It appears that alcohol-induced bone loss resulting from excessive binge-alcohol drinking can be prevented by vitamin D or the anti-osteoporosis drug Boniva? (ibandronate), a Loyola University Health System study shows.
Use of the drugs proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) for the treatment of acid-related diseases such as gastro esophageal reflux disease (GERD) is associated with a greater risk of hip fracture, according to a study in the December 27 issue of JAMA.
Psychological interventions for chronic low back pain are effective, a new review of studies has found. Not only do these approaches improve psychological outcomes such as depression and health-related quality of life, they also reduce patients’ experience of pain.
Surgeons are taller and more handsome than physicians, finds a study in this week’s Christmas issue of the BMJ. Doctors at the University of Barcelona Hospital noticed that the tallest and most handsome male students were more likely to go for surgery, and the shortest (and perhaps not so good looking) ones were more likely to become physicians.
The Institute of Medicine estimates that medical errors are the eighth leading cause of death in the United States, and poor communication can be a major source of those errors. Now the Clinical Simulation Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis hopes to improve patient safety by using clinical simulators to find the source of miscommunications during medical treatments.
A study led by a researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago compares the safety, effectiveness and reliability of the two most common types of laser eye surgery, laser epithelial keratomileusis (LASEK) and laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) in the December 2006, issue of the American Journal of Ophthalmology.
A study reveals that differences in utilization of screening tests and surgical treatment may contribute to poorer colorectal cancer survival rates in African-Americans.
Engineers are designing new high-tech medical tools to equip the operating room of the future, in an effort to help doctors treat patients more safely and effectively and allow them to perform surgical tasks that are nearly impossible today.
The widely used breast cancer drug tamoxifen (Nolvadex), which can become less effective over time, might retain its full strength indefinitely if used along with a second drug, according to new research in mice conducted by investigators from the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, and their partners.
A new advanced magnetic resonance imaging technique developed at the University of Illinois at Chicago for the diagnosis of neurological problems, such as Chiari malformations, hydrocephalus and brain injury, will be evaluated for clinical use through a $1.4 million National Institutes of Health Bioengineering Research Partnership grant.