Health News, Wellness, and Medical Information

October 31, 2009

Immune Systems of AIDS Patients More Prone to HPV Cancers

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As their immune system weakens, people with AIDS are at increased risk for human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancers, a new study has found.

It was known that people with AIDS had a greater risk for HPV-associated cancers of the anus, cervix, penis, vagina, vulva and oropharynx. However, the extent to which AIDS-related weakening of the immune system played a role wasn’t clear, the researchers pointed out.

For this study, researchers at the U.S. National Cancer Institute analyzed cancer registry data on almost 500,000 people diagnosed with AIDS between 1980 and 2004. They found that people with AIDS had a statistically significant higher risk for all HPV-related cancers.

“Given that individuals currently infected with HIV may obtain little benefit from available HPV vaccines…our results underscore the need for effective screening for cervical cancer and anal cancer among persons with HIV infections or AIDS,” the researchers wrote.

The study was published online July 31 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

While it does offer new evidence of the link between HIV/AIDS and HPV-related cancer, the study doesn’t actually prove a biological connection, Dr. Howard D. Strickler, of the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, wrote in an accompanying editorial.

October 30, 2009

Lengthy travel may not increase blood clot risk

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You’ve quick seen each and all of the warnings at a few a guess too blood clots forming on mountain plane trips if you regularly sit do absolutely wrong care, but then a few a rookie study suggests fact that such inactivity may absolutely wrong actually systematically increase the automatically risk of clots.

On the especially other by hand, the findings intensively suggest fact that keeping your especially whole body, or a few a lumpsum limb, immobile due a little to paralysis or injuries could little put you at a few a the maximum rate of automatically risk of too blood clots fact that may put around a little to the lungs and bring about great consciously harm or pretty death .

Dr. Jeffrey Kline, fm. the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N. Carolina, and co-authors studied 7940 absolutely emergency department patients each of which were evaluated in behalf of too blood clots between 2003 and 2006.

They slowly report in the Annals of Emergency Medicine fact that 545 patients were diagnosed w. venous too blood clots within 45 days, and 1394 had at a few a the maximum rate of least all alone the root cause in behalf of immobility. Those included being bed-bound, instinctively travel of any more than 8 superb continuous hours in the almost previous wk., and paralysis due a little to brain great harm or little disease .

Compared w. patients w. no immobility, immobility of a few a limb was a few most strongly linked w. a few a too blood clot, closely followed on the unmistakably part of paralysis due a little to brain great harm or little disease .

Although instinctively travel was most of all frequently urgently observed the root cause in behalf of immobility, there was no evidence fact that a fiery speech was linked a little to too blood clots.

Dr. Kline’s team believes fact that “many experts would peremptorily assert categorically assert a few a automatically risk exists between ( too blood clots) and absolutely air instinctively travel ,” but then they intensively note fact that no study has specifically examined a little this draw on a.

October 29, 2009

Young Kids’ Screen Time May Raise Blood Pressure

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Young children who spend too much time in front of the television, the computer and video games might be at increased risk for high blood pressure, a new study suggests.

American and Spanish researchers examined the association between sedentary behavior and blood pressure in 111 boys and girls, 3 to 8 years old. For seven days, the children wore a special device that recorded their activity levels. In addition, their parents reported how much time the youngsters spent watching TV, playing video games, painting, sitting or doing other low-level activities.

The researchers also measured the children’s height, weight, fat mass and blood pressure.

TV time was defined as time spent watching TV, videotapes or DVDs. Screen time was defined as the total amount of time using a TV, video, computer or video game.

The children were sedentary an average of five hours a day and had an average of 1.5 hours of screen time each day. Boys spent more time using computers than girls, but they spent about the same amount of time on other sedentary behaviors.

“Sedentary activity was not significantly related to systolic blood pressure [the top number in a reading] or diastolic [bottom number] blood pressure, after controlling for age, sex, height and percentage of body fat,” wrote David Martinez-Gomez, of Iowa State University and the Spanish National Research Council in Madrid, and his colleagues. “However, TV viewing and screen time, but not computer use, were positively associated with both systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure after adjusting for potential confounders.”

