Carbon monoxide may cause long-lasting heart damage
Lack of oxygen isn’t the only way that carbon monoxide (CO) damages the heart, say researchers at Rhode Island Hospital.
According to the findings of a new study, published in the January issue of Academic Emergency Medicine, CO also causes direct damage to the heart muscle, separate from the effects of oxygen deprivation, which reduces the heart’s pumping capacity and permanently impairs cardiac function.
“These findings suggest that heart damage caused by carbon monoxide may have long-lasting effects even after its been eliminated from the blood, making the diagnosis of carbon monoxide poisoning even more critical,” said lead author Selim Suner, M.D., M.S., director of emergency preparedness and disaster medicine at Rhode Island Hospital.
Viruses for a healthy pregnancy
Sequences of DNA in the human genome that originated from ancient viral infections have some surprising effects on our bodies and are even essential for a healthy pregnancy, according to an article in the February issue of Microbiology Today.
Retrovirus infections represent the most intimate host-pathogen relationship. The virus inserts a copy of its genome into the DNA of the host cell, resulting in an irreversible, stable and sometimes lifelong infection. If a sperm or egg cell is infected, the virus DNA can be passed down generations, permanently fixed in the germ line. As a result, an endogenous retrovirus (ERV) can exist for millions of years.
Heart transplants: Do more or do none, Johns Hopkins study suggests
Heart surgeons at Johns Hopkins have evidence to support further tightening rather than easing of standards used to designate hospitals that are best at performing heart transplants.
In a study to be presented Jan. 29 at the 44th annual meeting of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the Hopkins team recommends that the benchmark for designation as a high-volume hospital rise from 10 heart transplants per year to 14. High-volume centers consistently show higher survival and fewer complication rates.
However, the standard, which is officially set by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and which qualifies medical centers for federal reimbursement, was recently lowered from 12 per year to 10.
Study finds increasing rates of diabetes among older Americans
The annual number of Americans older than 65 newly diagnosed with diabetes increased by 23 percent between 1994 to 1995 and 2003 to 2004, according to a report in the January 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
“The prevalence of diabetes mellitus is increasing, in part because of population aging, but also in younger persons,” according to background information in the article. The high rate of existing diabetes also contributes to a high rate of diabetes-related complications and premature death. “Awareness of the importance of active monitoring and management of diabetes has become more widespread; however, adherence to recommended practices remains low.”
Frank A. Sloan, Ph.D., and colleagues at the Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, and colleagues analyzed Medicare program data for patients first diagnosed with diabetes during 1994 (33,164 patients), 1999 (31,722 patients) and 2003 (40,058 patients). This data was compared with that of two control groups consisting of individuals without the disease who were of similar race and ethnicity to those with diabetes. Death and complications of diabetes such as cardiovascular, cerebrovascular (damage to blood cells in the brain), ophthalmic (eye), renal (kidney) and lower extremity events were recorded.
Antidepressants Unproven as Treatment for Low Back Pain
Antidepressants might be worthless for treating low back pain, suggests a new review that found no evidence to support using the drugs in this way. Yet, up to 23 percent of U.S. physicians report prescribing antidepressants to patients with low back pain.
“The prescription of antidepressants as a treatment for back pain remains controversial,” Donna Urquhart, Ph.D., research fellow at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and lead review author.
The review appears in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a topic.
Tips for Dry Winter Skin
By itself, dry skin isn’t a medical worry, but serious cases can result in cracks and fissures that invite infection and inflammation. This is one problem that hasn’t suffered from lack of attention in the marketplace, though: there are dozens of creams and lotions for dry skin. But what ingredients should you look for in a moisturizer? Well-controlled studies are few and far between. The fact is that despite the long lists of obscure ingredients and the pseudoscientific hokum, all moisturizers help with dry skin for a pretty simple reason: they supply a little bit of water to the skin and contain a greasy substance that holds it in, reports the February 2008 issue of the Harvard Health Letter.
One reason for the proliferation of moisturizers is the continuing search for a mix of ingredients that holds in water like petrolatum—a greasy substance known to many people as Vaseline—but feels nicer on the skin. The good news is that despite all the unknowns, you really can’t go wrong. Almost all the moisturizers on the market will help with dry skin, and in most cases, the choice comes down to simply whether you like the feel and smell.
Lack of sleep tied to retained pregnancy weight
Insufficient sleep during the months after childbirth may play a role in the retention of weight gained during pregnancy, research suggests.
“Even relatively short periods of sleep deprivation (6 months after delivery) may influence weight,” Dr. Erica P. Gunderson told Reuters Health.
Gunderson, an epidemiologist with Kaiser Permanente, in Oakland, California, and colleagues found that women who got less than an average of 5 hours of sleep daily during the first 6 months after childbirth were likely to weigh at least 5 kilograms (about 11 pounds) more than their pre-pregnancy weight at one year after childbirth.
Celebrex disrupts heart rhythm in fruit flies
Celebrex, an arthritis drug in the same class as the recalled painkiller Vioxx, caused irregular heartbeats in fruit flies and in heart cells taken from laboratory rats, U.S. researchers said on Friday.
“When we tried this drug on the fly heart it became clear that it gave rise to very pronounced arrhythmia,” said Dr. Satpal Singh, a pharmacologist at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
“It slows down and becomes irregular,” said Singh, whose study appears in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Aspirin reduces death rate in heart patients
In people with stable heart disease, low-dose aspirin reduces the occurrence of heart attacks, strokes, and deaths from all causes, according to a new analysis.
Although aspirin also increases the risk of bleeding, the benefits outweigh the risk, lead author Dr. Jeffrey S. Berger, of the Duke Clinical Research Institute, Durham, North Carolina, and his associates conclude in their report in the American Journal of Medicine.
Unlike previous analyses that combined various populations with treated with different blood-thinning drugs and dosages, the researchers point out, “our study focuses on low-dose aspirin in a population with stable cardiovascular disease.”
