DURHAM, N.C. – A drug commonly used to treat depression and anxiety may improve a stress-related heart condition in people with stable coronary heart disease, according to researchers at Duke Medicine. Compared with those receiving placebo, people who took the antidepressant escitalopram (sold as Lexapro) were more than two-and-a-half times less likely to have mental stress-induced myocardial ischemia (MSIMI), a heart condition brought on by mental stress. The findings, published in the May 22/29, 2013 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, add to the ...

Among patients with acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) requiring hospital admission, a 5-day glucocorticoid treatment course was non-inferior (not worse than) to a 14-day course with regard to re-exacerbation during 6 months of follow-up, according to a study published online by JAMA. The study is being released early online to coincide with its presentation at the American Thoracic Society international conference. The authors write that these findings support a shorter-course glucocorticoid treatment regimen, which would reduce glucocorticoid ...

Variation in the gene MUC5B among patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis was associated with improved survival, according to a study published online by JAMA. The study is being released early online to coincide with its presentation at the American Thoracic Society international conference. "Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic progressive disease with a median [midpoint] survival of 3 years," according to background information in the article. The prognosis is variable; patients may remain stable for several years, slowly lose lung function, progress ...

Among patients with stable coronary heart disease and mental stress-induced myocardial ischemia (MSIMI), 6 weeks of treatment with the antidepressant escitalopram, compared with placebo, resulted in a lower rate of MSIMI, according to a study in the May 22/29 issue of JAMA. "A robust body of evidence has identified emotional stress as a potential triggering factor in coronary heart disease (CHD) and other cardiovascular events," according to background information in the article. "During the last 3 decades, the association of emotional distress and myocardial ischemic ...

For critically ill patients receiving mechanical ventilation, early tracheostomy (within the first 4 days after admission) was not associated with an improvement in the risk of death within 30 days compared to patients who received tracheostomy placement after 10 days, according to a study in the May 22/29 issue of JAMA. "A tracheostomy is commonly performed when clinicians predict a patient will need prolonged mechanical ventilation," according to background information in the article. The use of this procedure has increased, such that up to one-third of patients requiring ...

Children with obstructive sleep apnea who had a common surgery to remove their adenoids and tonsils showed notable improvements in behavior, quality of life and other symptoms compared to those treated with "watchful waiting" and supportive care. However, there was no difference between both groups in attention and executive functioning, as measured by formal neuropsychological tests. The Childhood Adenotonsillectomy Trial (CHAT) studied 464 children, aged 5 to 9, at seven academic sleep centers. "This was the first randomized clinical trial of surgery for obstructive ...

PHILADELPHIA—The decision to limit life support in patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) appears to be significantly influenced by physician practices and/or the culture of the hospital, suggests new findings from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference on May 21. A retrospective analysis of over 269,000 ICU patients from the Project IMPACT database revealed a substantial variation in decisions to forgo life-sustaining therapies rates among 153 ICUs in the ...

This news release is available in French. Children who are exposed to secondhand smoke in early childhood are more likely to grow up to physically aggressive and antisocial, regardless of whether they were exposed during pregnancy or their parents have a history of being antisocial, according to Linda Pagani and Caroline Fitzpatrick of the University of Montreal and its affiliated CHU Sainte-Justine hospital. No study to date has controlled for these factors. "Secondhand smoke is in fact more dangerous that inhaled smoke, and 40% of children worldwide are exposed ...

Declines in the biodiversity of pollinating insects and wild plants have slowed in recent years, according to a new study. Researchers led by the University of Leeds and the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in the Netherlands found evidence of dramatic reductions in the diversity of species in Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands between the 1950s and 1980s. But the picture brightened markedly after 1990, with a slowdown in local and national biodiversity losses among bees, hoverflies and wild plants. Professor Bill Kunin, Professor of Ecology at the University of ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Having the biggest playlist doesn't make a male songbird the brainiest of the bunch, a new study shows. "For songbirds, singing a lot of songs indicates a bird is smart, but that signal is not necessarily indicative of intelligence for everything," said Duke biologist Steve Nowicki. In a series of problem-solving tests with the birds, he and his colleagues found that the male song sparrows that sang the most songs learned to solve food-finding puzzles more slowly than the birds singing fewer songs. The results are the first to show that a larger song ...

The researchers say that in a group of 10,000 young people, they would expect 39 cancers to occur during the next 10 years, but if they all had one CT scan, up to six extra cancers would occur. CT (computed tomography) scans have great medical benefits, but their increasing use since the 1980s has raised some concerns about possible cancer risks, particularly following exposures in childhood. Most previous studies have estimated risks indirectly, and some radiation experts have questioned the validity of these estimates. There is currently much uncertainty and as ...

The higher death rate associated with mental illness has been extensively documented, but most of the attention has focused on the elevated risk of suicide, whereas most of the risk can be attributed to physical illness such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and cancer (80% of deaths). The higher death rate is also normally reported in terms of mortality rates but other measures can be used such as potential years of life lost, average age at death and life expectancy. Life expectancy is also a useful alternative as it can reflect changes in rates across ages. ...

He calls on the UK's Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition and the Department of Health "to act swiftly" to tackle the rising obesity crisis and increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes. In 2003 the World Health Organization stated that "added sugars" should contribute no more than 10% of total energy intake. This was in line with the UK government's Committee on Medical Aspects of Food and Nutrition Policy (COMA) recommendations. This nutritional advice has formed the basis of UK food labelling since 2003 and subsequently influenced European legislation, but Dr ...