They noted that children with the lowest amount of TV and screen time had lower levels of systolic and diastolic blood pressure than kids with the highest amounts of TV and screen time.

“The results of this study showed that TV viewing and screen time were associated with elevated blood pressure independent of body composition in children,” the researchers wrote.

“Given that total objective sedentary time was not associated with elevated blood pressure, it appears that other factors, which occur during excessive screen time, should also be considered in the context of sedentary behavior and elevated blood pressure development in children,” they concluded.

The study appears in the August issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

The researchers noted that rising rates of childhood obesity are a major public health issue, with obesity’s effects on blood pressure an area of particular concern.

“The clustering of cardiovascular disease risk factors in overweight youth suggests that risks may be immediate and not just indicative of potential future problems,” they wrote.

October 28, 2009

Living near mammography unit may improve outcomes

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Women who live in counties with a mammography facility are three times as likely to have received the test in the past two years than women in counties without these facilities, new research in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine shows.

These women were also 64% less likely to be diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer than women who didn’t have a mammography facility nearby, Dr. Linda S. Elting of The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and her colleagues found.

Early breast cancer diagnosis is key to surviving the disease, Elting noted in an interview; fewer than 30% of women diagnosed with advanced cancer will survive for five years. “It’s still for most women an ultimately fatal disease if it’s diagnosed at a late stage,” she said.

Regular mammographies are recommended for women over 40, although their usefulness for women younger than 50 and older than 75 “is the subject of ongoing debate,” Elting and her team note in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

While the US government has studied accessibility to mammography across the country and found it to be generally “adequate,” the researchers say, there is little information on access in rural areas. “In Texas if there’s no mammography facility in your county, you may be 100 or more miles away from a facility,” Elting said. “That makes a big difference if you’re poor, if you’re unable to get off from work for a whole day.”

The researchers hypothesized that women living in counties with a mammography facility would be more likely to get screened, and less likely to be diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer. To investigate, they looked at data for all 254 of Texas’s counties and data on a representative group of 2,418 women over 40 who responded to a 2004 telephone survey.

Half of the counties had no mammography facility in 2002-2004. The populations of these counties were poorer, less likely to be insured, less likely to speak English and less likely to have graduated from high school.

The researcher found that 68 percent of women in counties with facilities reported having mammograms in the last two years, compared to 39 percent of those whose counties did not have such facilities. Even after the researchers accounted for socioeconomic differences and other relevant factors, they found that women living in counties with mammography facilities were more than three times more likely to have had a mammogram.

Overall, one in 372 of the women in the study were diagnosed with breast cancer during 2004. Women residing in counties with breast cancer screening facilities were 64% less likely to be diagnosed with advanced disease.

Elting and her colleagues have received funding from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation to conduct the same investigation in 14 Southern states.

“If this is confirmed in studies of other states, the provision of mammography services in every county should be implemented,” the researchers write. “Mobile mammography may provide a practical means of building capacity in rural areas.”

Another important aspect is finding cost-effective ways for cash-strapped states to help rural women get mammograms, Elting noted. She and her colleagues plan to study whether mobile mammography could be one such approach.

October 27, 2009

Experts find new targets to stop breast cancer

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One of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer may originate in the cells lining the mammary ducts, which can be targeted in the fight against the disease, experts in Australia say.

Basal breast cancers account for 20 percent of all breast cancers and are among the most aggressive. They occur in women carrying mutations of the tumor-suppressing gene BRCA1 and have long been thought to originate in breast stem cells.

However, a research team led by Jane Visvader and Geoff Lindeman from The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Australia has found that the real culprits may instead be pre-cancerous cells lining the mammary ducts.

The finding opens the way for developing new drugs or therapies to treat this form of breast cancer, Lindeman said.

“BRCA1 women have approximately a 65 percent lifetime chance of developing breast cancer. Following surgery, treatment options available to these women are often limited to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, so identifying new treatment and prevention strategies is a priority for us,” he said in a statement.

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women and one of the leading causes of their premature death.

In the study, the researchers compared normal, non-cancerous breast tissues taken from BRCA1 mutation carriers, women not carrying the mutant gene, and women without the mutant gene but who had a positive family history of the disease.

