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Catheter Ablation may be a Good First-Line Treatment for Atrial Flutter

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A new study has found that the use of catheter ablation could not just treat atrial flutter but also reduce both inpatient and emergency hospital visits. The study is in the July issue of iPLOS ONE/i and available online. "We''ve seen firsthand in our clinical experience that atrial flutter is difficult to control with drugs, even more than atrial fibrillation," said senior author Gregory Marcus, MD, director of clinical research in the UCSF Division ...

Key Brain Region Responds to Subjective Perception in a Study of Individual Neuron Activity

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Humans take cues from facial expressions when it comes to evaluating another person's expressions whether happy, sad or angry. Neurons in a part of the brain called the amygdala "fire" in response to the visual stimulation as information is processed by the retina, the amygdala and a network of interconnected brain structures. Some of these regions respond just to the actual features of the face, whereas others respond to how things appear to the viewer, but it is unknown where ...

New Insights into Asthma and COPD

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The nuances between asthma and COPD were brought out through interesting panel discussions at the recently concluded 20th NESCON (20th National Conference on Environmental Sciences and Pulmonary Diseases), organized by the Academy of Respiratory Medicine in Mumbai under the auspices of Environmental Medical Association. Both asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are chronic diseases involving airflow obstruction and are consequences ...

Bed Sharing With Babies May Lead to Cot Death

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Co-sleeping with a baby in a bed, on a sofa or in an armchair may lead to cot death, warn Government health advisors. New draft recommendations from health watchdog National Institute For Clinical Excellence (Nice) warn parents not to fall asleep with their babies until at least they turn one year old as there are increased chances of suffocating them when they are asleep. The chances are higher when they have consumed alcohol, taken drugs ...

Filipino Boy Gets Back Vision After Reconstruction Of Disfigured Face

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Melbourne surgeons have restored vision to a 7-year-old Filipino boy Jhonny Lameon after reconstruction of his disfigured face. Jhonny Lameon suffers from a rare congenital defect called frontonasal encephalocele in which the neural tubes fail to fuse in the womb during fetal growth. As a result, brain matter and fluids bulge out from the skull in the form of a membranous sac. In Jhonny's case, the protruding bulge was the size of a rock melon ...

Sports Medicine

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Sports medicine is a branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of sports injuries that result from strenuous activity or exercise.

Maharashtra Set to Penalize Public Tobacco Chewing and Spitting

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The Maharashtra health department is all set to penalize people who chew smokeless tobacco and spit out in public. The new law to this effect will be rolled out on August 1. The list of public places included are hospitals, railway stations, airports, educational institutions, public offices, court premises, libraries, canteens, amusement centers and banks, and according to COTPA, public places are those visited by people frequently. ...

Potent Version of H1N1 Flu Created

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A new version of the so-called swine flu virus has been engineered by a US-based Japanese scientist. The research on the 2009 H1N1 virus at a high-security lab at the University of Wisconsin, Madison has not yet been published, but was first made public July 1 by the Independent newspaper in London. The article described virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka, as "controversial" and said "some scientists who are aware of (the experiment) are horrified." Kawaoka ...

Blood Donations Reduce Heart Disease Risk

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In shift workers, blood donations could help cut the risk of heart diseases, says study. The scientists, led by Dr Margit Egg (University of Innsbruck), worked on zebrafish (iDanio rerio/i), a model organism which, like humans, is active during the day. The fish were subjected to alternate short (7 hour) and long (21 hour) days, resembling shift patterns common in industry. It was found that "jetlagged" animals showed higher numbers of aged red blood cells, ...

Lead Exposure Lowers IQ, Emotional Problems in Children: Study

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Lead exposure lowers the IQ of children and even causes behavioral and emotional problems, reveals a new study. According to the study funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), blood lead concentrations measured in more than 1,300 preschool children in China were associated with increased risk of behavioral and emotional problems, such as being anxious, depressed, or aggressive, while the average blood lead level in the children ...

Half of All American Adults Suffer from at Least One Chronic Condition

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Half of all adults in the USA suffer from at least one chronic condition, such as diabetes, heart disease, or obesity, and over a quarter of adults have two or more, reveals a new study. According to the study, the majority of these chronic conditions stem from a small number of risk factors that are largely preventable, including tobacco use, poor diet, and physical inactivity (both strongly associated with obesity), alcohol consumption, and uncontrolled high ...

One in Six Adolescents Visiting the ER Has Experienced Dating Violence

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One in five girls and one in eight boys reported dating violence in the past year, of adolescents visiting the emergency department for any reason. According to a study published online in Annals of Emergency Medicine, dating violence among adolescents was also strongly associated with alcohol, illicit drug use and depression ("Dating Violence Among Male and Female Youth Seeking Emergency Department Care") http:tinyurl.com/oakk4aq. "An enormous ...

