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MedPage Today

Articles, page 8

Conditions and diseases

Cell towers do not increase childhood cancer risk

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by Crystal Phend Mobile phone base station towers boost cell reception, not childhood cancer risk, a British population-based study showed. Children whose mothers lived near a high-output cell phone antenna mast while pregnant were no more likely to develop childhood…

by Crystal Phend

Mobile phone base station towers boost cell reception, not childhood cancer risk, a British population-based study showed.

Children whose mothers lived near a high-output cell phone antenna mast while pregnant were no more likely to develop childhood cancer than those who lived farther away, found Paul Elliott, MBBS, PhD, of Imperial College London, and colleagues.

Exposure to an intermediate level of cell tower power output was associated with an adjusted …

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Cell towers do not increase childhood cancer risk

Conditions and diseases

Certified stroke centers and ischemic stroke treatment realities

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by John Fauber Time is brain. Every minute wasted seeking treatment is measured in neuronal death, which is why stroke specialists were early supporters of certified stroke centers. Getting a stroke patient to the right center -- a center that…

by John Fauber

Time is brain. Every minute wasted seeking treatment is measured in neuronal death, which is why stroke specialists were early supporters of certified stroke centers. Getting a stroke patient to the right center — a center that could administer clot-busting therapy quickly, and safely — was considered the surest way to “save brain.”

That was the concept behind the certified …

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Certified stroke centers and ischemic stroke treatment realities

Physician voices

Preventing postop infections need to be implemented as a package

by Kristina Fiore Measures designed to prevent postoperative infections work if measured as a package, but looked at individually they provide no improvement, researchers found. When analyzing the six components of the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) on an all-or-nothing…

by Kristina Fiore

Measures designed to prevent postoperative infections work if measured as a package, but looked at individually they provide no improvement, researchers found.

When analyzing the six components of the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) on an all-or-nothing basis, there was a 15% reduced risk of infection, according to Jonah J. Stulberg, MD, PhD, MPH, of Case Medical Center in Cleveland, and colleagues.

But the three core infection prevention measures taken …

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Preventing postop infections need to be implemented as a package

Drugs and prescribing

What doctors think about drug and device marketing

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by Charles Bankhead Increased emphasis on conflicts of interest has yet to sway physicians' generally positive attitudes toward drug and device manufacturers' marketing activities, a survey of almost 600 attending physicians and trainees showed. More than 70% of respondents saw…

by Charles Bankhead

Increased emphasis on conflicts of interest has yet to sway physicians’ generally positive attitudes toward drug and device manufacturers’ marketing activities, a survey of almost 600 attending physicians and trainees showed.

More than 70% of respondents saw nothing inappropriate about attending sponsored lunches, and 25% had no problems with accepting large gifts from industry representatives, according to an article in the June issue of Archives of Surgery.

Surgeons, trainees, and …

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What doctors think about drug and device marketing

Conditions and diseases

Parents who want genetic testing for their children

by Kristina Fiore More than a third of parents who have been tested for genetic breast cancer risk say they'd support similar testing for their children -- despite scant evidence of any benefit for young people, researchers have found. In…

by Kristina Fiore

More than a third of parents who have been tested for genetic breast cancer risk say they’d support similar testing for their children — despite scant evidence of any benefit for young people, researchers have found.

In interviews with 246 parents who were tested for the BRCA1/2 mutation, 37% supported testing minors, compared with 55% who opposed screening, according to Angela R. Bradbury, MD, of Fox Chase Cancer Center …

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Parents who want genetic testing for their children

Patient voices

Hearing loss from iPods and other MP3 players

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by Crystal Phend iPod users beware. Listening to an MP3 player for even an hour can induce short-term hearing loss, researchers affirmed. Compared with controls, hearing deterioration among MP3 users was 3.97 to 4.40 times more likely when listening to…

by Crystal Phend

iPod users beware. Listening to an MP3 player for even an hour can induce short-term hearing loss, researchers affirmed.

Compared with controls, hearing deterioration among MP3 users was 3.97 to 4.40 times more likely when listening to pop/rock music through earbud headphones at different output levels, found Hannah Keppler, MS, of Ghent University in Ghent, Belgium, and colleagues.

Listening to an iPod with over-the-ear headphones also boosted the odds of …

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Hearing loss from iPods and other MP3 players

Medical education

Does restricting work hours hurt surgical training?

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by Michael Smith Life is better but the quality of surgical training has gone down in the wake of a Swiss law restricting surgical residents' hours. That was the view of both the residents and the surgical consultants who supervise…

by Michael Smith

Life is better but the quality of surgical training has gone down in the wake of a Swiss law restricting surgical residents’ hours.

