Categories
Cardiovascular
Diagnostics
Endocrinology
Health Insurance
Medical Devices
Mental Health
Nutrition
Oncology
Public Health
Sexual Health
Popular Articles

Pregnancy Rates Unaffected By Single Thawed Embryo Transfer After PGD
Transferring just one embryo at a time to a woman"s womb after embryos have undergone preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and freezing at the blastocyst stage has become a real option after researchers achieved pregnancy rates that were as good as those for blastocysts that had not had a cell removed for PGD before freezing. Their results mean that it will be possible to reduce the number of multiple pregnancies after PGD and the consequent complications associated with these pregnancies.

New Five-Question Test Helps Assess Asthma Control In Children Under Five Years Of Age
Caregivers of children under five years of age can now answer five simple questions to determine if their child"s breathing problems are not under control. AstraZeneca funded a research project to create the Test for Respiratory and Asthma Control in Kids, or TRACK, the first validated respiratory- and asthma-control assessment test specifically for patients under five years of age. TRACK helps evaluate respiratory control based on guidelines -- defined asthma impairment and risk.
News of the day
Global Health Programmes Improve Specific Health Outcomes But Can Constrain Health Systems Of Poor Countries
The emergence of global health initiatives (GHIs), eg, The Global Fund and PEPFAR, has resulted in a striking expansion of key health interventions in recent years, from which millions have benefited. There is also evidence, however, that such initiatives can constrain the health systems of poor countries and that many opportunities to improve efficiency, equity, value for money and outcomes in global public health are still being missed. The health systems strengthening agenda needs more investment, and to be infused with the same sense of ambition and speed that has characterised GHIs. This is one of five key recommendations in a new multi-partner report published in a Health Policy paper in this week"s edition of The Lancet.
Endocrinology

Study Opens Door To Simple Test To Identify People At Higher Risk Of Sudden Cardiac Death

A large and long term study of Frenchmen suggests there may be a simple way to establish if apparently healthy people have an elevated risk of sudden cardiac death by looking at how their heart responds under conditions of mild mental stress and during peak exercise. The study was the work of Dr Xavier Jouven, a cardiologist at the European Georges Pompidou Hospital in Paris, and colleagues, and is published in the 2 July advance access issue of the European Heart Journal. Sudden cardiac death is a major health problem and accounts for betwee 200,000 and 400,000 deaths every year in the US, wrote the authors. They explained that the most common cause in adults is when fast heart rhythm (ventricular tachycardia) or erratic or uncoordinated contraction of muscle in a heart chamber (ventricular fibrillation) coincides with a loss of blood flow in the heart (ischaemic cardiac event). Fewer than 5 per cent of people who experience this combination of heart events are successfully rescucitated, which is why finding out who might be at risk within the general population is a major public health challenge. Jouven and colleagues had a hunch that people who respond to mild mental stress in preparation for an exercise test with the largest heart rate increases might be at highest risk of sudden cardiac arrest. For this study they used data on nearly 8,000 male French civil servants who took part in the Paris Prospective Study I and were medically examined between 1967 and 1972. The men underwent physical exams, gave blood samples, had electrocardiograms, and answered interview questions. They also had their resting heart rate measured, which was taken by measuring radial pulse for 1 minute after lying down for 5 minutes. Data taken on the participants over a follow up period of 23 years allowed the researchers to compare heart rate changes between rest and mild mental stress (while the participants prepared for an exercise test) between those who experienced sudden cardiac death (81 participants), those who died from a non-sudden coronary event (129 participants), and those who died from any cause (1,306 participants). In their analysis, Jouven and colleagues found that: * The average heart rate increase during mild mental stress was 8.9 ÷± 10.8 beats per minute (bpm). *Risk of sudden cardiac death went up progressively with increase in heart rate during mental stress. *The 33 per cent of participants with the highest heart increase were more than twice as likely to suffer sudden cardiac death as the 33 per cent with the lowest heart rate increase (relative risk 2.09). *This relationship did not exist for non-sudden coronary deaths. The authors concluded that: "An important heart rate increase produced by a mild mental stress predicts long-term risk for sudden cardiac death." They suggested that a simple procedure that measures heart rate changes before an exercise test could be a valuable way to assess risk of sudden cardiac death in the general population. "Excessive heart rate increase during mild mental stress in preparation for exercise predicts sudden death in the general population." Xavier Jouven , Peter J. Schwartz , Sylvie Escolano , Cç©line Straczek , Muriel Tafflet , Michel Desnos , Jean Philippe Empana , and Pierre Ducimetiç¨re. European Heart Journal, Advance Access published on July 2, 2009. DOI 10.1093/eurheartj/ehp160 Eur Heart J 30: 1703-1710. Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD Copyright: Medical News Today Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):

© Copyright 2009