http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Is it permissible to harm one to save many? Those who tend to say "yes" when faced with this classic dilemma are likely to be deficient in a specific kind of empathy, according to a report published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-empathy-key-role-moral-judgments.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 22 May 2013 04:58:03 EST news288417470 Plastic additives known as phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates) are odorless, colorless and just about everywhere: They turn up in flooring, plastic cups, beach balls, plastic wrap, intravenous tubing and—according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—the bodies of most Americans. Once perceived as harmless, phthalates have come under increasing scrutiny. A growing collection of evidence suggests dietary exposure to phthalates (which can leech from packaging and mix with food) may cause significant metabolic and hormonal abnormalities, especially during early development. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-phthalates-links-chemicals-widely-plastics.html Pediatrics Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:02 EST news288377310 The gap between life expectancy in patients with a mental illness and the general population has widened since 1985 and efforts to reduce this gap should focus on improving physical health, suggest researchers in a paper published today on BMJ. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-life-gap-widens-mental-illness.html Health Tue, 21 May 2013 18:30:05 EST news288376763 A study of around 1,000 UK mothers and their children, published in The Lancet, has revealed that iodine deficiency in pregnancy may have an adverse effect on children's mental development. The research raises concerns that the iodine status of pregnant women is a public health issue that needs to be addressed. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-iodine-deficiency-pregnancy-adversely-affect.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Tue, 21 May 2013 18:30:04 EST news288376587 The gap between life expectancy in patients with a mental illness and the general population has widened since 1985 and efforts to reduce this gap should focus on improving physical health, suggest researchers in a paper published today on BMJ. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-small-cancer-ct-scans-childhood.html Cancer Tue, 21 May 2013 18:30:03 EST news288376901 Failure to use linked electronic health records may lead to biased estimates of heart attack incidence and outcome, warn researchers in a paper published in BMJ today. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-failure-linked-health-biased-disease.html Health Tue, 21 May 2013 18:30:02 EST news288376642 Dietary advice on added sugar is damaging our health, warns a cardiologist in BMJ today. Dr. Aseem Malhotra believes that "not only has this advice been manipulated by the food industry for profit but it is actually a risk factor for obesity and diet related disease." http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-dietary-advice-added-sugar-health.html Health Tue, 21 May 2013 18:30:01 EST news288376705 An experimental sleeping pill from US drug company Merck is effective at helping people fall and stay asleep, according to reviewers at the US Food and Drug Administration, which could soon approve the new drug. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-pill-poised.html Medications Tue, 21 May 2013 17:50:01 EST news288376487 The Orsiro stent, which is a novel stent platform eluting sirolimus from a biodegradable polymer, demonstrated non-inferiority to the Xience Prime everolimus-eluting stent for the primary angiographic endpoint of in-stent late lumen loss at nine months in the results of an imaging substudy reported at EuroPCR 2013 today. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-biodegradable-stent-non-inferior-drug-eluting.html Cardiology Tue, 21 May 2013 17:26:46 EST news288376000 A paper recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine and co-written by physicians and scientists at the University of Colorado School of Medicine finds that an important genetic risk factor for pulmonary fibrosis can be used to identify individuals at risk for this deadly lung disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-genetic-factor-pulmonary-fibrosis.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 21 May 2013 17:22:34 EST news288375742 Using the Department of Defense Serum Repository (DoDSR), University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers have identified a number of biomarkers for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which could help with earlier diagnosis and intervention in those who have not yet shown symptoms. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-biomarkers-inflammatory-bowel-disease.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 21 May 2013 17:21:31 EST news288375680 By studying the roles two proteins, thrombospondin-1 and prosaposin, play in discouraging cancer metastasis, a trans-Atlantic research team has identified a five-amino acid fragment of prosaposin that significantly reduces metastatic spread in mouse models of prostate, breast and lung cancer. The findings suggest that a prosaposin-based drug could potentially block metastasis in a variety of cancers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-cancer-environment-halt.html Cancer Tue, 21 May 2013 17:20:05 EST news288375375 One-year results from SOURCE XT – one of the largest, post-approval transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) registries to-date – reported today at EuroPCR 2013 show good clinical outcomes in routine clinical practice, with high rates of device success for all access approaches, valve sizes and delivery systems. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-post-approval-tavi-registry-high-device.html Cardiology Tue, 21 May 2013 17:16:00 EST news288375191 Activating an enzyme known to play a role in the anti-aging benefits of calorie restriction delays the loss of brain cells and preserves cognitive function in mice, according to a study published in the May 22 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The findings could one day guide researchers to discover drug alternatives that slow the progress of age-associated impairments in the brain. