Hidradenitis suppurativa is primarily a disease of occlusion (obstruction) and inflammation of the apocrine (odor) sweat glands of the groin and axilla (armpit). It is similar to acne, which is a disease of the sebaceous (oil) glands in the skin. Hidradenitis develops when ducts from the apocrine glands to the skin surface become blocked, leading to a red swollen area on the skin and to the formation of cysts, infection and scarring.
Hispanic adults in the United States are more likely than whites or blacks to have cataract-related vision problems due to language and financial barriers, researchers report.
Elderly women with breast cancer whose surgeons refer them to cancer specialists are twice as likely to be prescribed tamoxifen, a treatment recommended for preventing recurrence of the disease, a new study shows.
Episodes of dangerously low blood glucose, or hypoglycemia, were greatly reduced in people who received an islet transplant for poorly controlled type 1 diabetes, according to an analysis of outcomes in 138 patients who had the procedure at 19 medical centers in the United States and Canada. This is one of the conclusions of the Collaborative Islet Transplant Registry (CITR), which tracks many factors affecting the success of this experimental procedure in people with severe type 1 diabetes.
German cancer surgeons have, for the first time, successfully removed a tumour with the aid of new 3-D computer modelling software which the designers say will make these operations safer and more accurate.
Acute renal failure, or ARF, is as serious as it sounds. An estimated 40% of critical care hospital admissions experience ARF. Estimates of their death rate range from 50% to 80%, complicated by the fact that patients with ARF often simultaneously suffer failure of other major organ systems.
In principle, stem cells (immature cells that have not yet differentiated into specific types of cells) can be used to repair bone, cartilage, tendon and other injured or aged tissues. These cells can be derived from the patient’s own bone marrow and thus present no problem of immune rejection.
Scientists from Britain’s Institute of Cancer Research say they’ve developed a technique to markedly help in predicting the behavior of prostate cancer.
Experiments performed by the hair transplant surgeon Dr Seager in 1996 gave significant credence to the surgical technique of unit follicular hair transplant. Since these experiments had demonstrated that the survival rate of intact follicular unit was better than the single hair micro-grafts, the use of micro-grafts for hair transplant surgery was more or less dropped.
Oral vitamin C appears to cut the risk of early recurrence of abnormal health rhythm, as know as atrial fibrillation, after patients undergo electrical cardioversion, according to a new study. Vitamin C also appears to reduce the low-level inflammation that accompanies this condition.