Articles
Biomarkers May Signal Early Transplant Rejection
January 16, 2013 10:32 am | by Ravi Parikh | CommentsResearchers have discovered a set of biomarkers that could detect early signs of chronic heart transplant rejection — a process that is often undetectable until function of the heart has been irreversibly compromised. The discovery of such short-term markers provides an opportunity to intervene upon a recipient’s transplanted heart before failure occurs.
Mining Electronic Records for Revealing Health Data
January 15, 2013 9:08 am | by Peter Jaret | CommentsThe resulting databases of clinical information are gold mines for medical research. The monitoring and analysis of electronic medical records, some scientists say, have the potential to make every patient a participant in a vast, ongoing clinical trial, pinpointing treatments and side effects that would be hard to discern from anecdotal case reports or expensive clinical trials.
For Nursing Jobs, New Grads Need Not Apply
January 14, 2013 9:42 am | by Annalyn Kurtz | CommentsSince the recession, healthcare has been the single biggest sector for job growth, but that doesn't mean it's easy to get hired. Registered nurses fresh out of school are coming across thousands of job postings with an impossible requirement: "no new grads." How can this be, at a time when health care jobs are booming and a supposed shortage of RNs sent many career seekers running to nursing school?
Study Finds Increase In Unused Transplant Livers
January 11, 2013 9:02 am | by Andrew Seaman | CommentsThe number of donor livers thrown away in the U.S. has increased since 2004 due - in part - to a population growing older and heavier, according to a new study that also points to changes in medical practice that may make some donor livers less viable.
Mom Nearly Dies; Twins' Amniotic Fluid Leaks Into Her Blood
January 8, 2013 9:18 am | by Susan Donaldson James | CommentsAngela Cottam was in the middle of heavy labor with a set of twins when she suddenly began choking and turned blue. She didn't know it at the time, but the amniotic fluid surrounding the babies in her womb had leaked into her blood system and was quickly killing her. Cottam's lungs collapsed and she nearly bled to death.
Obamacare: A Few Changes Coming In 2013
January 7, 2013 9:16 am | by Jen Christensen | CommentsWhile the bulk of the law goes into place in 2014, you'll see a few changes this year. However, much of 2013 will be dedicated to health facilities and government offices getting ready for the larger changes coming down the road.
TAVI May Be Safe for Sickest Patients
January 4, 2013 9:42 am | by Crystal Phend | CommentsHigh surgical risk scores are no barrier for transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), according to one center's experience. Patients with a EuroSCORE over 40% had an overall 30-day mortality rate after the valve replacement procedure of 6.5% with and 5.7% without cardiogenic shock.
‘Doc Fix’ In ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Plan Cuts Medicare Hospital Payments
January 2, 2013 10:11 am | by Mary Agnes Carey | CommentsLegislation passed by Congress New Year’s Day to avert the dreaded “fiscal cliff” would stop a scheduled payment cut in Medicare physician payments. But hospitals, which have to bear a major part of financing for that “doc fix,” are not happy.
Study: Robotic Bladder Cancer Surgery Safe
December 21, 2012 9:42 am | by Charles Bankhead | CommentsInitial results from an ongoing randomized trial showed no significant difference in the rate of positive surgical margins or number of lymph nodes evaluated with robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery versus open radical cystectomy.
Guiding The Natural Growth Of Nerve Endings
December 19, 2012 11:03 am | by Gene Ostrovsky, M.D. | CommentsInjured nerves are known to sometime repair themselves, and in certain situations autografts can be performed to bridge gaps in their signal path. Self repair is limited to short distances, while autografts have a number of side effects and limitations. Perhaps that's about to change.
Fast PCI First Choice for STEMI
December 18, 2012 9:23 am | by Kristina Fiore | CommentsFor patients with ST-segment-elevation MI (STEMI), percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is the treatment of choice, as long as it can be done in time, according to a new guideline. Balloon angioplasty and stenting is preferred when patients have had STEMI symptoms for less than 12 hours, though the strategy can also be applied to those having symptoms for up to 24 hours, according to Patrick O'Gara, MD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and colleagues.
Aging Doctors Come Under Greater Scrutiny
December 17, 2012 9:22 am | by Sandra G. Boodman | CommentsStudies have found that approximately one-third of doctors don't even have a personal physician, who might be on the lookout for deteriorating hearing, vision or motor coordination, or the cognitive impairment that precedes dementia.
No Need for Skin Preps to Be Sterile, FDA Told
December 14, 2012 9:05 am | by David Pittman | CommentsRequiring that antiseptic skin preparation products be sterile -- a standard not currently mandated by the FDA -- is unnecessary and wouldn't produce a dramatic drop in infections, manufacturers, clinicians, and policy analysts told the FDA Wednesday.
MRI-Guided Biopsy Boosts Prostate Cancer Detection
December 12, 2012 11:47 am | by Charles Bankhead | CommentsTargeted prostate biopsy with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tripled the cancer yield compared with conventional systematic biopsies, investigators reported. MRI-targeted lesions contained biopsy-proven prostate cancer 21% of the time, whereas systematic biopsy detected cancer just 7% of the time.
Best To Add Chemo After Breast Cancer Surgery
December 11, 2012 11:30 am | by Ed Susman | CommentsLong-term results suggest that after resection of locally recurrent breast cancer, patients should also undergo adjuvant chemotherapy, researchers found. After 5 years, 69% of 85 women who had chemotherapy achieved disease-free survival compared with 57% of 77 women who did not have chemotherapy
