Culture

Chicago – Michael J. Mack, M.D., of the Baylor Health Care System, Plano, Texas, and colleagues describe the experience in the U.S. with transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), including patient selection, procedural details, and in-hospital and 30-day outcomes following TAVR, a less invasive procedure than open heart-valve surgery for replacing the aortic valve in the heart.

DALLAS – Researchers from the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute, in collaboration with researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the National Institutes of Health, have discovered a simple way to further predict a diabetic patient's risk for heart disease: by measuring their body mass index or BMI.

A new study highlights the importance of exercise and physical fitness among people with stable coronary artery disease. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Henry Ford Hospital found that higher levels of physical fitness lower the risk of having heart attacks and increase survival in those with coronary artery disease, whether or not they have had a procedure to open up their blocked arteries.

More adult trauma patients survived when they received early transfusions of plasma or red blood cells while en route to the hospital by helicopter or ground transport, in a study presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2013.

Trauma is the leading cause of death in people 1 to 44 years old and the leading cause of years of life lost, researchers said.

In a retrospective study, 97 patients received pre-hospital transfusions and 480 patients who didn't receive pre-hospital transfusions were controls.

Hospitalized children are more likely to die after a cardiac arrest if it occurs during the night shift, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2013.

Adults who suffer a cardiac arrest while hospitalized are already known to fare worse if resuscitation is needed during the night shift.

This AHA Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation Registry study is the first documentation of a similar effect in children.

Of 10,541 consecutive cardiac arrests in patients under age 18 in 2000-10, the researchers found:

NEW ORLEANS – Nov. 16, 2013 – Residents of major cities with high levels of air pollution have an increased risk of dry eye syndrome, according to a study presented at the world's largest ophthalmic conference, the 117th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, in New Orleans. Study subjects in and around Chicago and New York City were found to be three to four times more likely to be diagnosed with dry eye syndrome compared to less urban areas with relatively little air pollution.

November 15, 2013 – Posting the calorie content of menu items at major fast-food chains in Philadelphia, per federal law, does not change purchasing habits or decrease the number of calories that those customers consume, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center reported today at the Obesity Society's annual scientific meeting, held in Atlanta, Georgia. The results echo those conducted by the same researchers among low-income neighborhoods in New York City before and after calorie-labels were mandated there in July 2008.

WASHINGTON — The Tough Mudder, an extreme sports event that bills itself as "probably the toughest event on the planet," resulted in injuries ranging from multiple electrical burns to seizure-induced Todd's paralysis. A case series of serious injuries sustained by participants in one such race was reported online today in Annals of Emergency Medicine "Unique Obstacle Race Injuries at an Extreme Sports Event: A Case Series."

Combining the drug gemtuzumab ozogamicin (GO) with conventional chemotherapy may improve the outcome of bone marrow transplantation for some children battling high-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to a study led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The results appear in the current edition of the journal Cancer.

Arnhem, The Netherlands - An interim study by Italian researchers showed that using a modelling programme together with IPSS and dosage measure can predict the severity of acute urinary symptoms in patients with early prostate cancer who underwent radiotherapy.

Millions of families in the United States struggle to provide nutritionally adequate meals due to insufficient money or other resources, a number that has risen substantialy over the last few years. Today, 50 million Americans currently rely upon the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), what used to be called food stamps and is the largest federal nutrition program, to buy food.

Arnhem, The Netherlands- Treatment of pelvic nodes individualized by inclusion of sentinel nodes (SN) can be easily integrated into an IMRT-based treatment strategy, according to the new study conducted by a group of researchers from Tübingen and Munich in Germany. The target volume concept seems to correctly cover individual pelvic nodes, which is indicated by the absence of any nodal recurrence within five years of follow-up.

Arnhem, The Netherlands - New study, involving eight Italian research centres, concluded that an aligned approach to the treatment of advanced bladder cancer is much needed, while confirming previously published results on survival estimates of associated salvage therapies.

According to the lead author, Dr. Francesco Atzori, progress in developing new effective drugs in bladder cancer has been stagnant in the last decades.

A new study of gun violence in Chicago, led by Yale sociologist Andrew Papachristos, reveals that a person's social network is a key predictor in whether an individual will become a victim of gun homicide, even more so than race, age, gender, poverty, or gang affiliation.

"Risk factors like race and poverty are not the predictors they have been assumed to be," said Papachristos, "It's who you hang out with that gets you into trouble. It's tragic, but not random."

[Washington, DC – November 14, 2013] – According to results of the first-ever Phase 2 clinical trial in Bolivia, conducted by the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), the experimental drug candidate E1224 showed good safety and was effective at clearing the parasite that causes Chagas disease, but had little to no sustained efficacy one year after treatment as a single medication. On the other hand, standard therapy for Chagas, benznidazole, was shown to be effective in the long term but continued to be associated with side effects.