A preliminary study suggests that patients with cancer in the head and neck region may have inferior performance in some driving skills compared with individuals without the disease, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
A University of Minnesota study of prostate cancer tumors from Caucasian and African-American men has shown no evidence that the cancer is more aggressive in black men. Lead investigator Akhouri Sinha, a professor of genetics, cell biology, and development and research scientist at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, said the belief that black men’s tumors are more aggressive is based on studies that failed to match patients properly and used only indirect means to measure tumor aggressiveness.
When it comes to washing with soap and water, some Americans seem be slipping up. In an observational study sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and The Soap and Detergent Association (SDA), slightly over three-quarters of men and women (77%) washed their hands in public restrooms – a six percent decline from a similar study conducted in 2005.
A new Mayo Clinic study indicates tonsillectomies are increasingly being performed to treat airway obstructions evidenced by snoring and sleep disorders as opposed to tonsil infections. The study, led by a Mayo Clinic Medical School student, will be presented Sept. 18 at the American Academy of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery in Washington, D.C.
Air pollution could be putting patients with heart disease at risk by affecting blood vessels and clotting, researchers warn. A study by the University of Edinburgh and Umeå University measured the effects of diesel exhaust on heart and blood vessel function in men who have previously experienced a heart attack.
Abbott is initiating a worldwide medical device correction for users of its Precision Xtra™, Optium™, ReliOn® Ultima, Rite Aid® and Kroger® blood glucose meters manufactured after January_31, 2007.
A human peptide that acts as a natural antibiotic against invading microbes can also bind to the body’s own DNA and trigger an immune response in the absence of an infection, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports in an early online publication in Nature.
GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) believes that conclusions drawn from the most recent meta-analyses published by Drs. Nissen et. al. and Furberg et. al. in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) do not confirm a difference in the safety profile of Avandia (rosiglitazone) and Actos (pioglitazone).
The number of people struck by a cholera outbreak in Northern Iraq has doubled to 16,000 people but the death toll remains the same at 10, the United Nations health agency reported.
Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center announced 19 recommendations to improve American health care, including a move from employer-based insurance to portable, individual-based coverage.