San Diego, October 28, 2013 -- New findings from two integrated Phase 3 Janssen Research & Development, LLC (Janssen)-sponsored studies showed treatment with STELARA® (ustekinumab) resulted in significantly greater inhibition of structural damage in patients with active psoriatic arthritis compared with placebo.
Culture
ORLANDO, Fla. – Firearm-related injuries in children and adolescents are an important cause of preventable injury and mortality. Recent national shooting tragedies involving children have resulted in new efforts to study the problem and find solutions to reduce this type of injury. In an abstract presented Monday, Oct. 28, at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition in Orlando, researchers sought to determine the local trends and characteristics of pediatric firearm injuries and deaths, especially those involving children under age 14.
SAN DIEGO -- People with rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic inflammatory conditions are at higher risk of heart disease. Who is in the most danger, why and how best to prevent and detect cardiovascular complications are important questions for physicians and researchers.
SAN DIEGO — It may seem counterintuitive, but young and middle-aged fibromyalgia patients report worse symptoms and poorer quality of life than older patients, a Mayo Clinic study shows. Fibromyalgia most often strikes women. It is characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain with fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues. The research, one of several Mayo studies being presented at the American College of Rheumatology annual meeting, suggests the disorder plays out differently among different age groups.
URBANA, Ill. – If you want to eat healthier when dining out, research recommends surrounding yourself with friends who make healthy food choices. A University of Illinois study showed that when groups of people eat together at a restaurant at which they must state their food choice aloud, they tend to select items from the same menu categories.
PORTLAND, Ore., October 25, 2013 – An American Thoracic Society panel of experts is calling for better care for thousands of Americans who suffer severe shortness of breath as a result of advanced lung and heart disease. These episodes can be very frightening for patients and caregivers, and the increased anxiety often makes the symptoms worse. In the current issue of the Annals of the American Thoracic Society, the panel suggests that patients work with their providers to develop individualized actions plans that can keep these episodes from turning into emergencies.
CHICAGO --- Men might be faster, but women are stronger in numbers in the nation's largest 10-kilometer road running races, according to a Northwestern Medicine® study.
Researchers analyzed data from more than 400,000 runners who participated in 10 of the largest 10km (6.2 mile) races in the U.S. from as early as 2002 through 2011.
Other findings from the study, the first to analyze performance trends among the nation's 10km runners, include:
New research from Japan brings hope of a new treatment for asthma patients resistant to corticosteroids. In a study published today in the journal Nature Communications, researchers from the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences and Keio University in Japan report that a type of lymphocytes called natural helper (NH) cells plays a critical role in corticosteroid resistance and demonstrate that the anti-psychotic drug Pimozide can be used to overcome resistance to steroids in severe asthma patients.
(Boston) – A recent study performed by researchers at Boston Medical Center (BMC), Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH), and Tufts Medical Center found that women with multiple barriers to healthcare, especially those with social barriers such as problems with housing and income, experienced delays in cancer screening follow up compared to those with fewer barriers or no social barriers.
Boston, MA – A new study from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) reveals several new gene variants that are associated with how people living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) respond to inhaled bronchodilators. COPD is a progressive breathing disorder that limits airflow in the lungs. Bronchodilators are medicines used to alleviate respiratory disorder symptoms.
The abstract for this meta-analysis study will be presented at the American Society of Human Genetics 2013 meeting, Oct. 22 to 26 in Boston.
Obstructive sleep apnea is known to be associated with an increased incidence of cardiovascular disease. Now a new study indicates that OSA is associated with subclinical myocardial injury, as indicated by increased high sensitivity troponin T (hs-TnT) levels. Elevated hs-TnT levels are predictive of both coronary heart disease (CHD) and heart failure (HF) in the general population. This is the first study to demonstrate an independent association between sleep apnea severity and this marker of early myocardial injury.
Washington, DC (October 24, 2013) — A strategy where living kidney donors are paid $10,000, with the assumption that this strategy would increase the number of transplants performed by 5% or more, would be less costly and more effective than the current organ donation system, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). The findings demonstrate that a paid living donor strategy is attractive from a cost-effectiveness perspective, even under conservative estimates of its effectiveness.
A hands-free ultrasound device combined with a clot-busting drug was safe for ischemic stroke patients in a phase II pilot study, reported in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.
The device is placed on the stroke patient's head and delivers ultrasound to enhance the effectiveness of the clot-busting drug tissue plasminogen activator (tPA).
Unlike the traditional hand-held ultrasound probe that's aimed at a blood clot, the hands-free device used 18 separate probes and showers the deep areas of the brain where large blood clots cause severe strokes.
Foreign patients coming to the UK for private medical treatment are a lucrative source of income for the NHS, according to a new study by researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the University of York. The study, published in PLOS ONE, also suggests that more UK residents currently travel abroad for treatment than international patients travel to the UK for private or NHS treatment.
More than one quarter of residents of 26 nursing homes in Orange County, California carry community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which spread more easily, and may cause more severe infection than MRSA traditionally associated with healthcare facilities, according to a paper published in the November 2013 issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.
"Nursing homes need to be part of MRSA control strategies in healthcare facilities," says Lyndsey Hudson of Imperial College of London, the lead author on the study.