Medscape Today News

• Dietary Antioxidants Could Help Preserve Muscle Strength in Older Adults In a study in older adults, dietary intake of vitamins C and E was linked with muscle strength, leading the researchers to suggest at a meeting in Atlanta this past weekend that a diet high in antioxidants could play an important role in preserving muscle function in older adults
  Reuters Health Information, November 2009
• Millions of Europeans Buy Drug for Erectile Dysfunction Without a Prescription In Europe, more than six million men bypass the health care system to obtain phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitors to treat their erectile dysfunction (ED), according to data released at the 12th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Sexual Medicine (ESSM).
  Reuters Health Information, November 2009
• Clinicians Who Look for Pulmonary Emboli With CTA Must Prepare for the Consequences In patients with suspected pulmonary embolism (PE), computed tomographic angiography (CTA) is more than twice as likely to show an unexpected nodule or adenopathy as it is to show a PE - and physicians need to be prepared to deal with the consequences, warns a paper in the November 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.
  Reuters Health Information, November 2009
• Low Molecular Weight Heparin an Alternative to Warfarin in Pregnancy For pregnant women who require chronic anticoagulation, low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) is an alternative to warfarin, but not an ideal one, according to a report in the November 1 American Journal of Cardiology.
  Reuters Health Information, November 2009
• Exercise Tied to Rare Sudden Death in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy who have ventricular arrhythmias during exercise testing are at increased risk for sudden cardiac death, UK researchers report.
  Reuters Health Information, November 2009
• Diabetes, LV Mass Predict Progression From Prehypertension to Hypertension Systolic blood pressure, left ventricular (LV) mass, and diabetes status independently predict the likelihood that prehypertensive patients with cardiac risk factors will develop overt hypertension, according to a report in the November issue of Hypertension.
  Reuters Health Information, November 2009
• Clinical Features in Early Parkinson's Disease Predict Mortality Both motor and non-motor features in early Parkinson's disease - including impairments in balance, walking, and cognition, as well as hallucinations - predict mortality risk, according to a report in the November Archives of Neurology.
  Reuters Health Information, November 2009
• FDA Expands Use of Maraviroc to Include Treatment-Naive HIV Patients Clinical data suggest maraviroc- and efavirenz-based therapies are similarly effective for treating CCR5-tropic HIV-1 infection.
  Medscape Medical News, November 2009
• Take-Back Programs and In-House Filtration Systems Reduce Pharmaceutical Pollutants and Improve Municipal Drinking Water Quality Take-back programs, where pharmacies accept unused pharmaceuticals, and a pilot program involving the use of in-home water filtration systems, have been successful at improving drinking water quality.
  Medscape Medical News, November 2009
• Endovascular vs Open Repair of Ruptured Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms Remains Controversial Thirty-day mortality is approximately 20% for endovascular repair of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm and 36% for open surgical repair.
  Medscape Medical News, November 2009
• Chemotherapy for Stage 4 NSCLC -- New Update to ASCO Guidelines New recommendations, added to guidelines that were last updated in 2003, include details of when to use targeted therapies.
  Medscape Medical News, November 2009
• Current Monitoring Practices Do Not Capture Enterococci Levels During Peak Swim Time at Public Beaches Fecal coliform levels at certain beaches have been found to correlate with recreational swimming; levels reflect unhealthy levels of Cryptosporidium, Giardia, and human virulent microsporidia species.
  Medscape Medical News, November 2009
• Acetaminophen Use During Pregnancy May Not Increase Asthma Risk in Offspring In a prospective study, acetaminophen use during pregnancy was not associated with an increased risk for asthma in the children.
  Medscape Medical News, November 2009
• Bacteria Key to Healthy Skin A study shows bacteria on the skin help prevent inflammation.
  WebMD Health News, November 2009
• Heart Disease Evident in Mummies 3500 Years Old Contrary to views that heart disease is the result of modern man’s poor lifestyle, new research shows that even ancient Egyptians might have needed a stent or two.
  Heartwire, November 2009
• Postmarketing Lessons to Learn From Vioxx Debacle Data now required by US law could have been put to good use in the Vioxx debacle, helping researchers confirm the cardiovascular risk with the drug much earlier than it was eventually pinpointed, say the authors of a new analysis.
  Heartwire, November 2009
• No Hospital Savings With Electronic Records: U.S. Study New electronic record systems installed in thousands of U.S. hospitals have done little to rein in skyrocketing healthcare costs, Harvard University researchers said in a study released on Friday.
  Reuters Health Information, November 2009
• Transradial Approach Cuts Bleeding, Adverse Events With PCI for Acute MI Transradial percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for acute MI is associated with a lower risk of major bleeding and other adverse events than transfemoral PCI, a meta-analysis has shown.
  Reuters Health Information, November 2009
• Paramedics Urged Not to Interrupt CPR for Intubation Interruption of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) compressions is common and prolonged when paramedics attempt to perform endotracheal intubation at the same time, research indicates.
  Reuters Health Information, November 2009
• Exercise Training in Older Heart Failure Patients Yields Inconsistent Benefits In older patients with heart failure, endurance training does not significantly improve most measures of exercise tolerance, health-related quality of life, blood neurohormones, or cardiac volumes, researchers report in the November issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
  Reuters Health Information, November 2009