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Frequency of surveillance scans for small aneurysms can be reduced for most patients

2013-02-27
(Press-News.org) In contrast to the commonly adopted surveillance intervals in current abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) screening programs, surveillance intervals of several years may be clinically acceptable for the majority of patients with small AAA, as the smallest AAAs often do not appear to change significantly over many years, according to a meta-analysis of previous studies reported in the February 27 issue of JAMA.

"The survival rate following rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm is only 20 percent, making AAAs an important cause of mortality," according to background information in the article. "In patients with small AAA (diameter END


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Long-term use of medication does not improve symptoms for heart failure patients

2013-02-27
Among patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, long-term treatment with the medication spironolactone improved left ventricular diastolic function but did not affect maximal exercise capacity, patient symptoms, or quality of life, according to a study appearing in the February 27 issue of JAMA. "Heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction [EF; the percentage of blood that is pumped out of a filled ventricle as a result of a heartbeat is 50 percent or greater] accounts for more than 50 percent of the total HF population," according to background ...

Simple method devised for determining atrial fibrillation risk in women

2013-02-27
Boston - Atrial fibrillation is the most common type of abnormal heart rhythm, affecting 2.5 million Americans. If left undetected or untreated, atrial fibrillation can lead to stroke. Determining who is at increased risk for atrial fibrillation has been difficult, especially among individuals without established heart disease. But now, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital have devised and tested a simple atrial fibrillation risk prediction model, based on six easily obtained factors: a woman's age, height, weight, blood pressure, alcohol consumption and smoking ...

Just a drop? Alcohol consumption much higher than reported in England

2013-02-27
Alcohol consumption could be much higher than previously thought, with more than three quarters of people in England drinking in excess of the recommended daily alcohol limit, according to a new paper in the European Journal of Public Health. The study, conducted by researchers in the UCL Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, is the first to investigate the potential public health implications related to the under-reporting of alcohol consumption. International studies have shown that self-reported alcohol consumption only accounts for between 40 and 60 per cent ...

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HPS2-THRIVE trial: Side-effects cause a quarter of heart patients to stop treatment

2013-02-27
The largest randomised study of the vitamin niacin in patients with occlusive arterial disease (narrowing of the arteries) has shown a significant increase in adverse side-effects when it is combined with statin treatment. Results from the HPS2-THRIVE study (Heart Protection Study 2 – Treatment of HDL to Reduce the Incidence of Vascular Events), including the reasons patients stopped the study treatment, are published online today (Wednesday) in the European Heart Journal [1]. Niacin has been used for decades to help increase levels of "good" HDL cholesterol and to ...

Face values: Ability to recognize emotions in others impaired by AIDS

2013-02-27
People with HIV are less able to recognise facial emotion than non-infected people finds a study published in the launch edition of BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Psychology. Reduction in their ability to recognise fear in others is linked to a similar loss in immediate recall, while those with a lower general neurocognitive performance also had a reduced ability to recognise happiness. The mechanism behind recognition of facial emotion is complex, involving many different areas of the brain, including the frontostriatal pathway and amygdala. The frontostriatal ...

Biting back - snake venom contains toxic clotting factors

2013-02-27
The powerful venom of the saw-scaled viper Echis carinatus contains both anticoagulants and coagulants finds a study published in the launch edition of BioMed Central's open access journal Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases (JVATiTD). These may be a source of potent drugs to treat human disease. The saw-scaled viper family Echis, responsible for most snake attacks on humans, are recognizable by the 'sizzling' noise they make, produced by rubbing together special serrated scales, when threatened. Echis venom causes coagulopathy, which can ...

Increased risk of sleep disorder in children who received swine flu vaccine

2013-02-27
The results are consistent with previous studies from Finland and Sweden and indicate that the association is not confined to Scandinavian populations. However, the authors stress that the risk may still be overestimated, and they call for longer term monitoring of the cohort of children and adolescents exposed to Pandemrix to evaluate the exact level of risk. In 2009, pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus spread rapidly, resulting in millions of cases and over 18,000 deaths in over 200 countries. In England the vaccine Pandemrix was introduced in October 2009. By March 2010, ...

Home based telehealth does not improve quality of life for patients with long term conditions

2013-02-27
As such, the researchers say "it should not be used as a tool to achieve improvements in generic health related quality of life or psychological outcomes." Telehealth uses technology to help people with health problems live more independently at home. For example, blood pressure or blood glucose levels can be measured at home and electronically transmitted to a health professional, reducing the need for hospital visits. For long term conditions, telehealth has been promoted to reduce healthcare costs while improving health related quality of life, but evidence to support ...

Self help books and websites can benefit severely depressed patients

2013-02-27
Depression is a major cause of disability worldwide and effective management of this is a key challenge for health care systems. Evidence suggests 'low-intensity' interventions provide significant clinical benefit. Initial severity of depression is one of the key variables determining who gets 'low' or 'high' intensity treatment, but this is largely based on epidemiological studies and clinical experience rather than high quality evidence. An international collaboration of researchers therefore carried out a meta-analysis of several studies involving 2470 patients with ...

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[Press-News.org] Frequency of surveillance scans for small aneurysms can be reduced for most patients