Mothers of babies born with some structural birth defects?including missing limbs, malformed hearts and underdeveloped spinal cords?appear more likely to be obese prior to becoming pregnant than mothers whose children are born without such defects, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Although physicians have imposed quarantine orders since at least 1374, when the Port of Venice officially isolated foreigners and shippers for 40 days to keep out infectious scourges, there has been no definitive evidence that public health measures like quarantining the sick and isolating people after exposure to ill people would save lives during an influenza pandemic.
Brain areas that control attention were thinnest in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who carried a particular version of a gene in a study by the National Institutes of Health?s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). However, the areas, on the right side of the brain?s outer mantle, or cortex, normalized in thickness during the teen years in these children, coinciding with clinical improvement. Although this particular gene version increased risk for ADHD, it also predicted better clinical outcomes and higher IQ than two other common versions of the same gene in youth with ADHD.
It may be cost-effective to screen and treat selected older men with osteoporosis, depending on their age and if they have had a prior fracture, according to a study in the August 8 issue of JAMA.
GW Pharmaceuticals plc (AIM: GWP) and Bayer Inc., a subsidiary of Bayer AG, announce that Health Canada has approved Sativex?, a cannabis derived pharmaceutical treatment, as adjunctive analgesic treatment in adult patients with advanced cancer who experience moderate to severe pain during the highest tolerated dose of strong opioid therapy for persistent background pain.
The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association have jointly released revised Guidelines for the Management of Patients with Unstable Angina (UA)/Non-ST- Elevation Myocardial Infarction (NSTEMI).
Adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show a blunted response to the drug methylphenidate (Ritalin), which increases brain dopamine levels, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. This suggests that dopamine dysfunction may be involved with ADHD symptoms and may contribute to substance abuse that often occurs simultaneously.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved maraviroc, an antiretroviral drug for use in adult HIV patients. Maraviroc, sold under the trade name Selzentry, is the first in a new class of drugs designed to slow the advancement of HIV and received priority review by the FDA.
If sagging skin is getting you down, recent advances in skin-tightening technologies can lift your spirits ? and your skin ? in a matter of a few office visits to your dermatologist. The beauty of these non-invasive procedures is their ability to treat loose skin virtually anywhere on the body without the risks and downtime associated with surgery.
UK scientists have shown for the first time that key proteins involved in Alzheimer’s disease are also implicated in glaucoma, the major cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. Research carried out at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and funded by the Wellcome Trust has also shown that novel drugs being trialled for Alzheimer’s disease which target this protein may be used to treat glaucoma.