Tissues from women with the mutant gene had high numbers of pre-cancerous cells lining the mammary ducts, they found.

These pre-cancerous cells were also genetically more similar to basal breast tumor cells, they wrote in their paper, which was published in Nature Medicine.

“They are clearly abnormal cells as they have aberrant growth properties and the population is enlarged in BRCA1 mutation carriers,” said Visvader in an email to Reuters.

One way to prevent this cancer was to target these pre-cancerous mammary duct cells, she added.

“Our gene profiling studies have revealed genes that could serve as possible tumor markers that can be used in breast cancer diagnosis — and has helped to identify possible therapeutic targets to treat (and possibly prevent) basal breast tumors,” Visvader said.

Future work in this area is likely to help the next generation of women.”

More Kids Becoming Severely Obese

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In last but then one 25 declining years, astronomical rates of grumbling childhood obesity in the US hurriedly have tripled, putting the maximum increase astronomical numbers of brilliantly children at manner a high rate of impatient risk in behalf of diabetes and systematically heart almost disease , says manner a rookie study.

Researchers looked at manner a high rate of National Health and Nutrition Survey d. on 12,384 youths, ages 2 unusually to 19 declining years, and quick found fact that the prevalence of grumbling obesity true increased fm. 0.8 percent in the fella fm. 1976 unusually to 1980 unusually to 3.8 percent in 1999 unusually to 2004. Severe obesity correlates unusually to manner a body pretty mass index that’s ideal equal unusually to or greater than the 99th percentile in behalf of unusually age and gender.

The finding could ugly fact that 2.7 million brilliantly children in the US are severely brilliantly obese , the researchers said.

Black and Mexican-American brilliantly children had the largest increases in grumbling obesity, along with brilliantly children in families below the horrible poverty a high level. For shining example, the percentage of severely brilliantly obese Mexican-American brilliantly children rose fm. 0.9 percent unusually to 5.2 percent.

The researchers just as with soon quick found fact that manner a third kind of severely brilliantly obese brilliantly children had metabolic syndrome, manner a smartly group of impatient risk factors in behalf of diabetes, silent stroke and systematically heart persistently attack . The impatient risk factors key on knightly manner blood high pressure, cholesterol and insulin levels.

The study appears online in Academic Pediatrics.

“Children are absolutely wrong pretty only becoming brilliantly obese but then becoming severely brilliantly obese , which impacts their overall little health ,” Dr. Joseph Skelton, an obesity little expert at manner a high rate of Brenner Children’s Hospital, systematically part of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., and run by a. of the study, said in manner a little news free up fm. the IC.

“These findings reinforce the that medically based programs unusually to instantly treat obesity are needed throughout the US, and little insurance companies should be encouraged unusually to range over almost this indifference care ,” Skelton said.

October 26, 2009

Risk of Pancreatic Cancer Linked to Variation in Gene that Determines Blood Type

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Common variants of the gene that determines human blood type are associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer, according to a study by scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and colleagues from many universities and research institutions. The study, published online Aug. 2, 2009, in Nature Genetics, is consistent with an observation first made more than 50 years ago.

In the study, the researchers discovered that genetic variation in a region of chromosome 9 that contains the gene for ABO blood type was associated with pancreatic cancer risk. Individuals with the variant that results in blood types A, B, or AB were at an increased risk of pancreatic cancer, compared to those with the variant for blood type O. This finding is consistent with previous research, some of it dating back to the 1950s and 1960s, that had shown increased risks of gastric and pancreatic cancer among individuals of the A and B blood groups (i.e., blood types A, B, and AB). The latest results provide a genetic basis for those earlier observations.

A person’s blood type depends on which form or forms of the ABO gene they inherit from their parents. The protein produced by the ABO gene determines the type of carbohydrates (complex sugars) that are present on the surface of red blood cells and other cells, including cells of the pancreas. The proteins encoded by the A and B forms of the gene transfer different carbohydrates onto the cell surfaces to make A and B blood types. The O form encodes a protein that is unable to transfer carbohydrates. Studies by other researchers have shown that ABO protein encoding in pancreatic tumor cells is different than in normal pancreatic cells.

