. 28 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Cystic fibrosis is an inherited disorder that affects mucus production and the sweat glands, making mucus sticky and thick, and sweat becomes extremely salty. The disorder affects many major organs, such as the lungs, pancreas and intestines. Mucus can clog the lungs, causing breathing problems and making it easy for bacteria to grow, leading to lung infections and lung damage.

While there's no cure for cystic fibrosis, treatments have improved greatly in recent years. Until the 1980s, most deaths from the disorder occurred in children and teens. Today, people live, on average, to be more than 35 years old, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Both parents must be carriers of a cystic fibrosis gene for a child to be born with the disorder.

However, carriers have no symptoms and often have no idea that they carry the cystic fibrosis gene. Even when both parents carry a cystic fibrosis gene, the chances are only one in four that a child will be born with the disorder, according to the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

About 30,000 Americans have cystic fibrosis, and it's most common in white people of Northern European descent, although people from all races can be born with cystic fibrosis, according to NHLBI.

The new research included data from the New England Newborn Screening Program and the Massachusetts Cystic Fibrosis Newborn Screening Work Group.

Comeau said the researchers believe that the decrease in the incidence of the ΔF508/ΔF508 type, as well as other forms of cystic fibrosis, owes to prenatal screening to see if parents are carriers of a cystic fibrosis gene.

She said the most important implication of this research, however, is for people evaluating treatments for cystic fibrosis. She said it's very important for such researchers to know that "the cohort of children may be changing. If you test a treatment on kids inherently bound to have a less severe disease, you have to be careful when applying those findings to all kids," Comeau said.

Dr. David Orenstein, director of the Antonio J. and Janet Palumbo Cystic Fibrosis Center at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, said, "This study raises an interesting possibility. There have been some other geographic areas where this same trend toward lower birth rates or fewer children born with cystic fibrosis has been observed, and so it's possible that it's real. But, these things do go up and down a bit naturally."

Orenstein said he'd have liked to have seen the data broken down by ethnic groups, since the disease is more prevalent in people of Northern European descent. But, he also pointed out that the numbers of children included in this study were very small, which means the findings need to be confirmed.

More information
To learn more about cystic fibrosis and available genetic tests, visit the March of Dimes.

Laser Screen Detects Diseases in Breath

noreply@blogger.com (DrEddyClinic.com) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:25:00 +0000

(HealthDay News) -- A special technique that uses laser light to sample a person's breath can detect molecules that may be markers for a number of diseases, a U.S. study says.

This approach, called cavity-enhanced direct optical frequency comb spectroscopy, may one day help doctors screen patients for diseases such as asthma, cancer, kidney failure and diabetes, according to the team of scientists at JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

"This technique can give a broad picture of many different molecules in the breath all at once," lead researcher Jun Ye said in a prepared statement.

Optical frequency comb spectroscopy was developed in the 1990s. This study describes the potential use of the technology in detecting disease.

Each breath exhaled by a person contains more than a thousand different molecules, some of which may be indicators of disease. For example, excess levels of methylamine may indicate liver or kidney disease, ammonia may be a sign of renal failure, elevated acetone levels may indicate diabetes, and nitric oxide levels can be used to diagnose asthma.

In this study, Ye and colleagues used the technique to analyze the breaths of several volunteers. They exhaled into an optical cavity (a space between two mirrors) and a pulsed laser light was then aimed into the optical cavity. The laser light bounced back and forth between the mirrors, covering a distance of several kilometers by the time it exited the optical cavity. During this time, the laser light struck all the molecules within the cavity.

The technology was able to detect a wide range of molecules, the scientists said. The findings, published in the current issue of Optics Express, suggest this technique, which still needs to be evaluated in clinical trials, may offer a low-cost, rapid and noninvasive method of health screening, the researchers said.

More information
The American Association for Clinical Chemistry has more about health screening tests.