Bulimia is normally regarded as a mental illness that should be treated with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). A newly published doctoral thesis from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, however, shows that the condition depends in certain cases on a hormonal imbalance that can be corrected with common oral contraceptives.
Long-acting octreotide does not improve outcomes for patients with liver cancer compared to a placebo, according to the results of a new double blind study published in the January 2007 issue of Hepatology, the official journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).
Caucasian patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) are more likely to have hepatic steatosis, or fat in the liver, compared to African-American patients. However, steatosis is not associated with HCV treatment response.
The collaborative work being performed by professionals across medical disciplines in the promising area of molecular imaging — from research scientists to nuclear medicine physicians, urologists, radiochemists and even veterinarians — provides encouraging news in fighting prostate cancer. This type of progressive — or translational — research can be seen in two papers published in the January issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
Abnormal thyroid function is common among patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma taking a new drug called sunitinib, and these patients’ thyroid levels should be routinely monitored, a new study finds.
To eliminate tuberculosis (TB) in the United States, current guidelines should be changed to reclassify all foreign-born residents from high incidence countries as “high-risk” regardless of the amount of time they have lived in the US.
A study in the Jan. 3 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute quantifies the risk of hereditary retinoblastoma survivors developing specific subtypes of soft tissue sarcomas and finds that this risk persists for decades after the original retinoblastoma diagnosis. The findings emphasize the importance of regular medical surveillance for these patients, the authors say.
Four of five hospital performance measures for heart failure do not appear to accurately reflect the quality of care provided, according to a study in the January 3 issue of JAMA.
Use of the drug pexelizumab immediately before and for 24 hours after stent placement or angioplasty for certain heart attack patients did not have any significant treatment effect compared to placebo, according to a study in the January 3 issue of JAMA. The medication had shown promise in preliminary studies.
Researchers reported that all five standard hospital-based performance measures used to gauge quality-of-care for hospitalized heart-failure patients may not be the best benchmarks since none were significant predictors of patient mortality during the critical first 60 to 90 days immediately following hospital discharge.