Uncircumcised boys at higher risk of urinary tract infections
Visibility of urethral meatus does not appear to have effect
2012-07-10
(Press-News.org) Uncircumcised boys are at higher risk of urinary tract infection, regardless of whether the urethra is visible, found a new study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).
Urinary tract infections are one of the most common serious bacterial infections in children and, if not treated, can cause an infection of the blood or scar the kidneys.
To determine whether the risk for infection is higher in boys with a visible urethral meatus, researchers looked at a cross-section of 393 boys who visited an emergency department with symptoms of a possible urinary tract infection. Of the 393 boys, 40 were uncircumcised and had a visible urethral meatus, 269 had a partially or nonvisible meatus, and 84 were circumcised.
"We thought that incomplete foreskin retractability with a poorly visible urethral meatus may be associated with increased risk of urinary tract infection," writes Dr. Sasha Dubrovsky, Montreal Children's Hospital, McGill University Health Centre, with coauthors. "However, we found no difference in risk with degree of visibility of the urethral opening."
The researchers did find that boys with a completely visible urethral meatus were at higher risk of infection, but recommended interpreting this result with caution given the small sample size of the group and that other studies have not found this association.
"We suggest that clinicians should consider circumcision status alone, not the degree of urethral visibility, when stratifying risk for boys presenting to the emergency department with symptoms or signs suggestioning a urinary tract infection," they conclude.
INFORMATION: END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2012-07-10
The Canadian government's proposed Bill C-31 to change the country's immigration act could have serious negative impacts on the mental health of refugees, states a commentary in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).
Under the proposed Bill C-31, the Protecting Canada's Immigration System Act, which targets refugee claimants, children under age 16 will be separated from their parents or held informally in a detention centre with their mothers. Family reunification for recognized refugees will be delayed until five years and detention reviews will not occur for ...
2012-07-10
A new study finds that the use of drug-eluting stents after angioplasty bears little relationship to patients' predicted risk of restenosis (reblockage) of the treated coronary artery, the situation the devices are designed to prevent. In an Archives of Internal Medicine paper receiving early online publication, a multi-institutional research team reports that the devices are used in treating more than 70 percent of patients at low risk of restenosis. Since patients receiving these stents need to take costly anticlotting medications for at least a year – medicines that ...
2012-07-10
While HIV programs provide lifesaving care and treatment to millions of people in lower-income countries, there have been concerns that as these programs expand, they divert investments from other health priorities such as maternal health. Researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health assessed the effect of HIV programs supported by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) on access to maternal health care in sub-Saharan Africa for women who are not infected with HIV. The findings show that, in fact, PEPFAR-funded, HIV-related projects ...
2012-07-10
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE: 3 P.M. (CT), MONDAY, JULY 9, 2012
CHICAGO – Use of cranberry-containing products appears to be associated with prevention of urinary tract infections in some individuals, according to a study that reviewed the available medical literature and was published by Archives of Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.
Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are common bacterial infections and adult women are particularly susceptible. Cranberry-containing products have long been used as a "folk remedy" to prevent the condition, according to the study background.
Chih-Hung ...
2012-07-10
CHICAGO – Better quality of life at the end of life for patients with advanced cancer was associated with avoiding hospitalizations and the intensive care unit, worrying less, praying or meditating, being visited by a pastor in a hospital or clinic, and having a therapeutic alliance with their physician, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.
When treatments to cure a patient's cancer are no longer an option, the focus of care often shifts from prolonging life to promoting the quality of life (QOL) at ...
2012-07-10
CHICAGO – A study based on more than 1.5 million percutaneous coronary intervention procedures (such as balloon angioplasty or stent placement to open narrowed coronary arteries) suggests that the use of drug-eluting stents varies widely among U.S. physicians, and is only modestly correlated with the patient's risk of coronary artery restenosis (renarrowing), according to a report published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.
Drug-eluting stents (DES) are effective in reducing restenosis and the benefits are greatest in patients ...
2012-07-10
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE: 3 P.M. (CT), MONDAY, JULY 9, 2012
CHICAGO – A study of patients with stroke admitted to English National Health Service public hospitals suggests that patients who were hospitalized on weekends were less likely to receive urgent treatments and had worse outcomes, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Neurology, a JAMA Network publication.
Studies from other countries have suggested higher mortality in patients who were admitted to the hospital on weekends for a variety of medical conditions, a phenomenon known as "the weekend ...
2012-07-10
Using lights to make aircraft more visible to birds could help reduce the risk of bird strikes, new research by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has found. The study, which examined how Canada geese responded to different radio-controlled model aircraft, is the first of its kind and is published in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology.
Aircraft collisions with wildlife – primarily birds – is a serious and growing threat to civil and military aviation, as well as an expensive one: bird strikes cost civil aviation alone more than $1.2 billion ...
2012-07-10
Men who are recent immigrants and over qualified for their jobs are more than three times as likely to sustain an injury at work as their appropriately qualified peers who have been in the country for some time, suggests Canadian research published online in Injury Prevention.
In Canada, in 2008, one in four employees between the ages of 25 and 54 was overqualified for the job they were doing, figures indicate.
The researchers drew on almost 63,500 responses to the representative household Canadian Community Health Surveys of 2003 and 2005 to look at the relationship ...
2012-07-10
[Sedentary behaviour and life expectancy in the USA: a cause-deleted life table analysis doi 10.1136/bmjopen-2012-000828]
Restricting the amount of time spent seated every day to less than 3 hours might boost the life expectancy of US adults by an extra 2 years, indicates an analysis of published research in the online journal BMJ Open.
And cutting down TV viewing to less than 2 hours every day might extend life by almost 1.4 years, the findings suggest.
Several previous studies have linked extended periods spent sitting down and/or watching TV to poor health, ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Uncircumcised boys at higher risk of urinary tract infections
Visibility of urethral meatus does not appear to have effect
