CHICAGO -- Patients with active asthma -- such as any use of asthma medications, and unscheduled office or emergency visits for asthma -- are at a twofold risk of having a heart attack, according to Mayo Clinic research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. Researchers compared 543 patients who had heart attacks with 543 non-heart attack patients of the same age and gender. These patients were treated at health care facilities in Rochester, Minnesota, between 2002 and 2006. The average age of patients was 67 years old, and 44 percent ...

CHICAGO - Members of the public in counties with higher median household incomes are more likely to step into action to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, when they witness someone have a cardiac arrest, according to a new study led by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, which was presented today at the American Heart Association's Resuscitation Science Symposium 2014. "It's important for bystanders to act quickly when they witness someone experiencing cardiac arrest," said lead study author Kam Ching (Nina) Li, ...

WASHINGTON -- Neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) are zeroing in on brain factors and behaviors that put teens at risk of alcohol use and abuse even before they start drinking. Four abstracts from the Adolescent Development Study exploring these factors will be presented at Neuroscience 2014, the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting in Washington. The Adolescent Development Study, a collaboration between the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and GUMC funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is a wide-ranging effort ...

MIAMI -- A chemotherapy regimen consisting of procarbazine, CCNU, and vincristine (PCV) administered following radiation therapy improved progression-free survival and overall survival in adults with low-grade gliomas, a form of brain cancer, when compared to radiation therapy alone. The findings were part of the results of a Phase III clinical trial presented today at the Society for Neuro-Oncology's 19th Annual Meeting in Miami by the study's primary author Jan Buckner, M.D., deputy director, practice, at Mayo Clinic Cancer Center. "On average, patients who received ...

Philadelphia, PA (November 15, 2014) -- A healthy diet may help protect the kidneys, according to two studies that will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2014 November 11¬-16 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA. Dietary modifications may be a low-cost, simple intervention to reduce the burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD). To test this hypothesis, Andrew Smyth, MD (National University of Ireland Galway) and his colleagues analyzed questionnaires completed by 544,635 participants of the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study ...

Boston -- A molecule in the blood shows promise as a marker to predict whether individual rheumatoid arthritis patients are likely to benefit from biologic medications or other drugs should be tried, a Mayo Clinic-led study shows. The protein, analyzed in blood tests, may help avoid trial and error with medications, sparing patients treatment delays and unnecessary side effects and expense. The research is among several Mayo Clinic studies presented at the American College of Rheumatology annual meeting in Boston. Researchers tested blood samples taken before rheumatoid ...

Philadelphia, PA (November 15, 2014) -- Perceived racial discrimination may contribute to disparities related to kidney disease, according to a study that will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2014 November 11-16 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA. Psychosocial factors such as perceived racial discrimination have been associated with chronic diseases, but little is known about the relationship between perceived racial discrimination and kidney function decline. Researchers led by Angedith Poggi-Burke, MPH and Deidra Crews, MD, FASN (National ...

Philadelphia, PA (November 15, 2014) -- Patients' access to specialized care before kidney failure develops varies significantly across the United States and among different racial groups, according to studies that will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2014 November 11¬-16 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA. For patients who develop kidney failure, or end-stage renal disease (ESRD), the kidney care they received while their kidneys were still functioning is critically important. Using a comprehensive national dataset and advanced statistical ...

Philadelphia, PA - November 15, 2014 -- Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:KERX) (the "Company") today announced results from a 48-week Open Label Extension (OLE) safety study in which Ferric Citrate demonstrated long-term safety and efficacy in dialysis-dependent chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients with elevated serum phosphorus levels, or hyperphosphatemia. The OLE findings were presented as a late-breaking poster (Abstract #SA-PO1102) at the 2014 American Society of Nephrology's (ASN) Kidney Week meeting in Philadelphia, PA. The results are consistent with those ...

Philadelphia, PA (November 15, 2014) -- Potassium additives are frequently added to sodium-reduced meat products in amounts that may be dangerous for patients with kidney disease, according to a study that will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2014 November 11¬-16 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA. Sodium-reduced foods are becoming increasingly available to consumers; however food manufacturers may use phosphate and potassium additives to replace the functional and flavor properties of sodium. Because individuals with kidney dysfunction must ...

Philadelphia, PA (November 15, 2014) -- Air pollution may play a role in the development of kidney disease, according to a study that will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2014 November 11¬-16 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA. There are wide variances in the prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) across the United States, only part of which is explained by differences in individuals' risk factors. To see if air quality may also play a role, Jennifer Bragg-Gresham, PhD (University of Michigan) and her colleagues looked at 2010 Medicare information ...

Philadelphia, PA (November 15, 2014) -- Home dialysis therapies may help prolong the lives of patients with kidney failure compared with hemodialysis treatments administered in medical centers, according to a study that will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2014 November 11¬-16 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA. Home dialysis therapies are more convenient and less expensive than in-center treatment, but it's unclear whether all home therapies--which include peritoneal dialysis and home hemodialysis--can prolong patients' survival. Researchers ...

Abstract 16039/Presentation 1 (Lakeside Hall D1, Cross Core) American Heart Association pre-arrival telephone CPR guidelines help save lives Implementing American Heart Association pre-arrival telephone CPR guidelines throughout Arizona has dramatically increased the number of bystanders performing CPR and survival from cardiac arrest, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. The guidelines call for emergency dispatchers and call takers to provide assertive step-by-step Telephone-CPR instructions to bystanders during ...

