Dog bites more common in very young children
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Dog bites occur more often in very young children, so families should consider waiting until their children are of school age before they introduce a new dog into the household. Even then, parents might want to think twice about getting a Doberman pinscher or German shepherd, according to a study published on Monday.
Dr. Johannes Schalamon and associates at the Medical University of Graz, conducted a review of 341 children treated for dog bites at a trauma center in Austria over a 10-year period.
They found that children 1 year of age or younger had the highest risk of being bitten, although children up to age 10 also had a higher risk than older individuals.
Pfizer sues P&G over mouthwash ads
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Pfizer Inc. the maker of Listerine mouthwash on Friday sued Procter & Gamble Co. for falsely claiming in television ads that four out five dentists would recommend its rival brand Crest Pro-Health mouthwash.
“P&G’s false and misleading claims concerning Crest Pro-Health cause a substantial number of consumers to believe that this product is recommended by the vast majority of dentists—which is false—and that these dentists are recommending it for specific product-related reasons—which also is false,” the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, said.
Many U.S. post-approval drug studies unfinished
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Nearly two thirds of more than 1,200 post-approval drug studies promised by the manufacturers have yet to start, according to U.S. government statistics released on Friday.
An annual report by the Food and Drug Administration showed little change from recent years in the percentage of studies that remain unfinished, officials said.
“The percentages of open commitments, pending, ongoing, delayed, terminated and submitted (studies) are all in the same ballpark range,” Dr. John Jenkins, director of the FDA’s Office of New Drugs, told reporters.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Does Not Increase Risk of Hearing Loss
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Mayo Clinic researchers have found that people with rheumatoid arthritis are no more likely to have hearing loss than other members of the general population. The finding is contrary to previous study results that linked the disease to elevated risk of hearing problems.
The study results will be presented Monday at the American Auditory Society annual meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz.
“This is very good news for rheumatoid arthritis patients,” says Eric Matteson, M.D., Mayo Clinic rheumatologist and senior study researcher. “Patients with rheumatoid arthritis actually have preserved hearing and are no more susceptible to hearing loss than those who do not have the disease; there is no measurable difference with standard testing. This was surprising. I expected to see more hearing loss in rheumatoid arthritis patients.”
Space suit technology can protect workers from heatstroke
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The technology used in space suits to protect astronauts carrying out space walks in direct sunlight is now being used to develop protective clothing to safeguard firefighters and steel workers who often work in extremely hot and dangerous conditions.
“The existing protective clothing used while performing physically demanding work in hot conditions can, in many cases, hinder workers’ ability to remain cool,” explains Stefano Carosio from the Italian company D’Appolonia, Project Manager for the Safe&Cool Project.
FDA grants priority review for Revlimid
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Celgene Corporation announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted a Priority Review designation to its Supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for REVLIMID (lenalidomide) for the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.
The Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) date is June 30, 2006. The Company is seeking approval to market REVLIMID in combination with dexamethasone as a proposed indication for the treatment of multiple myeloma patients who have received at least one prior therapy subject to FDA review and approval. Priority Review is granted to a pharmaceutical product that, if approved, would be a significant improvement compared to existing marketed products or approved therapies in the treatment, diagnosis, or prevention of a disease.
China warns of bird flu risk as spring arrives
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Chinese Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu has warned that China could see more human cases of bird flu during the spring season when migratory birds return, increasing the risk of spreading the virus.
China has reported more than 30 outbreaks of the H5N1 strain of bird flu across the country in the past year and has had 14 human cases—eight of them fatal.
“In our country during the spring season there still exists a possibility of bird flu prevalence and outbreaks and there still exists a danger there could be more human cases,” Hui told a cabinet conference.
Spousal spats may harm heart health
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The manner in which husbands and wives argue over such hot-button topics such as money, in-laws, and children, may be a factor in their risk of developing coronary atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries of the heart.
In a study of 150 couples, mostly in their 60s, researchers found that women who behaved in a hostile manner during marital disputes were more likely to have atherosclerosis, especially if their husbands were also hostile.
In men, hostility—their own or their wives—was not related to atherosclerosis. However, men who behaved in a dominating or controlling manner—or whose wives behaved in that way—were more likely to have clogged coronary arteries.
Length of time using Vioxx seen key in Merck trial
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Opening arguments in the next Vioxx liability trial start on Monday as Merck & Co. faces the lone lawyer who has beaten the company in one of these cases - this time representing two long-term users of the painkiller who say it caused their heart attacks.
So far, two juries have found Merck not liable, while Mark Lanier, a flamboyant Texas lawyer, helped secure a $253 million judgment for the widow of a Vioxx user last August.
The trial, set to begin next week in New Jersey Superior Court in Atlantic City, marks the first involving plaintiffs who took the painkiller for more than 18 months.
Acupuncture shown to relieve migraines: study
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Acupuncture, one of the most popular complementary treatments, works as well as standard drugs for migraines, German researchers said on Thursday.
They compared the effects of real and fake acupuncture with drug treatments for migraine and found all equally effective.
“The main finding is that Chinese acupuncture is as effective as drug treatment for the prophylaxis of migraine,” said Hans-Christoph Diener, a neurologist at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany.
Japanese researchers find new way to make Tamiflu
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A team of Japanese researchers has developed a new way of producing the anti-flu drug Tamiflu that does not rely on natural ingredients and may help ensure more stable supplies, the head of the team said.
Tamiflu, produced by Swiss-based pharmaceutical company Roche Holding AG, is considered one of the best defenses against bird flu in humans, and there are fears of a possible shortage in the event of a global flu pandemic.
Arthritis drug may work better second time around
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Even if an initial course of methotrexate for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) gives disappointing results, persistence may pay off. A second course may be more successful, researchers report.
As they note in the journal Arthritis Research & Therapy, many patients continue to have active disease in spite of intensive therapy with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs).
Dr. Daniel Aletaha, from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, and associates in Austria identified patients who underwent one course of DMARD that failed and then tried another type of treatment.
Breathing training can help heart failure patients
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People with heart failure and difficulty breathing may benefit considerably from using a device to train the muscles involved in breathing, Brazilian researchers report.
The Threshold Inspiratory Muscle Trainer (Healthscan Products, Inc.) applies a load while subjects breathe in, thus training the muscles to become stronger.
Dr. Jorge P. Ribeiro of Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Allegre and colleagues randomly assigned 32 patients to either a 12-week home-based program using the device with an inspiratory load maintained at 30 percent of maximal inspiratory pressure, or to a placebo program in which the participants had no inspiratory load.
Eat more whole grains to lower diabetes, heart risk
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A diet high in whole grains may lower a person’s likelihood of developing diabetes and heart disease, new study findings show.
Among more than 900 healthy men and women, those who reported consuming the most whole grains had lower levels of cholesterol and various markers of heart disease and better-controlled blood sugar.
“This suggests that people with a high whole-grain intake may have lower risks of diabetes and ischemic heart disease,” said study author Majken Karoline Jensen, of Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark.
C-reactive protein helps identify progressive precancerous lesions in the lung
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C-reactive protein (CRP), a biomarker for inflammation in the blood, can help to identify individuals whose abnormal precancerous lesions will advance closer to invasive lung cancer.
The results appear in the first issue for March 2005 of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.
Stephen Lam, M.D., F.R.C.P.C., of the Lung Tumour Group, British Columbia Cancer Agency at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and three associates measured CRP, lung function and other inflammatory markers in 65 individuals. All participants had at least one abnormal cell site in their lungs (bronchial dysplasia) greater than 1.2 millimeters in size, which was biopsied at the start of the study and re-examined 6 months later.
