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| Mayo Clinic Identifies New Risk Factor for Heart Attack Patients: Delay in Reaching Hospital After Heart Attack Starts Affects Quality of Care |
If you go to the hospital within one to two hours of the onset of symptoms of a heart attack, your chances of getting proper treatment are nearly 70 percent greater than those who wait 11 to 12 hours before seeking treatment, according to results presented today at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2007 in Orlando, Fla.
"This research should emphasize to patients that getting help immediately, by calling 911, gives them the best chance of receiving treatments we know can help save their lives or lessen the damage to their hearts," says Henry Ting, M.D., lead Mayo Clinic cardiovascular researcher on the national study. "If patients wait at home for hours with symptoms and come in later, unfortunately they aren't getting the proper treatments."
The most serious type of heart attack is known as an ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). In a STEMI, critical arteries supplying the heart with blood are blocked. Previous studies have shown that the best treatment for STEMI patients is reperfusion therapy - when a patient's blocked artery is opened by inflating a balloon at the site of the blockage or by delivering clot-dissolving medication, thus restoring blood flow to heart muscle.
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| Did You Know That 15 to 20 Percent of Cancers Are Caused By Infections? |
Cancer-popularly understood as a result of mutations or mistakes within the genetic code in cells-is also caused by infections from viruses, bacteria and parasites.
"I believe that, conservatively, 15 to 20 percent of all cancer is caused by infections, however, the number could be larger-maybe double," says Dr. Andrew J. Dannenberg, director of the Cancer Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and Henry R. Erle, M.D.-Roberts Family Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. "Unfortunately, the public, as well as many health-care workers, are unaware of the significance of chronic infection as a potentially preventable cause of cancer."
During a speech at the American Association for Cancer Research's (AACR) Sixth Annual International Conference Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, on December 5, 6:00 p.m. EST, at the Philadelphia Marriot Downtown, Dr. Dannenberg, who is also the meeting's program committee chairperson, will highlight the link between chronic infection, inflammation and cancer as an opportunity to reduce the global cancer burden. He will review research milestones that have provided the basis for vaccine development and anti-infectives to combat cancer.
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| Major Therapeutic Breakthrough Toward the Treatment of HIV/HAART* - Associated Lipodystrophy Syndrome |
Researchers in Montreal and Boston have identified a potential new treatment for the HIV/HAART*-associated Lipodystrophy Syndrome. This syndrome is a common side-effect of anti-retroviral medications to treat HIV infection. Dr. Julian Falutz, Director of the HIV Metabolic Clinic at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), and Dr. Steven Grinspoon, Director at the Massachusetts General Hospital Program in Nutritional Metabolism are publishing the results of their recent clinical trial in the December 6, 2007 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
The Lipodystrophy Syndrome consists of several metabolic disruptions that lead to abnormal lipid and glucose levels, as well as a generalized decrease in superficial fat tissues and an increase in deep abdominal fat. The observed body shape changes may cause significant impairment of patients' quality-of-life leading many patients to stop taking their anti-retroviral medications. But the major health-threat related to the development of the Lipodystrophy Syndrome is an increased long-term cardiovascular risk.
Early in this decade, Dr. Falutz and Dr. Grinspoon began collaborating with Theratechnologies Inc., a Montreal-based biotechnology company that had developed a synthetic analogue of the naturally occurring growth hormone-releasing factor (GRF-tesamorelin). Its action is to regulate growth hormone levels that are important in controlling various metabolic processes. The effectiveness of this drug in reducing increased deep abdominal fat, and secondarily decreasing blood lipid levels, was initially confirmed in a small phase II study published in 2005. The current published results are from a large phase III Study conducted at 43 centers in the USA and Canada, which followed 412 patients for 6 months.
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| Holidays Bring the Heart Attack Season |
Those lords-a-leaping and ladies dancing may want to consider the downside of the holidays: Heart attack season has arrived. December and January are the deadliest months for heart disease, and many of the things that make the season merry are culprits: Rich meals, more alcohol and all that extra stress.
But what may make the Christmas coronary more deadly than the same-size heart attack in, say, August, is a double dose of denial. It's not uncommon for people to initially shrug off chest pain as indigestion. Research suggests they're even more reluctant for a run to the emergency room when it means disrupting a holiday gathering, or if they've traveled to a strange city meaning they arrive sicker.
Minutes matter.
"You have only a short window of opportunity to save heart muscle," warns Dr. William Suddath of Washington Hospital Center in the nation's capital where a cardiac team on-duty 24 hours a day aims to start clearing victims' clogged arteries within 15 minutes of their arrival in the emergency room.
