Archive for the ‘Health’ Category
Heart can be repaired through the wrist
For the first time, cardiologists at the University of Illinois and Jesse Brown VA medical centers have repaired an ailing heart by clearing blocked arteries via the wrist. Called trans-radial angiography, the approach might lead to reduced patient complications and recovery time and decreased hospital costs. The cardiologists offered the approach to heart angiograms and clearing blocked arteries.
In the procedure, a catheter is threaded through the small radial artery in the wrist rather than the larger femoral artery in the groin. “It’’s a simple change that has a dramatic impact on the experience and recovery of the patient,” said Dr. Adhir Shroff, assistant professor of cardiology at UIC.
The trans-radial approach can reduce bleeding— the most common complication, particularly among women and the elderly— to under 1 percent. It also eliminates much of the discomfort associated with the procedure. After a standard angiogram and angioplasty through the femoral artery, the patient needs to lie still on his or her back for four to six hours. Shroff said that this can be very uncomfortable for elderly patients with back problems and walking can be uncomfortable for days.
On the other hand, patients who have the procedure done via the wrist can immediately sit up, eat, and walk without pain, said Shroff. “The issue is really just the learning-curve. The change requires dozens of small changes — everything from redesigning the sterile drape so that the openings are at the wrist rather than the leg and finding smaller needles, wires and catheters to the way the table is set up,” said Shroff.
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January 10th, 2010
Each pound at birth lowers risk of developing TB
The more a newborn weighs, the better its chances of being protected from tuberculosis (TB), according to a new study that says that every pound decreases the risk of developing the disease later in life. University of Michigan (U-M) researchers looked at how much protection additional birth weight adds against developing TB years later.
They found that every 1.1 pound of birth weight decreases the risk of developing TB later by 46 percent among identical twins. The findings are important because TB infects about a third of the planet’s population, and is second only to HIV in deaths caused by a single infection.
The link between birth weight and developing TB is much stronger for males than females, who are only about 16 percent less likely to develop TB for every 1.1 pound (500 grams) of birth weight, said Eduardo Villamor, study author. Villamor, associate professor at the U-M School of Public Health, said the risk decreased by 87 percent for infant males with each pound.
Low birth weight of babies is a larger problem in developing countries, but it occurs everywhere, he said, according to a U-M release. Villamor worked with colleagues at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and began the research while at Harvard. The study is slated for publication in the February edition of Infectious Disease.
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January 9th, 2010
CT scans ‘increase cancer risk’
Overexposure to CT scan radiations can increase cancer risk, according to a new study. Dr. Rebecca Smith-Bindman, from the University of California
in San Francisco, claims that these scans may cause 29,000 new cancers a year and 14,500 deaths.
Also, previous studies suggest that the average American’’s total radiation exposure has almost doubled since 1980, primarily because of CT scans.
“It is a little scary. Everything we do in medicine has risks and benefits,” the New York Daily News quoted Smith-Bindman, the study author, as saying.
According to experts, a single scan may not be harmful but overexposure can increase the risk of cancer.
Smith-Bindman said: “It’’s necessary to start keeping track of dosages for individual patients.
“You have to record the radiation and make it part of the patient record just like you would if a patient has an allergy to certain medicines.
“If a patient has had 10 CTs that year, that is an important piece of information for the person taking care of you.”
However, Smith-Bindman believes that CT scans can be made safer, as up to one-third of these scans aren”t medically necessary, since even three-dimensional pictures can also diagnose cancers, aneurysms and blood clots.
She concluded: “Just like we can make the driving experience safer – not to text or talk on the phone – we can make these scans a lot safer and we should. We have the technology and science to do that. Life is risky – so why not do everything possible to make it safer?”
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January 4th, 2010
High blood-sugar levels ‘up cancer risk’
A new study has found a link between elevated blood-sugar levels and increased risk of cancer. The finding is worrying, especially in Britain, as an estimated 10.1 million people in the UK have high blood-sugar, thanks to unhealthy diets, reports The Guardian.
According to research in the Public Library of Science Medicine journal, excess blood sugar means someone could be more likely both to develop cancer and also to die from it.
To reach their conclusion, scientists at Umea University in Sweden examined blood sugar levels in 274,126 men and 275,818 women from Norway, Austria and Sweden with an average age of 44.8, then followed them up a decade later to see how many had developed or died from cancer.
They write: “Significant increases in risk among men were found for incident and fatal cancer of the liver, gallbladder, and respiratory tract, for incident thyroid cancer and multiple myeloma, and for fatal rectal cancer. In women, significant associations were found for incident and fatal cancer of the pancreas, for incident urinary bladder cancer, and for fatal cancer of the uterine corpus, cervix uteri and stomach.”
Dr Tanja Stock, the lead researcher, said: “The results suggest that, for women, the higher the level of sugar in the blood, the higher the risk. For men, there was still an association, but it was weaker.”