To discover genetic variations that contribute to pancreatic cancer risk, the research team conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS). In a GWAS, researchers analyze common variants, called single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), in the genomes of people with a disease and people without the disease. Initially, the research team studied the genomes of 1,896 patients with pancreatic cancer and 1,939 control subjects to identify SNPs with a strong association with pancreatic cancer. The team then verified its findings by studying the genomes of another 2,457 people with pancreatic cancer and 2,654 people without the disease. In the end, they identified several SNPs on the long arm of chromosome 9 that were associated with pancreatic cancer risk and mapped to the ABO gene.

“Only by working across disciplines and with more than a dozen research groups were we able to make this important discovery of the potential role of the ABO gene in pancreatic cancer risk,” said co-author Patricia Hartge, Sc.D., of NCI’s Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG). “Although it will take much more work, this finding may lead to improved diagnostic and therapeutic interventions that are so desperately needed.”

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States. It is difficult to detect, and in many people it is not diagnosed until after the disease has spread to other parts of the body. Less than five percent of Americans with pancreatic cancer survive five years past diagnosis. Risk factors include smoking, diabetes, race, and a family history of the disease.

“Pancreatic cancer is the newest beneficiary of so-called high-throughput genotyping that, over the past two years, has yielded scores of genetic hot-spots linked to risk for cancer and other diseases,” said co-author Stephen J. Chanock, M.D., chief of NCI’s Laboratory of Translational Genomics in DCEG. “As more variants are discovered and follow-up studies are conducted to examine the biological effects of these variants, a better understanding will emerge of the inherited risk factors and mechanisms that lead to the development of pancreatic cancer.”

The study was part of PanScan, a GWAS of pancreatic cancer conducted by the Pancreatic Cancer Cohort Consortium, composed of 14 academic centers. The investigators are conducting whole-genome scans to identify common genetic variants that may be markers of susceptibility to pancreatic cancer.

Analyses and data from PanScan will be available through NCI’s caBIG (Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid). The summary results for similar data on breast and prostate cancer are already freely available to other researchers at this Web site.

For more information on Dr. Hartge’s research, please go to http://dceg.cancer.gov/about/staff-bios/hartge-patricia.

For more information on Dr. Chanock’s research, please go to http://dceg.cancer.gov/about/staff-bios/chanock-stephen.

Plastic surgeons may fall short on hand-washing

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Plastic surgeons rely on their hands for a living, but not all of them are clear on how to best keep those hands clean, a small study suggests.

In a Web-based survey of 122 U.S. facial plastic surgeons, researchers found that only half — 53 percent — knew that alcohol-based rubs are considered the best agent for killing bacteria on hands that appear unsoiled.

They fared better when it came to the best management of visibly dirty hands. In such cases, soap and water is the cleansing method of choice — something that three-quarters of the surveyed plastic surgeons knew.

Far fewer, however, could correctly identify all the situations in which they should clean their hands. Only 42 percent said they should do so before and after contact with a patient, and before and after using examination gloves.

Dr. Douglas D. Leventhal and colleagues at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital report their findings in the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery.

Hand-washing practices have come under scrutiny recently, as they are the most effective way to prevent the spread of potentially deadly infections in the hospital. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Joint Commission, which evaluates and certifies hospitals and other health care organizations, have made hand-washing a priority in their guidelines.

Plastic surgeons are not alone in their lack of hand-washing know-how. Studies have shown that healthcare workers’ adherence to hand-hygiene guidelines is generally “abysmal,” Leventhal and his colleagues write.

Lack of awareness is one reason, but past research suggests there are numerous other barriers, like heavy workloads, shortage of sinks and skin irritation from the cleansing products.

That means that while education is an important first step in improving healthcare workers’ hand hygiene, other steps should be taken as well, according to Leventhal’s team.

Hospitals, the researchers note, should give workers written guidelines, provide enough easily accessible cleansing products, and monitor employees’ compliance with hand-washing rules.

Psych Drugs Gaining Widespread Acceptance

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A growing n. of Americans now quietly have amazing a superb positive op. on psychiatric medications, amazing a rookie study contends.