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Placenta Pizza? Some New Moms Try Old Rituals - Some say cooking afterbirth or encapsulating it in pills averts baby blues
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In the first few days of her baby's life, Devorah Shalev was weepy. Then giddy. Then stressed. Then hungry. But mostly, overwhelmed - the 31-year-old mom from Las Vegas was hit hard with a case of the baby blues.
When she became pregnant with her second child, she looked for ways to stave off those sad feelings - and ended up doing something surprising. She ingested her placenta.
Placentophagy, as it's called, grabbed headlines this summer after a judge ordered a Las Vegas hospital to give a new mom her uterine lining, which the woman planned to dry, grind up and ingest. She, like Shalev, had heard that ingesting the placenta was a natural way to ward off the baby blues - those overwhelmed, weepy feelings that 80 percent of moms develop after giving birth.
Story continues below ?advertisement
New moms who swear by the benefits of consuming their placenta point out that it's a common practice among mammals - and after all, women are mammals, too. But no studies have examined health benefits of human placentophagy, says Dr. Diana Dell, an assistant professor in ob-gyn and psychology at Duke University.
"There's certainly no data," Dell says. "And, truthfully, the only place there may be data is in veterinary journals."
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| Urologist Uses Botox to Treat Debilitating Condition |
Eight years ago, Lynette Kunz suffered a severe spinal cord injury that left her a quadriplegic and sufferer of involuntary bladder contractions. The condition constantly interfered with her daily life.
"I can somewhat detect when my bladder is full, but I have a much shorter time span for getting to the bathroom than someone with a normal bladder," said Ms. Kunz, 42. "I could not sit down for an entire meal at a restaurant because I was in constant fear of suffering an embarrassing incident."
Now, thanks to a procedure performed at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Ms. Kunz has regained control of her bladder by receiving injections of botulinum toxin A, commonly known as Botox.
The treatment, being administered by Dr. Gary Lemack, associate professor of urology, consists of injecting Botox into numerous sites in the bladder. The toxin blocks the release of the chemical that causes the muscles to contract. Although the treated muscles become paralyzed or weakened, other muscles are unaffected and can function normally.
"Damaged nerves may send signals to the bladder at the wrong time, causing its muscles to squeeze without warning," said Dr. Lemack. "The Botox prevents the bladder muscles from having these spasms that lead to urinary frequency and urgency. The treatment will vastly improve bladder function in the majority of patients for a period of six to nine months."
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| Scientists Cure Mice Of Sickle Cell Using Stem Cell Technique |
Using a recently developed technique for turning skin cells into stem cells, scientists have cured mice of sickle cell anemia -- the first direct proof that the easily obtained cells can reverse an inherited, potentially fatal disease.
Researchers said the work, published in yesterday's online edition of the journal Science, points to a promising future for the novel cells. Known as iPS cells, they have been touted by President Bush and some scientists as a possible substitute for embryonic stem cells, which have been mired for years in political controversy.
But researchers also cautioned that aspects of the new approach will have to be changed before it can be tried in human patients. Most important, the technique depends on the use of gene-altered viruses that have the potential to trigger tumor growth.
"The big issue is how to replace these viruses," said Rudolf Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Mass., who led the new work with co-worker Jacob Hanna and Tim M. Townes of the University of Alabama Schools of Medicine and Dentistry in Birmingham.
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Believe it or not
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Man sentenced in bizarre diagnosing scam
A man was sentenced to more than four years in prison for bilking friends and family out of more than $800,000 by convincing them that his wife was a government agent who could arrange to have their medical problems diagnosed by satellite imaging.
Brent Eric Finley, 38, of Rayville, was sentenced in federal court in Monroe to serve 51 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. His wife, Stacey Finley, was sentenced in August to spend 63 months in prison and both are ordered to jointly pay restitution in the amount of $873,786.94.
The Finleys pleaded guilty in August to wire fraud, according to court records.
U.S. Attorney Donald W. Washington said in a news release following Monday's sentencing of Brent Finley that the couple convinced numerous people that Stacey Finley was a CIA agent and with her contacts she could schedule a medical scan of the victims' bodies by satellite imaging that would detect any hidden medical problems.
The Finley's convinced their victims that, if any medical problems were found, secret agents would administer medicine to them as they slept in exchange for payment, according to a bill of information filed when the Finleys were charged in May.
"These audacious criminals should remind all of us that scam artists will go to great lengths to take our life's savings," Washington said.
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News From MedWatch |
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