Culture | Science Codex

Troublesome dyspnea during sexual activity is common in COPD patients

ATS 2012, SAN FRANCISCO – Troublesome dyspnea that limits sexual activity is common among older patients with COPD, according to a new study from Denmark.

"We compared measures of well-being, depression and sexual function among older patients with severe COPD or heart failure, both of which are associated with dypnea during exertion," said Ejvind Frausing Hansen, MD, chief physician at Hvidovre Hospital in Denmark. "A significantly higher percentage of COPD patients than heart failure patients reported having troublesome dypnea during sexual activity."

Nordic walking improves health of heart failure patients

Nordic walking enables heart failure patients to exercise more intensely than walking without poles.

The research was presented at the Heart Failure Congress 2012, 19-22 May, in Belgrade, Serbia. The Congress is the main annual meeting of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology.

Obese adolescents have heart damage

Obese adolescents with no symptoms of heart disease already have heart damage, according to new research.

The findings were presented at the Heart Failure Congress 2012, 19-22 May, in Belgrade, Serbia. The Congress is the main annual meeting of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology.

Report using private health claims data shows prices are driving health spending growth

Washington, DC—Rising prices for care were the chief driver of health care costs for privately insured Americans in 2010, according to the first report from the newly formed Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI). The per capita spending on inpatient and outpatient facilities, professional procedures, and prescriptions drugs rose 3.3 percent in 2010 for beneficiaries under age 65 with private, employer-sponsored group insurance. HCCI data show that this 3.3 percent increase follows spending increases in 2008 (6.0%) and 2009 (5.8%).

OSA can be managed successfully in the primary care setting

ATS 2012, SAN FRANCISCO – Patients with moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) can be successfully managed in a primary care setting by appropriately trained primary care physicians (PCPs) and community-based nurses, according to Australian researchers.

High prevalence of bone disease in patients referred for pulmonary rehabilitation

ATS 2012, SAN FRANCISCO – There is a very high prevalence of osteopenia/osteoporosis among male patients with pulmonary disease, according to a new study from researchers in California.

Risk factors for an exacerbation-prone asthma phenotype

ATS 2012, SAN FRANCISCO – A number of specific risk factors are associated with an exacerbation-prone phenotype of severe asthma, according to a new study from researchers in Sweden.

The results will be presented at the ATS 2012 International Conference in San Francisco.

4 acute mushroom poisonings in 2 weeks

SAN DIEGO – On September 12, 2011, a Springfield, Virginia man arrived at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital (MGUH) in the early stages of liver failure. The man had mistakenly eaten poisonous mushrooms, handpicked from his yard. He would be the first of four patients in the course of two weeks to seek treatment at MGUH for mushroom (amanitin) poisoning.

Study evaluates use of inhaled saline for young children with cystic fibrosis

Margaret Rosenfeld, M.D., M.P.H., of Seattle Children's Hospital, and colleagues conducted a study to examine if hypertonic saline would reduce the rate of pulmonary exacerbations in children younger than 6 years of age with cystic fibrosis (CF). Inhaled hypertonic saline is recommended as therapy for patients 6 years or older with CF, but its efficacy has not been evaluated in patients younger than 6 years.

ESC Heart Failure Guidelines feature new recommendations on devices, drugs and diagnosis

New recommendations on devices, drugs and diagnosis in heart failure were launched at the Heart Failure Congress 2012, 19-22 May, in Belgrade, Serbia, and published in the European Heart Journal.

The ESC Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute and Chronic Heart Failure 2012 were developed by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in collaboration with the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the ESC. The Congress is the HFA's main annual meeting.

You knew this: Education, not government handouts, are the road out of poverty

Athens, Ga. – Decades of research show people born into poverty are likely to continue to live that way as adults. But one University of Georgia researcher has found a way out—education.

Children reared in disadvantaged communities and poor families earn less money and experience more health problems as adults than do children raised without adversity, according to Kandauda Wickrama, a professor of human development and life science in the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences.

UH Case Medical Center, CardioKinetix reveal promising data for treatment for heart failure

CLEVELAND — University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center and CardioKinetix Inc., a medical device company pioneering a catheter-based treatment for heart failure, today announced promising results for the first-of-its-kind catheter-based Parachute™ Ventricular Partitioning Device, a Percutaneous Ventricular Restoration Therapy (PVRT) technology for patients with ischemic heart failure.

Swearing is cool! Foul language in teen books is a status symbol

Bestselling authors of teen literature portray their more foul-mouthed characters as rich, attractive and popular, a new study finds.Brigham Young University professor Sarah Coyne analyzed the use of profanity in 40 books on an adolescent bestsellers list. On average, teen novels contain 38 instances of profanity between the covers. That translates to almost seven instances of profanity per hour spent reading.

Coyne was intrigued not just by how much swearing happens in teen lit, but who was swearing: Those with higher social status, better looks and more money.

A new category of heel: The customer service saboteur

PULLMAN, Wash.—There are jerks, and then there are jerks.

Joel Anaya has given them a fair amount of study, focusing on that very special jerk who can take a routine service experience—dining out, paying at a cash register, air travel—and make it a nightmare.

Anaya has even coined a term for it—"customer service sabotage"—and discerned seven different categories of rude customers who can be a serious liability for the service industry.

Higher pain tolerance in athletes may hold clues for pain management

Philadelphia, PA, May 17, 2012 – Stories of athletes bravely "playing through the pain" are relatively common and support the widespread belief that they experience pain differently than non-athletes. Yet, the scientific data on pain perception in athletes has been inconsistent, and sometimes contradictory. Investigators from the University of Heidelberg have conducted a meta-analysis of available research and find that in fact, athletes can indeed tolerate a higher level of pain than normally active people.