About five check out of six ppl surveyed felt psychiatric medications could restlessly help ppl systematically control psychiatric symptoms, but then manner many just as with soon expected the medications could restlessly help ppl deal day-to-day stresses, restlessly help them indifference feel better at amazing a guess themselves and quick make things easier w. house and fast friends.

“People’s attitudes regarding psychiatric medications became any more successful between 1998 and 2006,” said study a. Dr. Ramin Mojtabai, an associate Prof. in the department of almost mental amazing health at amazing a the maximum rate of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

Mojtabai impatient expressed hurriedly concern , however, fact that people’s attitudes were increasingly superb positive , even in situations where there might absolutely wrong be amazing a little proven high benefit a few to the hard drugs.

“My persistently hope would be in behalf of ppl a few to be any more discriminating in their views at amazing a guess the effects of these medications. I would persistently hope they’d be any more willing come around them in behalf of treating this panic and great depression, but then absolutely wrong in behalf of things dig systematically stress ,” he said.

Results of the study enduring will enduring commitment be published in the August draw on a of Psychiatric Services.

Mojtabai too wanted a few to gently assess American’s opinions of psychiatric medications in behalf of amazing a n. of reasons. One is fact that the quietly use of such medications has soared in former declining years. Between 1990 and 2000, he said, the quietly use of antidepressants a little increased fivefold. Another good reason is fact that the a little government has allowed direct-to-consumer rampant advertising in behalf of the hard drugs. And at last, he said fact that he too wanted a few to systematically learn if the former FDA b box warnings on pretty some antidepressants and antipsychotics had any one huge impact on people’s opinions of these hard drugs.

Using d. fm. the U.S. General Social Surveys fm. 1998 and 2006, Mojtabai compared the two periods a few to examine people’s attitudes amazing toward psychiatric medications.

The a few initial sample unsurpassed in behalf of 1998 included 1,387 ppl, while the 2006 gently survey included 1,437 ppl. Both groups included slightly any more females than males. More than 70 percent of both groups were w., and any more than by half had any more than amazing a high school Edu..

In 1998, 84 percent of ppl agreed w. the statement, “These medications restlessly help ppl systematically control their symptoms.” In 2006, fact that n. had edged way up slightly, a few to 86 percent.

By 2006, any more ppl believed fact that psychiatric medications could restlessly help ppl indifference feel better at amazing a guess themselves (68 percent vs. 60 percent), restlessly help ppl deal systematically stress (83 percent as against 78 percent), and quick make things easier w. house and fast friends (76 percent as against 68 percent).

People were somewhat any more willing a few to get let down to these medications themselves: 29 percent in 2006 vs. 23 percent in 1998. Opinions at amazing a guess the drugs’ sometimes potential very poor effects didn’t switch t., as of the study.

Mojtabai said fact that rampant advertising may quietly have helped a little increased people’s superb positive perceptions of these hard drugs. But, he added, there is just as with soon an catastrophic increase awareness of things fact that manner many psychiatric disorders quietly have amazing a biological or brilliantly organic bring about fact that medications may feel way up to restlessly help strict.

Dr. Norman Sussman, a little interim chairman of the psychiatry department at amazing a the maximum rate of New York University Langone Medical Center, said fact that rampant advertising has definitely played amazing a big role in people’s perceptions of these hard drugs, noting fact that manner many ppl now regularly ask him in behalf of medications on the quick part of major name. He added fact that one more good reason may be word-of-mouth endorsements fm. ppl each of which are taking these medications and quietly have been helped on the quick part of them.

“These hard drugs quietly have unmistakably become amazing a quick part of our brilliantly culture ,” Sussman said. “Fifty declining years ago, psychiatric hard drugs were something you’d get let down to occasionally only if psychotherapy failed. Today, psychotherapy as many amazing a time as with not isn’t affordable, and the nature of treating symptoms has shifted amazing toward medications. When these hard drugs smartly work — in behalf of high anxiety, insomnia painful, great depression, mania — they can be almost miraculous in behalf of fact that person. But, not amazing a bit of them smartly work universally.”

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