Computer-Driven System Reduces Patient Mechanical Ventilation Time Significantly
For patients with acute respiratory failure, a computer-driven system can significantly reduce the duration of mechanical ventilation and length of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU), as compared with the traditional physician-controlled weaning process.
The study, which was conducted in five medical-surgical ICUs in Barcelona, Brussels, Créteil, Geneva and Paris, appears in the second issue for October 2006 of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.
Overtraining not linked to altered brain chemistry
Athletes who overtrain their bodies do not seem to have changes in brain levels of serotonin, suggesting that serotonin alterations don’t cause the depression and other symptoms these athletes commonly develop.
This finding suggests that the depression that may occur in overtrained athletes may be a unique variant and may need to be treated as such, the researchers report in the International Journal of Sports Medicine.
Athletes who push their bodies too hard, or “overtrain,” can end up with a host of physical and mental symptoms that take months or even years to recover from. The effects include heart rhythm disturbances, disabling muscle and nerve pain, stomach pain and ulcers, insomnia despite heavy fatigue, and depressive symptoms.
Early heart attack survival worse for women
Gender does not influence long-term heart attack survival, according to findings published in the European Heart Journal. However, in the short-term, while still hospitalized for the heart attack, women are more likely to die than men.
“Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of death in women in western society, and currently more women die of cardiovascular disease than men,” Dr. Vernon V. S. Bonarjee, of the University of Bergen, Stavanger, Norway, and colleagues write. Although the frequency of heart attack increases sharply with age, women are less likely to develop a heart attack than are men at any age.
The researchers examined the short- and long-term gender-related differences in survival among high-risk patients with heart attack. A total of 5,477 subjects were followed for an average of 2.7 years.
Warnings to be placed on all booze in the UK
In an attempt to deal with the problem of binge drinking, the British government wants health warnings to be printed on all wine bottles, cans and bottles containing alcohol.
The government is looking at ways of making the drinks industry place labels on bottles and cans with details of the dangers of alcohol, as part of a campaign to tackle Britain’s growing booze culture.
Apparently officials are in negotiations with the drinks industry over the plan, which could mean warnings similar to those on cigarette packets could also appear on all wine, beers and spirits within the next two years.
Childhood cancer survivors more at risk of chronic health problems as adults
According to a new study adult survivors of childhood cancer can expect to suffer from one or more chronic health problems years after their cancer has been cured.
Advances in the treatment of pediatric cancer means that almost 80 percent of children diagnosed with the disease will become long-term survivors; but cancer treatments themselves carry risks, as in order to cure the deadly disease, quite toxic therapies are needed.
Dr. Kevin Oeffinger, director of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s Program for Adult Survivors of Pediatric Cancer, in New York City, conducted a collaborative study on adult survivors of childhood cancer by working with researchers from more than two dozen cancer centers throughout the U.S. and Canada.