Philadelphia, PA (November 15, 2014) -- The results of numerous high-impact clinical trials that could affect kidney-related medical care will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2014, November 11-16 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA. Among the studies are the following (presented in numerical order): SA-PO1092 A Randomized Multicomponent Intervention to Reduce Disparities in Transplant Referral: Interim Results from the RaDIANT Community Study -- Rachel E. Patzer, Leighann Sauls, Jennifer C. Gander, M. Ahinee Amamoo, Laura Plantinga, Debra D. Evans, ...

Philadelphia, PA (November 15, 2014) -- The results of numerous high-impact clinical trials that could affect kidney-related medical care will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2014, November 11-16 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA. A trial of 156 patients who developed acute kidney injury (AKI) following cardiac surgery found that treatment with certain stem cells did not shorten the time it took patients to achieve complete kidney recovery, nor did it decrease their risk of dying prematurely or needing dialysis. Unfortunately, "AKI is common condition ...

Using two drugs was no more effective than a single drug in slowing disease progression in people with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), according to two studies funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). One of the studies also showed that rigorous blood pressure treatment slowed growth of kidney cysts, a marker of ADPKD, but had little effect on kidney function compared to standard blood pressure treatment. The results of the HALT-PKD Clinical Trials Network studies will be published online November 15 in two papers in the New England Journal ...

In patients undergoing noncardiac surgery, neither aspirin nor clonidine (a medication primarily used to treat high blood pressure) taken before and after surgery reduced the risk of acute kidney injury, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being released to coincide with its presentation at the American Society of Nephrology's annual Kidney Week meeting. About 10 percent of the 200 million adults estimated to undergo major noncardiac surgery each year develop acute kidney injury (a sudden loss of kidney function). Perioperative (around the time of surgery) ...

Among kidney transplant recipients, a 3-month course of the antibiotic levofloxacin following transplantation did not prevent the major complication known as BK virus from appearing in the urine. The intervention was associated with an increased risk of adverse events such as bacterial resistance, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being released to coincide with its presentation at the American Society of Nephrology's annual Kidney Week meeting. Kidney transplantation is the preferred treatment for end­stage renal disease. The development of potent ...

Taipei, November 15, 2014 - While a low body mass index (BMI) of less than 20 kg/m2 has been shown to be an independent risk factor for hip fractures, far less is known about the relationship of body weight changes on hip fracture risk. The findings of a new study presented today at the IOF Regionals Asia-Pacific Osteoporosis Meeting in Taipei, show that among middle-aged to elderly Singapore Chinese, weight loss of 10% or more was associated with a 56% higher hip fracture risk. The researchers used data from the Singapore Chinese Health Study, a population-based cohort ...

Taipei, November 15, 2014 - An epidemiological study presented today at the 5th Asia-Pacific Osteoporosis Meeting is one of the first to project the immense and growing economic cost of osteoporotic fractures in China. The study, by investigators from the University of Tasmania, Anhui Medical University and Nanjing Medical University, used decision analytic modelling to estimate the burden of osteoporotic fractures. The researchers estimated that in 2010 more than 2.3 million osteoporosis-related hip, clinical vertebral and wrist fractures occurred in the population ...

DALLAS - November 15, 2014 - A novel looping mechanism that involves the end caps of DNA may help explain the aging of cells and how they initiate and transmit disease, according to new research from UT Southwestern Medical Center cell biologists. The UT Southwestern team found that the length of the endcaps of DNA, called telomeres, form loops that determine whether certain genes are turned off when young and become activated later in life, thereby contributing to aging and disease. "Our results suggest a potential novel mechanism for how the length of telomeres may ...

Philadelphia, PA (November 14, 2014) -- In addition to helping patients shed pounds, weight loss surgery may also improve kidney function, according to a study that will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2014 November 11¬-16 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA. Weight loss, or bariatric, surgery is highly effective for rapid weight loss in patients with morbid obesity, who are at markedly increased risk for kidney failure. Because the effect of bariatric surgery-induced weight loss on kidney function is unknown, Alex Chang, MD (Geisinger Medical ...

Philadelphia, PA (November 14, 2014) -- The majority of individuals in the United States are not eligible to donate a kidney, even if they wanted to, according to a study that will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2014 November 11¬-16 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA. There is a shortage of living kidney donors in the United States, but no one has previously examined the general population to see who would be eligible to be donors. To assess the potential US donor pool, researchers led by Anthony Bleyer, MD (Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center) ...

Philadelphia, PA (November 14, 2014) -- Simple exercises can help improve the health of patients with kidney disease, according to studies that will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2014 November 11¬-16 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Because exercise capacity is significantly reduced in CKD patients, Sharlene Greenwood, MD (King's College Hospital, in London) and her colleagues examined the effect of 12 months of exercise training on kidney function ...

DARIEN, IL - A new study suggests that teen drivers who start class earlier in the morning are involved in significantly more motor vehicle accidents than peers with a later high school start time. The results underscore the importance of the "Awake at the Wheel" campaign of the National Healthy Sleep Awareness Project. Results show that the weekday crash rate for teen drivers during the 2009 to 2010 school year was about 29 percent higher in Chesterfield County, Va., where high school classes began at 7:20 a.m., than in adjacent Henrico County, Va., where classes started ...