September 4, 2007, 8:11 PM CT

Annual flu shot cuts need for doctors' visits

Children under the age of 5 who receive an annual flu shot have a greatly reduced risk of needing to see their doctor or be admitted to the hospital because of flu-related illness. A new study in the recent issue of Pediatrics that analyzes how a number of outpatient visits or hospitalizations might be prevented by childhood influenza immunization finds that vaccinating only half U.S. children could eliminate as a number of as 650,000 doctors office visits and 2,250 hospitalizations in a year.

We observed that only 12 to 42 children need to be vaccinated to directly prevent one outpatient visit for the flu, says Elizabeth Lewis, MD, the studys first author. And since the vaccination of some children in a preschool or daycare setting also reduces the chance that unvaccinated children would be exposed to the flu virus, the effects of vaccination are probably even greater than we found. Lewis, now with MassGeneral Hospital for Children, worked on the study while at Vanderbilt University Medical School.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years receive an annual flu shot. Since the specific virus responsible for the flu varies from year to year, determining the preventive impact of influenza vaccination of children has been challenging. For the current study, the authors analyzed existing data from several sources reporting on flu-related outpatient visits or hospitalizations covering several flu seasons. These included years in which the flu season was relatively mild and well as those in which flu was widespread and caused more serious illness......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

September 4, 2007, 8:04 PM CT

Teens Need to See Their Doctors More Often

Despite recommendations for annual preventive exams for adolescents, only 10 percent of teens have enough visits within 12 months to receive the recommended three shots needed for HPV vaccine. Ideally the three shots are delivered within six months, and only 1 percent of teens see their physicians that often.

"In order to be best protected against HPV, teens need all three shots before they are exposed to the virus," said Cynthia Rand, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center, and author of a study in Pediatrics today about adolescents' need for more doctor visits to receive the HPV vaccine. "Even if we stretch the shots out over 24 months instead of six and include check-up and sick visit as opportunities to vaccinate, only about a third of girls and a fifth of boys are seeing their doctors enough to receive all the shots." This implies a high percentage of additional visits to primary care physicians are needed.

However, the introduction of this and other adolescent vaccines over the past few years presents health care providers with a new opportunity to offer preventive medicine. Adolescents as a whole do not see their physicians often enough to receive routine care and safety messages that are incredibly important for that age group......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

September 4, 2007, 7:43 PM CT

A type of antioxidant may not be as safe as once thought

Certain preparations taken to enhance athletic performance or stave off disease contain an anti-oxidant that could cause harm. As per new research at the University of Virginia Health System, N-acetylcysteine (NAC), an anti-oxidant usually used in nutritional and body-building supplements, can form a red blood cell-derived molecule that makes blood vessels think they are not getting enough oxygen. This leads to pulmonary arterial high blood pressure (PAH), a serious condition characterized by hypertension in the arteries that carry blood to the lungs. The results appear in the recent issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

NAC fools the body into thinking that it has an oxygen shortage, said Dr. Ben Gaston, UVa Childrens Hospital pediatrician and researcher who led the study. We observed that an NAC product formed by red blood cells, know as a nitrosothiol, bypasses the normal regulation of oxygen sensing. It tells the arteries in the lung to remodel; they become narrow, increasing the blood pressure in the lungs and causing the right side of the heart to swell.

Gaston notes that this is an entirely new understanding of the way oxygen is sensed by the body. The body responds to nitrosothiols, which are made when a decreased amount of oxygen is being carried by red blood cells; the response is not to the amount of oxygen dissolved in blood. He says that this pathway was designed much more elegantly than anyone had previously imagined. We were really surprised, he said......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

September 4, 2007, 7:41 PM CT

Learning from Quebec's Prescription Drug Plan

A new study published in The Milbank Quarterly finds many similarities between Canadian drug coverage and that of the United States, despite their publicized differences. Looking at Quebec's Prescription Drug Insurance Program and the United States' Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act (MMA), the study suggests that the older Canadian plan may provide valuable insights for American decision-makers.

The study examines the factors that led to the adoption of Quebec's drug policy in 1997 and of the MMA in 2003, finding that both programs were developed in response to popular discontent, pressure from the pharmaceutical industry, and the determination of the government of the day to leave its mark on history. Canadian and American policy-makers shared a goal of expanding prescription drug benefits to a greater part of the population while also controlling costs.

Led by Marie-Pascale Pomey of the University of Montreal, the study looks at some of the challenges that have faced the Quebec plan since its inception ten years ago, including the complexity of the regime, the heavy burden of users' contributions, and the lack of a comprehensive pharmaceutical policy. Some of these problems have already been experienced by the MMA, and others are predicted in its future. Canadian efforts to resolve these challenges, such as streamlining the various sources of financing of the program, adjusting terms of coverage to remove access barriers to the poor and developing innovative policies to regulate drug prices, may provide guidance to American policy-makers......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

September 4, 2007, 7:36 PM CT

Laser Blasts Viruses In Blood

A father-son research team working from separate laboratory benches across the country has discovered a new use for lasers - zapping viruses out of blood. The technique, which holds promise for disinfecting blood for transfusions, uses a low-power laser beam with a pulse lasting just fractions of a second.

Johns Hopkins University student Shaw-Wei David Tsen says it was during a stroll in the park with his father that the idea was born. Tsen, an immunology researcher in the laboratory of T.C. Wu at Hopkins' Kimmel Cancer Center, sought a new method to rid isolated blood of dangerous pathogens, including the viruses HIV and hepatitis C. He says current techniques using UV irradiation and radioisotopes can leave a trail of mutated or damaged blood components.

