Medicine | Page 244 of 378 | SpiritIndia.com

Colorectal Cancer :: Early colon cancer diagnosis with colonoscopies made possible by Medicare

Early colon cancer or colorectal cancer diagnosis was made possible by changes in Medicare reimbursement policy few years back. The study was published by Yale School of Medicine researchers in the December issue of Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The study was funded by a Beeson Career Development Award to Gross, and by the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center at Yale.

Gene :: Cancer genes to better and earlier detection of lung, breast, prostate and colon cancer

A research team at UT Southwestern Medical Center has for the first time identified several genes whose expression is lost in four of the most common solid human cancers — lung, breast, prostate and colon cancer.

Botulism :: Wound botulism

In a case study in PLoS Medicine, doctors report on the case of a 35-year-old heroin user who came to the accident and emergency department with double vision, slurred speech, drooping eyelids and eye muscle weakness. The diagnosis turned out to be wound botulism. Wound botulism is a potentially fatal illness that occurs when spores of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum contaminate a wound, germinate and produce botulimum nerve toxin.

Syphilis :: Prompting men to have syphilis tests

An innovative social marketing campaign called “Healthy Penis,” which used humorous cartoon strips to encourage gay and bisexual men in San Francisco to get checked for syphilis, was associated with an increase in syphilis tests, according to evaluations published in PLoS Medicine.

Malaria :: New treatment against malaria – tazopsine from Madagascan plant

Two papers in this week’s PLoS Medicine suggest possible new avenues of treatment against malaria.

Tuberculosis :: Tuberculosis risks for health workers in developing countries

Latent infection with tuberculosis is common and some infected people develop the active form of the disease. Health-care workers (HCWs) can become infected, develop active disease, and can pass their infection on to patients and others. Research published in PLoS Medicine shows that HCWs in developing countries are at particularly high risk. Over half were found to have latent TB.

Malnutrition :: Deaths of severely malnourished children – identifying those most at risk

Severe malnutrition is responsible for the deaths of millions of children every year. Even when such children are admitted to hospital, up to one in five of them will die. Research published in PLoS Medicine has shown that certain clinical signs in severely malnourished children can predict those who are most likely to die. This should help health care workers focus their attentions on those who are most at risk.

Circumcision :: Circumcision for prevention of HIV cost-effective

A team of researchers who conducted a landmark trial in Orange Farm, South Africa, which concluded that male circumcision can substantially reduce the risk of becoming infected with HIV, have now studied the economic aspects of this approach to preventing HIV/AIDS. Their new research, published in PLoS Medicine, suggests that circumcision could reduce the cost of health care in South Africa (and other sub-Saharan Countries), mainly through savings on the cost of HIV treatment.

Gene :: Longevity gene also preserves ability to think clearly

A gene variant linked to living a very long life–to 90 and beyond–also serves to help very old people think clearly and retain their memories, according to new research by scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. Their findings are published in the December 26, 2006 issue of Neurology.

HIV :: HIV treatments improve health, but nutritional issues remain

New studies on nutrition and HIV from researchers at Tufts University in Boston find that a high percentage of people with HIV have the same two characteristics of metabolic syndrome, and that people with HIV on HAART may be at risk for zinc deficiency.