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Brain research to help in fight against heart disease

Scientists at the University of Liverpool, supported by the British Heart Foundation, are studying blood flow in the brain to further medical understanding of cardiovascular disease.

21 Mar 2005

Obtaining patient consent for clinical audit is unworkable

Obtaining signed patient consent for audit purposes is difficult and is unlikely to be successful unless extra resources are made available, finds a study published online by the BMJ.

21 Mar 2005

Costs of antidepressants could have funded effective alternatives

Some of the costs of prescribing antidepressant drugs over the last decade could have been used to deliver psychological treatments of proven effectiveness, finds a study published online by the BMJ.

21 Mar 2005

Acupuncture and strengthening exercises help relieve pelvic girdle pain during pregnancy

Researchers in Sweden identified 386 pregnant women with pelvic girdle pain. Women were randomly divided into three groups; one received standard treatment (a pelvic belt and a home exercise programme), another received standard treatment plus acupuncture, and the third received standard treatment plus stabilising exercises to improve mobility and strength.

21 Mar 2005

NHS Stop-Smoking Services are insufficient to deliver national smoking targets

NHS Stop-Smoking Services are insufficient to deliver national smoking targets, and Government smoking targets are themselves insufficient for the poorest communities, says a study published online by the BMJ.

21 Mar 2005

Denim and short skirt rules are for schools not hospitals

NHS staff have been subjected to a dress code that a leading doctor says belongs more to a classroom than a hospital.

21 Mar 2005

Research to improve bone marrow transplant outcomes

The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) and its affiliate, the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIMBTR), are supporting clinical trials to determine the best unrelated marrow and blood cell transplant procedures for patients and donors.

21 Mar 2005

Key target for Foot-and-Mouth drug revealed

A complete picture of Foot-and-Mouth Disease's key replication enzyme could lead to the development of new drugs to control the disease without recourse to vaccination or slaughter, scientists report today.

21 Mar 2005

Public policy needs to change to take into account the social factors behind ill health

National and global public policy needs to change to take into account the social factors behind ill health and reduce the health inequalities seen within and between countries, states an article in this week’s issue of The Lancet.

21 Mar 2005

Obstructive sleep apnoeahypopnoea increases risk of heart attacks

Men with a severe form of a sleep breathing disorder called obstructive sleep apnoeahypopnoea have an increased risk of fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events, concludes a study published in this week’s issue of The Lancet.

21 Mar 2005

Medical supervision for illicit drug injections could reduce syringe sharing

Facilities that provide medical supervision for illicit drug injections could reduce syringe sharing among users, concludes a Canadian study published online by The Lancet.

21 Mar 2005

Unique variant of HIV that is resistant to multiple classes of antiretroviral drugs

Researchers have identified a patient with a unique variant of HIV that is resistant to multiple classes of antiretroviral drugs and associated with the rapid development of AIDS, reporting their findings in this week’s issue of The Lancet.

21 Mar 2005

Discovery of a single mutation responsible for a number of blood disorders

Myeloproliferative disorders form a range of haematological malignant diseases, with three main members: polycythaemia vera, essential thrombocythaemia, and idiopathic myelofi- brosis. The disorders are characterised by overactive production of blood cells and can lead to thrombosis, haemorrhage or acute myeloid leukaemia.

21 Mar 2005

Eating seafood containing toxic substances can have serious neurological as well as gastrointestinal effects

In parts of the Pacific, the number of cases of marine poisoning exceeds 1200 per 100 000 people per year. Although most of the burden of marine poisoning is in rural coastal communities, many people who live outside these communities, or travel to them, are presenting to their doctors with acute or ongoing effects after eating seafood.

21 Mar 2005

Veterans more overweight than general population

More than two-thirds of women and almost three-quarters of men receiving care at Veterans Affairs outpatient facilities in 2000 were overweight – a higher percentage than among the general population – according to a new report in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

21 Mar 2005

Being physically active in middle age helps people maintain higher physical function later in life

“Participation in a physically active lifestyle appears to be critical to preserving high physical function in relatively fit, healthy, middle-aged men and women,” according to Dr. Melvyn Hillsdon of University College London and colleagues.

21 Mar 2005

African malaria comes to town

First, the bad news: urban malaria in Africa is becoming a major health problem and looks set to get worse.

17 Mar 2005

Major milestone in identifying and creating a register of genes involved in multiple sclerosis

For the first time in this disease area, researchers at the SGI have identified 80 genes involved in the inflammatory and neuro-degenerative pathways of MS, based on a 40% genome scan comparing the genetic profile of a total of 1,800 people with MS and healthy individuals in different populations.

17 Mar 2005

Relief for overactive bladder patients

New landmark data (the STAR Study), revealed today from the European Association of Urology in Istanbul, Turkey, show that patients suffering from Overactive Bladder (OAB) syndrome will see considerably better improvements in their symptoms when being treated with the new antimuscarinic drug solifenacin, than on tolterodine ER - an antimuscarinic drug that is widely used.

17 Mar 2005

10% of homosexual men diagnosed late died within a year

1 in 4 HIV-infected homosexual men in England and Wales were diagnosed late in 2001 and 10% died within a year compared to only 0.5% of those not diagnosed late - reports a recent AIDS journal article

17 Mar 2005