They show that up to 50% of all heart attack cases are missed using just one data source. These findings may be relevant to other common conditions, such as stroke, and support the wider use of linked multiple record sources by clinicians, policy makers and researchers, say the authors. Electronic health records are increasingly used to measure health outcomes, and for research, but records from one part of the health service (e.g. primary care) may not capture health events occurring in other parts of the health system (e.g. hospital care). So a team of researchers ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Children with obstructive sleep apnea who had a common surgery to remove their tonsils and adenoids showed notable improvements in behavior, quality of life and other symptoms compared to those treated with "watchful waiting" and supportive care, according to a new study. However, surprisingly, there was no difference between both groups in the primary study outcome, attention and executive functioning, as measured by formal neuropsychological tests. The research was published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine, in conjunction with ...

Children with sleep apnea syndrome who have their tonsils and adenoids removed sleep better, are less restless and impulsive, and report a generally better quality of life, finds a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health. However, the study found cognitive abilities did not improve compared with children who did not have surgery, and researchers say the findings don't mean surgery is an automatic first choice. The findings of the Childhood Adenotonsillectomy Trial (CHAT) will be presented May 21 at the American Thoracic Society 2013 meeting in Philadelphia. ...

Overweight and obese patients are significantly more likely than their normal-weight counterparts to repeatedly switch primary care doctors, a practice that disrupts continuity of care and leads to more emergency room visits, new Johns Hopkins research suggests. The practice of "doctor shopping" among overweight patients may be a result of negative experiences with the health care system, whether that be off-putting comments by office staff, unsolicited weight loss advice by providers, or improperly sized medical equipment and office furniture, says Kimberly A. Gudzune, ...

Irvine, Calif., May 21, 2013 — Children with autism showed significant improvement after six months of simple sensory exercises at home using everyday items such as scents, spoons and sponges, according to UC Irvine neurobiologists. They found that a treatment known as environmental enrichment led to notable gains in male subjects between the ages of 3 and 12. Results appear online in Behavioral Neuroscience. Study co-authors Cynthia Woo and Michael Leon randomly assigned 28 boys to one of two groups, balanced for age and autism severity. For half a year, all subjects ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Cancers of all types become most deadly when they metastasize and spread tumors throughout the body. Once cancer has reached this stage, it becomes very difficult for doctors to locate and treat the numerous tumors that can develop. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found a way to create radioactive nanoparticles that target lymphoma tumor cells wherever they may be in the body. Michael Lewis, an associate professor of oncology in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, says being able to target secondary tumors is vital to successfully ...

DURHAM, N.C. – An attack on glioblastoma brain tumor cells that uses a modified poliovirus is showing encouraging results in an early study to establish the proper dose level, researchers at Duke Cancer Institute report. The treatment, developed at Duke and tested in an ongoing phase 1 study, capitalizes on the discovery that cancer cells have an abundance of receptors that work like magnets drawing the poliovirus, which then infects and kills the cells. The investigational therapy, known as PVSRIPO, uses an engineered form of the virus that is lethal to cancer cells, ...

RICHLAND, Wash. – A new analysis shows that the nation's land and water resources could likely support the growth of enough algae to produce up to 25 billion gallons of algae-based fuel a year in the United States, one-twelfth of the country's yearly needs. The findings come from an in-depth look at the water resources that would be needed to grow significant amounts of algae in large, specially built shallow ponds. The results were published in the May 7 issue of Environmental Science and Technology, published by the American Chemical Society. "While there are many ...

Concerns continue to grow about the effects of climate change on fire. Wildfires are expected to increase 50 percent across the United States under a changing climate, over 100 percent in areas of the West by 2050 as projected by some studies. Of equal concern to scientists and policymakers alike are the atmospheric effects of wildfire emissions on climate. A new article published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management by U.S. Forest Service scientists synthesizes recent findings on the interactions between fire and climate and outlines future research needs. Authored ...

The results of a new study led by George Washington University Professor Tianshu Li provide direct computational evidence that nucleation of ice in small droplets is strongly size-dependent, an important conclusion in understanding water's behavior at the nanoscale. The formation of ice at the nanoscale is a challenging, basic scientific research question whose answer also has important implications for climate research and other fields. The crystallization of ice from supercooled water is generally initiated by a process called nucleation. Because of the speed and size ...

When infections occur in the body, stem cells in the blood often jump into action by multiplying and differentiating into mature immune cells that can fight off illness. But repeated infections and inflammation can deplete these cell populations, potentially leading to the development of serious blood conditions such as cancer. Now, a team of researchers led by biologists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has found that, in mouse models, the molecule microRNA-146a (miR-146a) acts as a critical regulator and protector of blood-forming stem cells (called ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University engineers have developed a novel method for producing clean hydrogen, which could prove essential to weaning society off of fossil fuels and their environmental implications. While hydrogen is ubiquitous in the environment, producing and collecting molecular hydrogen for transportation and industrial uses is expensive and complicated. Just as importantly, a byproduct of most current methods of producing hydrogen is carbon monoxide, which is toxic to humans and animals. The Duke engineers, using a new catalytic approach, have shown in ...