Diabetes Adds 15 Years to Heart Attack Risk Calculation - CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today
TORONTO, June 29 — Diabetes is the clinical equivalent of aging 15 years, thrusting men and women with the disease into a high-risk category for cardiovascular disease while still in middle-age.
A 48-year-old diabetic man has a 20% risk of suffering an acute myocardial infarction by age 58, wrote Gillian L. Booth, M.D., and colleagues, of the University of Toronto in the July 1 issue of The Lancet.
WHO | WHO updates aviation guidelines for TB prevention
WHO today issued updated guidelines for the airline industry that will further minimise the risk of tuberculosis (TB) and other infectious diseases being passed from passenger to passenger on board aircraft. The 'Tuberculosis and Air Travel' guidelines stipulate that people with infectious TB must postpone long-distance travel, while those with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) must postpone any air travel.
To date, no case of active TB has been identified as a result of exposure on a commercial aircraft. The quality of the air on board commercial aircraft is high and under normal conditions cabin air is cleaner than the air in most buildings.
LISBON, Portugal, June 27 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- The newly released version of the International Consensus Statement on Prevention and Treatment of Venous Thromboembolism (VTE), one of the leading expert consensus document specifically dedicated to the prevention and treatment of VTE, was presented at the 22nd Congress of the International Union of Angiology, Lisbon, Portugal. "These international guidelines provide recommendations guided by the rigorous review of clinical evidence by a large panel of international experts. These evidence-based guidelines provide updated recommendations on appropriate therapies and medical strategies to use with the different categories of patients at risk for VTE" says Pr. Andrew Nicolaides, Emeritus Professor, Imperial College, London, UK, and chairman of the editorial committee of the Guidelines.
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DENVER, June 27 — Treatment decisions for localized prostate cancer tend to be driven more by patients' fears and misconceptions rather than by understanding of the evidence, according to accounts of newly diagnosed patients.
A deliberate and thorough decision-making process is uncommon, suggest structured interviews with 20 men (age 54 to 80) diagnosed with localized prostate cancer, said Thomas Denberg, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Colorado here.
Instead, fearful that the cancer might quickly spread, more than half of the men expressed the desire to have it treated as quickly as possible, even though most knew prostate cancer is slow-growing, Dr. Denberg and colleagues, all internists, reported online in the journal Cancer.
Chest X-Rays Raise Breast Cancer Risk in Susceptible Women - CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today
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PARIS, June 26 — Diagnostic chest x-rays apparently bestow an increased risk of breast-cancer in women with mutations in BRCA susceptibility genes.
Any exposure to radiation from chest x-rays increased the women's risk by about 1.5-fold, reported Nadine Andrieu, Ph.D., and colleagues of the Institut Curie here, and other centers, in an early online release from the July 20 issue of Journal of Clinical Oncology.
LISBON, Portugal, June 26 /PRNewswire/ -- The newly released version of the International Consensus Statement on Prevention and Treatment of Venous Thromboembolism (VTE), one of the leading expert consensus document specifically dedicated to the prevention and treatment of VTE, was presented at the 22nd Congress of the International Union of Angiology, Lisbon, Portugal.
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"These international guidelines provide recommendations guided by the rigorous review of clinical evidence by a large panel of international experts. These evidence-based guidelines provide updated recommendations on appropriate therapies and medical strategies to use with the different categories of patients at risk for VTE," says Pr. Andrew Nicolaides, Emeritus Professor, Imperial College, London, UK, and chairman of the editorial committee of the Guidelines.
AHS: Magnetic Pulses Head Off Migraine Cascade - CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today
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LOS ANGELES, June 23 — When applied during the aura phase of migraine, two pulses from an investigational transcranial magnetic stimulator reduced some symptoms in 69% of patients, according to a pilot study reported here.
When the device works, patients report significant improvement in symptoms, but the device failed to demonstrate pain efficacy compared with sham placebo (P=0.10), Yousef Mohammad, M.D., a neurologist at Ohio State University in Columbus said at the American Headache Society meeting.
Newswise | Hospital Publishes Rehabilitation Guidelines Book
Newswise — Soon everyone who needs it will be able to benefit from Hospital for Special Surgery’s high rehabilitation standards.
