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CT screening lowers negative appendectomy rate from 20% to 3% at urban hospital

Five years ago, the negative appendectomy rate at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston was 20%, but since the advent of CT screening, it has dropped to 3%, say MGH researchers. The negative appendectomy rate measures how often patients with symptoms of appendicitis have their appendix removed and then are diagnosed as not having acute appendicitis.

8 Jun 2005

Study is the first to identify involvement of chromosome 21 in developmental regression autism

A new Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center study links regions of two chromosomes to susceptibility for a type of autism characterized by regression in development. Developmental regression can include the loss of previously acquired language, social skills or both.

8 Jun 2005

African-American and Hispanic patients with diabete are less likely to get eye exams

African-American and Hispanic patients with diabete are less likely than white patients to get eye exams, flu shots or cholesterol tests as part of their diabetes prevention care, according to a new review of recent studies in the latest issue of American Journal of Managed Care.

8 Jun 2005

Drinking cranberry juice may fight that tummy bug

A new study suggests that cranberry juice, a well documented remedy to help prevent urinary tract infections, may also work against gastrointestinal viruses.

8 Jun 2005

Boring jobs can make your heart bad

British researchers say that dull, steady, boring and unexciting jobs are no good for the heart.

7 Jun 2005

6 minutes exercise a week is all you need to keep fit!

In news that will hearten the souls of all those couch potatoes out there, new research has shown that keeping fit and healthy may only require minutes of physical exercise each week.

7 Jun 2005

Drinking alcohol may lower risk of developing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

People who drink alcohol may have a lower risk of developing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) - a type of cancer that affects the lymphatic system, suggests a study published online by The Lancet Oncology.

6 Jun 2005

Combining morphine with small doses of methadone could increase the effectiveness of morphine for the treatment of chronic pain

Although morphine is well known as a highly effective analgesic, its clinical utility is severely limited by the development of drug tolerance, the requirement for increasing doses to maintain analgesic effect, and the development of physical dependence.

6 Jun 2005

Tibetan Buddhist monks provide clues to meditation controls visual experience

In an unusual but fruitful collaboration between Tibetan Buddhist monks and neuroscientists, researchers have uncovered clues to how mental states - and their underlying neural mechanisms - can impact conscious visual experience.

6 Jun 2005

IGF-based growth hormone dosing could become a novel paradigm in treating growth hormone deficiency

A randomized University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA) study found that a new dosing paradigm can improve height outcomes in the treatment of children who have short stature due to growth hormone deficiency and idiopathic short stature.

6 Jun 2005

Doctors study surgery to stop epileptic seizures

Melinda Hillyard of Winchester, Va., first had epileptic seizures when she was eight years old. The seizures went away for years, then returned after the birth of her first child. "I never knew when my world would turn upside down," she recalled.

6 Jun 2005

Gene therapy for arthritis is both feasible and safe

Gene therapy for arthritis and other non-terminal, debilitating conditions and diseases is both feasible and safe, report researchers who conducted the world's first such test on the approach in patients with advanced rheumatoid arthritis.

6 Jun 2005

Study forecasts continuing slide in job-based health coverage

A study released Thursday, June 2 by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and Working Partnerships USA, a consortium devoted to workforce issues, says that just a bare majority of adults likely will have job-based health insurance by 2010, with middle-income adults facing the sharpest coverage decline and lower-income adults being largely priced out of the market.

6 Jun 2005

Study to improve symptom awareness

Asthma sufferers who have difficulty recognising the early warning signs of an attack are being targeted by a new RMIT University study.

6 Jun 2005

Patients with advanced heart failure significantly improved after receiving stem cell therapy

The study showed, 30 days after receiving the stem cells by injection into their hearts, patients improved an average of 41 percent in their hearts' pumping efficiency and the distance they could walk nonstop increased by 72 percent in a standard test widely used to assess heart patients.

6 Jun 2005

Electroconvulsive therapy not damaging to memory -- early results

Severely depressed elderly Victorians are benefiting from electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) -- and, contrary to popular belief, the treatment is not damaging their memories, a Monash University study has found.

6 Jun 2005

Workers more productive after exercise

Workers’ quality of work, mental performance and time management were better on days when they exercised, according to research presented at the 52nd American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tenn.

6 Jun 2005

Late night eating a culprit for weight gain in college students

Eating between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. is a contributing factor to weight gain in college students, according to the results of a study presented at the 52nd American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tenn.

6 Jun 2005

One-a-day tablet treats common infection

A bioadhesive tablet containing the antifungal drug miconazole is an effective and convenient means of treating oropharyngeal candidiasis, which is the most frequently occurring infection in head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy, scientists reported at the 2nd ESMO Scientific & Educational Conference (ESEC) in Budapest, Hungary.

6 Jun 2005

New survey shows Americans falling short on sun protection

Over the past year, the number of Americans using sunscreen, a primary protector against skin cancer, has declined. At the same time, more Americans, including children, are being diagnosed with skin cancer than ever before.

6 Jun 2005