Culture

On July 20, a neuroscience graduate student in Aurora, Colorado, used an automatic rifle to murder 12 people and wound 58 others. Although this was one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history, mass shootings account for a small percentage of gun deaths in the U.S. and a negligible fraction of deaths overall. In the 4 months after the Aurora shooting, an estimated 3,000 Americans died as a result of guns, while 65,000 died due to medical error and 4,000 even died due to accidents in swimming pools.

Residents living in high-income integrated and white neighborhoods were more likely to receive bystander CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) during an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest than victims in all low-income neighborhoods but also high-income black neighborhoods, according to a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

We're not used to thinking of ourselves as animals. But as Jason Samson sees it, climate is as important in shaping the distribution and movement of humans as it is in other animals. The McGill-trained ecologist and fellow researchers have been using modeling techniques similar to those used to define the ecological niche for plant and animal species to explore the correlation between climate patterns and population growth in the contiguous United States between 1900-2000. And what they discovered was a pronounced population shift away from areas within the U.S.

Older patients who visited local ERs for chest pain or breathing problems and had chest x-rays reveal unknown spinal fractures, were more apt to receive osteoporosis treatment afterward if a simple intervention was used, recently published medical research from the University of Alberta has found.

Treatment rates for the bone-thinning condition substantially improved when patients and their family doctors received follow-up information about the warning signs and risk factors. It is the first and only trial in the world that looked at spinal osteoporosis.

MIAMI, FL – OCTOBER 24, 2012 – A study found that transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) yielded lower mortality rates after three years compared with medical therapy in patients deemed to be ineligible for conventional aortic valve surgery. Results of the PARTNER Cohort B trial were presented today at the 24th annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium. Sponsored by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), TCT is the world's premier educational meeting specializing in interventional cardiovascular medicine.

MIAMI, FL – OCTOBER 24, 2012 – A clinical trial found that the use of a next generation, micronet, mesh-covered stent demonstrated improved restoration of blood flow to heart tissue, compared to the use of either bare-metal or drug-eluting stents in heart attack patients undergoing angioplasty. Results of the MASTER trial were presented today at the 24th annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium and will appear in the November 6th issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Prasugrel, a novel anti-platelet therapy, is used to prevent recurrent cardiovascular events in patients who have had a prior heart attack, suffer severe chest pain and have been treated with coronary artery procedures (revascularization).

Recent results from a large clinical trial, the TRILOGY ACS study that focused on the effectiveness and safety of prasugrel in high-risk patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) who are medically managed without revascularization, found a neutral effect (failed to show a reduction in major cardiovascular events compared with clopidogrel).