With the publication of Hospital for Special Surgery’s (HSS) comprehensive reference book, Postsurgical Rehabilitation Guidelines for the Orthopedic Clinician, therapists around the country will be able to follow step-by-step examples to develop their own postsurgical treatment plans. Incorporating 45 comprehensive guidelines, it is the first textbook of its kind to cover all aspects of evidence-based postsurgical rehabilitation for musculoskeletal disease.
“I believe it is the only textbook to feature 25 years of collective knowledge from a highly ranked musculoskeletal hospital like ours,� said JeMe Cioppa-Mosca, PT, MBA, assistant vice president, Department of Rehabilitation at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. “Most other available textbooks focus primarily on one area such as hands or sports. Our textbook is different. It focuses on the entire spectrum of postsurgical rehabilitation as it relates to musculoskeletal disease.�
The overlying organization of the book is based on the major orthopedic services performed at HSS. Sections include Arthroplasty, Hand, Pediatric, Spine and Sports Medicine Rehabilitation.
Postsurgical Rehabilitation Guidelines for the Orthopedic Clinician features easy-to-follow guidelines that enable practitioners and students to look up a procedure and quickly see the recommended rehabilitation strategy. Also, the clear photos and illustrations show how to correctly perform the techniques described in the book, and the phases of treatment are defined in tables that clearly show goals, precautions, treatment strategies and criteria for advancement.
SLEEP: Treatment for Apnea Needs Follow-Up Fine Tuning - CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today
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Carl Stepnowsky, Ph.D.
SALT LAKE CITY, June 22 — Adherence to treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) by patients with obstructive sleep apnea may be considerably less than believed.
A retrospective analysis of 528 new users of CPAP machines showed that only 17% were using them as prescribed, said Carl Stepnowsky, Ph.D., of the University of California at San Diego.
Another 63% "are below what we would usually consider to be acceptable, which is four hours a night," he reported here at Sleep 2006, the joint meeting of the Sleep Research Society and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
More men than women get best care for heart attack�|�Reuters.com
More men than women get best care for heart attack
Fibromyalgia Symptoms Respond to Acupuncture - CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today
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ROCHESTER, Minn., June 16 — Acupuncture not only offered pain relief for fibromyalgia patients, but it significantly improved fatigue and anxiety symptoms, Mayo Clinic researchers reported.
This prospective, partially blinded, controlled, randomized trial included 50 fibromyalgia patients who had met American College of Rheumatology criteria for the disorder and had tried conservative treatments, including dietary and herbal supplements, David Martin, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues, here wrote in the June issue of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
Family Physicians Skip Lung Function Test in Diagnosing COPD - CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today
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HINES, Ill., June 16 — Family physicians may be diagnosing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) overly hastily, evaluating only symptoms and smoking history without the recommended spirometry, according to researchers here.
About two-thirds of patients newly diagnosed with COPD never received spirometry testing, reported Todd A. Lee, PharmD, Ph.D., of the Hines Veterans Affairs hospital here, and colleagues in the June issue of the journal Chest.
FDA Approves Cervical Cancer Vaccine - CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today
OCKVILLE, Md. June 8 — The FDA today approved Gardasil (quadrivalent human papillomavirus [Types 6, 11, 16, 18] recombinant vaccine) for prevention of cervical cancer and for prevention of cervical, vulvar and vaginal pre-cancers caused by HPV types 16 and 18.
The agency said the vaccine, made by Merck, was approved for immunization of girls and women ages nine to 26. The vaccine was not approved for immunization of boys, however, a blow to the cancer prevention community that had campaigned for approval in both boys and girls.
Biological Clock Tolls for Men Too - CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today
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LIVERMORE, Calif., June 7 — As healthy men age, they become less likely to father a successful pregnancy, according to investigators here. Aging men have an increased risk for having children with musculoskeletal and craniofacial mutations.
Evidence shows that the genetic quality of sperm deteriorates significantly with age, wrote Andrew J. Wyrobek, Ph.D., of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories here, and colleagues, in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Breathing Exercises May Ease Asthmatics' Inhaler Dependence - CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today
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SYDNEY, Australia, June 5 — Asthmatics can reduce their habitual dependence on inhalers by the use of breathing exercises, according to researchers here.
Breathing exercises reduced inhaler use by more than 80% in a small group of asthmatics, reported Cassandra Slader, Ph.D., of the University of Sydney, and colleagues, online in the journal Thorax.