British Artist Tracey Emin's Unmade Bed Sells for 2.2 Million

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British artist Tracey Emin's controversial 'My Bed' sold for 2.2 million ( (Dollar) 3.8 million, 2.8 million euro) at an auction in London, almost double its guide price. The work, a rumpled bed surrounded by the intimate debris of empty bottles of vodka, cigarette packets and condoms, attracted controversy when it was shortlisted for the 1999 Turner Prize, prompting a debate about the state of contemporary art. Among the most well-known pieces produced by ...

Drug Everolimus Does Not Improve Overall Survival in Advanced Liver Cancer Patients

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A study in the July 2 issue of iJAMA/i reveals that despite strong preclinical data, the drug everolimus failed to improve overall survival in patients with advanced liver cancer, compared to placebo. Patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC; a type of liver cancer) have a median overall survival of less than l year, largely because of the absence of effective therapies. The drug sorafenib is the only systemic therapy shown to significantly improve ...

Use of Exome Sequencing Helpful to ID Gene Mutations Linked to Nervous System Diseases

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In patients with biochemically defined defects affecting multiple mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes (enzymes that are involved in basic energy production), use of exome sequencing improved the ability to identify the underlying gene mutations. This is according to a study in the July 2 issue of iJAMA/i. Defects of the mitochondrial respiratory chain have emerged as the most common cause of childhood and adult neurometabolic disease, with an estimated ...

Freeze-Storage Egg Banking Set to Revolutionise Egg Donation

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By enabling freeze-storage egg-banking, the rapid freezing technique of vitrification is set to revolutionise egg donation as a fertility treatment. The cryopreservation of eggs was one of IVF's continuing challenges until the widespread introduction of vitrification; the older slow freezing methods induced the formation of ice crystals, which could cause damage to several structures of the egg. Thus, as demand for egg donation increases as a treatment for age-related ...

Influence of Westernization In Nigeria Spells Danger for Public Health

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In sub-Saharan Africa, the lifestyle altering effects of westernisation could be responsible for the high prevalence of obesity and associated health risks, researchers have found. The study, published in emPLOS ONE/em, by a team from the University of Warwick Medical School found that over one in five women in Nigeria were reported to be overweight or obese, with this statistic increasing among demographics with improved social and economic indicators. Those ...

Pelvic Exam Not Compulsory for Non-Pregnant Women

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Physicians and many women believe that a pelvic examination should be a part of annual well visits. But an analysis of the current evidence by the American College of Physicians (ACP) shows that the harms outweigh any demonstrated benefits. ACP's new evidence-based clinical practice guideline, "Screening Pelvic Examination in Adult Women," was published in iAnnals of Internal Medicine/i, ACP's flagship journal. ACP's guideline is based on a systematic ...

Study Finds No Link Between Fertility Drugs and Breast, Ovarian and Uterine Cancer

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There is "little evidence" that the use of conventional fertility hormones used for ovarian stimulation in the treatment of infertility increases the long-term risk of gynecological and breast cancers. This is according to the results of a substantial 30-year follow-up study. However, the extended use of clomiphene citrate was associated with a higher risk of breast cancer among women who had used the fertility drug for 12 cycles or more. Gonadotrophins, more commonly ...

Aspirin and Smoking Affects Ageing of Cancer Genes: Study

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Aspirin reduces ageing of cancer genes, whereas smoking can accelerate the ageing of cancer genes, reveals new study. Scientists had discovered in the 1990s that regular use of aspirin over long periods of time decreases the risk of developing colorectal cancer by an average of 40 percent, but it is unknown how exactly the drug influences the cancer risk. According to a research led by Prof. Primo Schar, from the University of Basel and PD Dr. Kaspar ...

Ocean Bacteria Is A Natural Source Of Producing Toxic Fire Retardants

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The common type of ocean bacteria is natural source of producing compounds, which are nearly identical to man-made toxic fire retardants, reveals a new study. Among the chemicals produced by the ocean-dwelling microbes, which have been found in habitats as diverse as sea grasses, marine sediments and corals, is a potent endocrine disruptor that mimics the human body's most active thyroid hormone. The toxic compounds are known as polybrominated diphenyl ...

3-fold Higher Risk of High Blood Pressure in Pregnancies Following Egg Donation

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Findings from a new study showed egg donation patients had a more than three-fold higher risk of pregnancy-induced hypertension than the routine IVF patients. The study from France has found that the pregnancies of egg donation patients are at a higher risk of disorders especially relating to high blood pressure - than the pregnancies of routine IVF patients using their own eggs. With an ever-ageing female patient population, egg donation is an increasingly ...

Health of Americans Lancet Report: Infectious Diseases Cause Major Public Health Problems in US

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A new report published in emThe Lancet/em as part of a new series, The health of Americans reveals infectious diseases remain major public health challenges in the United States. Endemic conditions such as chronic viral hepatitis, human immunodeficiency virus, and other sexually transmitted infections continue to affect millions of individuals, with racial and ethnic minorities disproportionately affected. Emerging and re-emerging vector borne ...