Using ultrasonic vibrations to destroy viruses was one possibility, but his father, Kong-Thon Tsen, a laser expert at Arizona State University, had a better idea: Lasers, unlike ultrasound, can penetrate energy-absorbing water surrounding the viruses and directly vibrate the pathogen itself.

The scientists aimed a low-power laser with a pulse lasting 100 femtoseconds (10-13 second) into glass tubes containing saline-diluted viruses that infect bacteria, also known as bacteriophages. The amount of infectious virus within each cube plummeted 100- to 1000-fold after the laser therapy. "I had to repeat the experiment several times to convince myself that the laser worked this well," says the younger Tsen......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

September 4, 2007, 7:21 PM CT

Low level of neuronal receptor linked to Alzheimer's disease

Results of a new study indicate a strong link between the loss of the neuronal receptor LR11and onset of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), often a harbinger of Alzheimer's disease.

LR11, like all receptors, selectively receives and binds specific substances. Scientists found reduced levels of LR11, also known as sorLA or SORL1, in the brain tissue of people diagnosed with MCI. In addition, the findings show that levels of LR11 in the brain tissue reflect the severity of cognitive impairment and may predict which individuals will progress to Alzheimer's disease.

Results of the study by researchers at Emory University School of Medicine, along with researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, are published online in the Annals of Neurology and will be published in a future print edition.

The research was conducted by James Lah, MD, PhD, Emory associate professor of neurology, and graduate student Kristen Sager,in the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease. The research team also included Howard Rees, PhD, research specialist, Marla Gearing, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and Allan Levey, MD, PhD, professor and chair of neurology. The team at Rush University Medical Center included Joanne Wu, biostatistician, Susan Leurgans, PhD, professor of biostatistics, and Elliot Mufson, PhD, Alla V. and Solomon Jesmer Chair in Aging and professor of neurological sciences......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 13:50:25 GMT

FDA to study if those ads really work

Sometimes you just can't make this stuff up



The FDA is proposing to conduct a study called "Experimental Evaluation of the Impact of Distraction on Consumer Understanding of Risk and Benefit Information in DTC [Direct-to-Consumer] Prescription Drug Broadcast Advertising." Rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it?

Bonus points to anyone who already knows what that means. Give up? As Broadcasting and Cable wrote, it studies why, "if the side effects of so many popular drugs involve vomiting and swelling and headaches, then why are all those people in TV drug ads smiling and cuddling and breathing easier?"

Translation: Do positive visuals in TV ads-smiling, happy people-affect how viewers process the risk information being delivered aurally or via text?

Hmmmm. If the FDA determines that commercials have no impact, will sponsors start pulling their ad campaigns? Somehow, I think not. Posted by: martino      Read more     Source

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 12:18:37 GMT

Nurses Connecting With Other Nurses

NurseConnect and Nurse Linkup are two online social networking sites that let nurses connect. This is a great way for nurses all over the world to share experiences and share knowledge. After all, when knowledge is shared we all benefit.

Nurses can also gain information about potential job openings, which cities are the best cities for nurses to work and live in. When you join you'll be able to do the rating and reviewing.

Connect with other nurses using live chat, instant messaging and groups. Use tools such as online videos, online store, job board and there's even a dating section. Posted by: Linda Roeder      Read more     Source

August 30, 2007, 9:21 PM CT

Gene signature spells poor outcome

Other than visually inspecting the disease, doctors have no genetic blueprint to classify melanomas, a lethal form of skin cancer. Tumors generally are ranked by how deeply the growth has invaded underlying skin tissue. The deeper it burrows into the skin, the more lethal the cancer, but some patients defy the odds and survive with thick tumors or die from thin ones. Two melanoma patients with cancers of the same invasion depth and appearance under the microscope can have completely different outcomes, says Rhoda Alani, M.D., associate professor of oncology, dermatology and molecular biology and genetics at Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.

Alani says the way genes turn their protein-manufacturing machinery on and off in each cancer may help create a signature that can be used to identify tumors that are more prone to kill. These so-called expression patterns can be different from one stage of cancer to the next.

Her research team charted the level of gene expression in melanoma cell lines. Three of the lines mimic the least aggressive type, which grows along the uppermost surface of the skin, called radial growth phase. Four of the cell lines are typical of so-called vertical growth phase cancers, which invade inner skin layers, and another three represent the most lethal form -metastatic melanomas......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

August 30, 2007, 9:19 PM CT

Nanotechnology To Fight E. Coli

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) can kill bacteria like the common pathogen E. coli by severely damaging their cell walls, as per a recent report from Yale scientists in the American Chemical Society (ACS) journal Langmuir.

We began the study out of concerns for the possible toxicity of nanotubes in aquatic environments and their presence in the food chain, said Menachem Elimelech, professor and chair of chemical and environmental engineering at Yale and senior author on the paper. While nanotubes have great promise for medical and commercial applications there is little understanding of how they interact with humans and the environment.

The nanotubes are microscopic carbon cylinders, thousands of times smaller than a human hair that can be easily taken up by human cells, said Elimelech. We wanted to find out more about where and how they are toxic.

This nanoscience version of a David-and-Goliath story was hailed in an ACS preview of the work as the first direct evidence that carbon nanotubes have powerful antimicrobial activity, a discovery that could help fight the growing problem of antibiotic resistant infections.

Using the simple E. coli as test cells, the scientists incubated cultures of the bacteria in the presence of the nanotubes for up to an hour. The microbes were killed outright but only when there was direct contact with aggregates of the SWCNTs that touched the bacteria. Elimelech speculates that the long, thin nanotubes puncture the cells and cause cellular damage......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source