That was the view of both the residents and the surgical consultants who supervise them in a survey conducted by Daniel Oertli, MD, of University Hospital Basel in Basel, Switzerland, and colleagues.

Less than 9% of residents and less than 5% of surgical consultants saw the change …

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Does restricting work hours hurt surgical training?

Conditions and diseases

Smoking, hypertension, obesity, and 7 other stroke risk factors

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by Kristina Fiore There are 10 factors that appear to make up the vast majority of stroke risk, and half of those are modifiable, a large population study found. Hypertension appears to be the strongest predictor of stroke, along with…

by Kristina Fiore

There are 10 factors that appear to make up the vast majority of stroke risk, and half of those are modifiable, a large population study found.

Hypertension appears to be the strongest predictor of stroke, along with smoking, abdominal obesity, diet, and physical activity, according to Martin J. O’Donnell, MB, PhD, of McMaster University in Hamilton in Ontario, Canada.

“This is good news in the sense that the causes of …

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Smoking, hypertension, obesity, and 7 other stroke risk factors

Can Shrek and Dora combat the junk food epidemic?

by Michael Smith Can Dora the Explorer help kids find a taste for carrots? It may be possible that licensed characters such as Dora, Shrek, and Scooby-Doo can tilt the balance away from junk food and toward healthy snacks, according…

by Michael Smith

Can Dora the Explorer help kids find a taste for carrots?

It may be possible that licensed characters such as Dora, Shrek, and Scooby-Doo can tilt the balance away from junk food and toward healthy snacks, according to Christina Roberto, MS, and colleagues at Yale University.

In a study of 40 preschoolers, the presence of a licensed character on a package influenced the children’s perception of taste and their preference …

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Can Shrek and Dora combat the junk food epidemic?

Social media in medicine

Thinspiration and pro-ana sites perpetuate eating disorders

by Kristina Fiore Websites that encourage teens to continue in their eating disorders tend to do so via "thinspiration" -- a combination of images and prose that drive the viewer toward continued weight loss, researchers say. About 85% of these…

by Kristina Fiore

Websites that encourage teens to continue in their eating disorders tend to do so via “thinspiration” — a combination of images and prose that drive the viewer toward continued weight loss, researchers say.

About 85% of these sites provide thinspirational photos (or “thinspo”) of ultrathin women and oaths to “Ana” or “Mia” — nicknames for anorexia and bulimia — according to Dina L.G. Borzekowski, EdD, of Johns Hopkins, and …

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Thinspiration and pro-ana sites perpetuate eating disorders

Conditions and diseases

Watchful waiting may be appropriate for most prostate cancer cases

by Crystal Phend Deferring curative treatment for low-risk prostate cancer may be a good option for many men ages 70 and younger, a population-based observational study affirmed. In the national Swedish prostate cancer registry, the cumulative 10-year prostate cancer-specific mortality…

by Crystal Phend

Deferring curative treatment for low-risk prostate cancer may be a good option for many men ages 70 and younger, a population-based observational study affirmed.

In the national Swedish prostate cancer registry, the cumulative 10-year prostate cancer-specific mortality rate was only 2.4% for men at low risk who opted for watchful waiting or active surveillance, according to Pär Stattin, MD, PhD, of Umeå University Hospital in Umeå, Sweden, and colleagues.

This …

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Watchful waiting may be appropriate for most prostate cancer cases

Drugs and prescribing

Beware of fake Tamiflu sold online

by Cole Petrochko The FDA warned consumers to be alert for websites selling a fake "generic" version of the flu drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu), which may be dangerous to patients allergic to penicillin. The Tamiflu fake does not contain the active…

by Cole Petrochko

The FDA warned consumers to be alert for websites selling a fake “generic” version of the flu drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu), which may be dangerous to patients allergic to penicillin.

The Tamiflu fake does not contain the active ingredient of the drug it imitates but does contain cloxacillin, which can cause anaphylaxis in patients allergic to antibiotics in the same class as penicillin.

The FDA uncovered the mimic through purchasing the …

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Beware of fake Tamiflu sold online

Drugs and prescribing

ER visits rise because of prescription drug abuse

by Michael Smith The number of emergency room visits for nonmedical use of prescription painkillers more than doubled between 2004 and 2008, according to a CDC estimate. The increase was part of a trend that saw emergency room visits for…

by Michael Smith

The number of emergency room visits for nonmedical use of prescription painkillers more than doubled between 2004 and 2008, according to a CDC estimate.

