Physicians from the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and the University of Calgary have published a review article in the CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) to help family doctors diagnose and treat fibromyalgia. The article represents the first time researchers have published Canadian guidelines to help manage the condition.
Culture
Montreal, May 6, 2013 – Just over a month ago, a young high school student from Halifax committed suicide after photos of her being raped were posted on the Internet. Her story wasn't just about bullying. It was also about the complex feelings her friends and family faced with her decision to take her own life.
PHILADELPHIA (May 6, 2013)— A subtle change to hospital data collection policies could make a big difference in preventing occupational health and safety hazards, according to workplace safety researchers at the Drexel University School of Public Health.
In a new article published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the researchers call on industry, occupational medicine and public health communities to support a change to data collection methods to include industry and occupation data.
A single antibody could be the key to treating multiple myeloma, or cancer of the blood, currently without cure or long-term treatment.
"We tested the antibody in various ways, including on tumour cells from myeloma patients that have been transplanted into mice. The tests showed that the antibody is able to destroy myeloma cells", explains Markus Hansson, a researcher at Lund University in Sweden.
Minneapolis, MN, May 6, 2013 – For more than 40 years, patients under 65 years of age requiring heart valve replacement have had to choose between a mechanical valve that offers life-long durability but requires aggressive warfarin anticoagulation or a biological (cow or pig) valve that will wear out in 10-20 years but does not require anticoagulation. Aggressive warfarin anticoagulation is accompanied by significant annual risk of bleeding, while inadequate anticoagulation of a mechanical artificial valve has been associated with high risk of clotting problems that can cause strokes.
TORONTO and OTTAWA, May 6, 2013 – Influenza immunization rates in children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are low despite its safety according to a new study by researchers at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI), and the University of Ottawa.
SAN DIEGO – A relatively common urinary tract disorder that can usually be managed in an outpatient setting is adding an estimated $238 million a year to the cost of emergency room visits in the U.S., according to two new studies from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
Hematuria, or blood in the urine, adds a "considerable" and "substantial" economic burden on already strained hospital emergency departments, says Khurshid R. Ghani, M.D., of Henry Ford's Vattikuti Urology Institute and lead author of the studies.
Berlin, 5 May 2013. Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) with radiolabeled somatostatin analogs, an established treatment for cancer patients, could offer a novel therapeutic approach to decrease levels of inflammation in the atherosclerotic plaques of patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD), reported an abstract¹ study at the International Conference on Nuclear Cardiology and Cardiac CT, May 5 to 8 in Berlin, Germany.
Berlin, 5 May 2013. A new stress test protocol that investigates reducing the use of perfusion imaging in low risk patients undergoing SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging for possible angina symptoms was found to be diagnostically safe, revealed a US retrospective analysis.The study, reported as an abstract¹ at the International Conference on Nuclear Cardiology and Cardiac CT (ICNC11) May 5 to May 8 in Berlin, Germany, predicted that using exercise ECG stress testing alone in patients with high exercise capacity would have had no adverse effects on their prognosis at five years.
ITHACA, N.Y. – With more than a billion active accounts worldwide, it can be easy to forget that some people don't use Facebook.
A study by Cornell University researchers presented this week in Paris suggests that "non-use" of the social networking site is fairly common – a third of Facebook users take breaks from the site by deactivating their account, and one in 10 completely quit.
Philadelphia, Pa. (May 3, 2013) – Teenagers who are highly exposed to violent video games—three or more hours per day—show blunted physical and psychological responses to playing a violent game, reports a study in the May issue of Psychosomatic Medicine: Journal of Biobehavioral Medicine.
"High versus low experience of violent gaming seems to be related to different physiological, emotional and sleep related processes [after] exposure to violent video games," concludes the paper by Malena Ivarsson of the Stress Research Institute at Stockholm University and colleagues.
In a promising development for diabetes treatment, researchers have developed a network of nanoscale particles that can be injected into the body and release insulin when blood-sugar levels rise, maintaining normal blood sugar levels for more than a week in animal-based laboratory tests. The work was done by researchers at North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Children's Hospital Boston.
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have developed a new mouse model that answers the question of what actually happens in the body when type 2 diabetes develops and how the body responds to drug treatment. Long-term studies of the middle-aged mouse model will be better than previous studies at confirming how drugs for type 2 diabetes function in humans.
May 3, 2013 – Wind turbine noise, virtual concert halls, and buzzing cicadas will feature alongside bio-inspired microphones, sound-enhanced biofuel production, and acoustic oil spill detection next month at a major international meeting on the science of sound, in Montreal.
Surveys of the beliefs and knowledge of legal professionals about factors that affect eyewitness accuracy suggest that judges and police officers are no more knowledgeable about eyewitness testimony than are jurors or the general public.
A majority, or a substantial minority, of the legal professionals surveyed in the US, Norway, Estonia, China and Sweden harbor ideas about eyewitness memory that are not supported by available research, which suggests that many court decisions may be based on folklore with little support in memory science.