The increase was part of a trend that saw emergency room visits for nonmedical use of all prescription and over-the-counter medications reach the same level as those for abuse of illicit drugs, the agency said in the June 18 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly …

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ER visits rise because of prescription drug abuse

Conditions and diseases

Echocardiogram reading by cardiologists needs to improve

by Crystal Phend Insufficient training among cardiologists in reading echocardiography results is wasting healthcare dollars and subjecting patients to unnecessary procedures, researchers said. A review by sonographers of cardiologist-interpreted echocardiography findings at a Milwaukee medical center during a period of…

by Crystal Phend

Insufficient training among cardiologists in reading echocardiography results is wasting healthcare dollars and subjecting patients to unnecessary procedures, researchers said.

A review by sonographers of cardiologist-interpreted echocardiography findings at a Milwaukee medical center during a period of just over a year indicated major discrepancies in 29% of cases, leading to unnecessary further diagnostic testing or treatments for the wrong indication, according to a study presented here at the American …

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Echocardiogram reading by cardiologists needs to improve

Conditions and diseases

Is the PAP test for cervical cancer screening being overused?

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by Kristina Fiore Physicians do not appear likely to reduce the frequency of cervical cancer screening -- not even with the availability of the sensitive human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA test, researchers say. When given a clinical vignette of a 35-year-old…

by Kristina Fiore

Physicians do not appear likely to reduce the frequency of cervical cancer screening — not even with the availability of the sensitive human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA test, researchers say.

When given a clinical vignette of a 35-year-old woman with a normal Pap test and a negative HPV test, only 19% of the more than 1,200 physicians surveyed said they would wait three years before conducting another Pap test, Mona …

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Is the PAP test for cervical cancer screening being overused?

Drugs and prescribing

Rosiglitazone (Avandia) stays on the market, with stronger warnings

by Emily P. Walker An advisory panel voted 20-12 to recommend that the FDA allow rosiglitazone (Avandia) to stay on the market, but most panelists want to see the controversial diabetes drug carry tougher warnings on its label. Wednesday's vote…

by Emily P. Walker

An advisory panel voted 20-12 to recommend that the FDA allow rosiglitazone (Avandia) to stay on the market, but most panelists want to see the controversial diabetes drug carry tougher warnings on its label.

Wednesday’s vote marks the second time an FDA advisory panel has essentially endorsed rosiglitazone. In 2007, a panel voted that while the drug appears to …

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Rosiglitazone (Avandia) stays on the market, with stronger warnings

Health policy

Free clinics need more government funding

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by Cole Petrochko The nation's free clinics provide medical service to 1.8 million patients annually -- more than half of those clinics operate without government funding and serve patients who are almost all uninsured -- according to the first census…

by Cole Petrochko

The nation’s free clinics provide medical service to 1.8 million patients annually — more than half of those clinics operate without government funding and serve patients who are almost all uninsured — according to the first census of free clinics in 40 years.

Responses to a national mail survey by 764 free clinics in the U.S., reported in the June issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, revealed that …

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Free clinics need more government funding

Health technology

Final meaningful use rules for electronic health records reaction

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by Joyce Frieden The Department of Health and Human Services has released its final rule on "meaningful use" of electronic health records with the goal of making it easier for physicians to comply. "We want these objectives to be ambitious…

by Joyce Frieden

The Department of Health and Human Services has released its final rule on “meaningful use” of electronic health records with the goal of making it easier for physicians to comply.

“We want these objectives to be ambitious but achievable,” David Blumenthal, MD, MPP, the department’s National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, said at a press conference on Tuesday announcing the release of the …

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Final meaningful use rules for electronic health records reaction

Drugs and prescribing

Ecstasy overdose is becoming more frequent at rave parties

by Crystal Phend Overdoses of the "club drug" ecstasy at all-night rave dance parties may be a rising but under-reported public health problem, the CDC said. What may be the first public health investigation into the epidemiology of ecstasy overdose…

by Crystal Phend

Overdoses of the “club drug” ecstasy at all-night rave dance parties may be a rising but under-reported public health problem, the CDC said.

What may be the first public health investigation into the epidemiology of ecstasy overdose revealed that 18 patients landed in hospital emergency departments for illness related to the hallucinogenic stimulant within 12 hours after a Los Angeles New Year’s Eve rave.

This cluster of events was accompanied …

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Ecstasy overdose is becoming more frequent at rave parties

Drugs and prescribing

Will Avandia survive the FDA advisory panel?

by Crystal Phend and Emily Walker Despite hints that the FDA may be leaning toward pulling rosiglitazone (Avandia) from the market, it's going to be a tough decision for the advisory committee slated to begin meeting on Tuesday, and things…

by Crystal Phend and Emily Walker

Despite hints that the FDA may be leaning toward pulling rosiglitazone (Avandia) from the market, it’s going to be a tough decision for the advisory committee slated to begin meeting on Tuesday, and things could still go either way, leading endocrinologists predict.

“I think the FDA advisory committee is going to struggle with this because none of the data is conclusive,” …

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Will Avandia survive the FDA advisory panel?

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