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-caloric-intake-nerve-cell-loss.html Neuroscience Tue, 21 May 2013 17:00:09 EST news288374042 A novel transcriptome-based classification of colon cancer that improves the current disease stratification based on clinicopathological variables and common DNA markers is presented in a study published in PLOS Medicine this week. (A transcriptome is all RNA produced by a population of cells.) Pr. Pierre Laurent-Puig and colleagues from INSERM in Paris, France used genetic information from a French multicenter study supported by the "Ligue contre le cancer" to identify a standard, reproducible molecular classification based on gene expression analysis of colorectal cancer. The authors also assessed whether there were any associations between the identified molecular subtypes and clinical and pathological factors, common DNA alterations, and prognosis. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-rna-based-classification-colorectal-cancer.html Cancer Tue, 21 May 2013 17:00:04 EST news288374223 Trends in Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) and smoking explain a significant proportion of the decline of intestinal-type noncardia gastric adenocarcinoma (NCGA) incidence in US men between 1978 and 2008, and are estimated to continue to contribute to further declines between 2008 and 2040. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-pylori-trends-gastric-cancer-men.html Medical research Tue, 21 May 2013 17:00:03 EST news288374296 The integration of mental health interventions into HIV prevention and treatment platforms can reduce the opportunity costs of care and improve treatment outcomes, argues a new Policy Forum article published in this week's PLOS Medicine. Syvia Kaaya from the School of Medicine at the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and her international colleagues say that effective interventions exist for recognition and treatment of co-morbid mental disorders and can be implemented successfully by trained non- specialized providers in HIV care. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-mental-health-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 21 May 2013 17:00:02 EST news288374135 Transparent information on the evidence supporting global recommendations on paediatric medicines should be easily accessible in order to help policy makers decides on what drugs to include in their national drug lists, according to international experts from Ghana and the UK writing in this week's PLOS Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-global-child-medicine.html Medications Tue, 21 May 2013 17:00:01 EST news288374168 (HealthDay)—Three-quarters of public schools in the metro Atlanta area contain microbes, including bacteria indicating the presence of fecal matter, according to research published in the May 17 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-cdc-high-pools-microbes.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 21 May 2013 16:20:01 EST news288369013 (HealthDay)—Factors such as increased case finding may explain why Michigan had half of the total spinal infections associated with contaminated methylprednisolone acetate in the recent fungal meningitis outbreak, according to research published in the May 17 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-outbreak-spinal-infections-michigan.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 21 May 2013 16:10:01 EST news288368989 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. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-early-tracheostomy-mechanically-ventilated-patients.html Other Tue, 21 May 2013 16:00:06 EST news288368854 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. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-antidepressant-stress-induced-heart-condition.html Cardiology Tue, 21 May 2013 16:00:02 EST news288368735 (HealthDay)—In 2008 to 2010, the prevalence of key health behaviors among U.S. adults varied, with about one in five adults current smokers and 62.1 percent overweight or obese, according to a report presented by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-cdc-trends-health-behaviors-adults.html Health Tue, 21 May 2013 16:00:01 EST news288368970 (HealthDay)—The overall health of Americans isn't improving much, with about six in 10 people either overweight or obese and large numbers engaging in unhealthy behaviors like smoking, heavy drinking or not exercising, a new government report shows. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-americans-unhealthy-choices-cdc.html Health Tue, 21 May 2013 15:50:02 EST news288368949 A federal court in San Francisco Tuesday struck down Arizona's ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-court-arizona-week-abortion.html Health Tue, 21 May 2013 15:50:01 EST news288368658 The world is unprepared for a massive virus outbreak, the deputy chief of the World Health Organization warned Tuesday, amid fears that H7N9 bird flu striking China could morph into a form that spreads easily among people. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-world-ready-flu-outbreak.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 21 May 2013 15:40:03 EST news288368629 (HealthDay)—The monstrous tornado that devastated Moore, Okla., on Monday, killing dozens of adults and children, is a stunning example of violent weather that can affect a child's mental well-being. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-weather-threaten-child-mental-health.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 21 May 2013 15:40:01 EST news288368918 A study of veterans at high risk for developing lung cancer shows that low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) can be highly effective in helping clinicians spot tiny lung nodules which, in a small number of patients, may indicate the earliest stages of the disease. LDCT uses less than a quarter of the radiation of a conventional CT scan. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-scans-cancer-earliest-stages.html Cancer Tue, 21 May 2013 15:18:35 EST news288368304 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 exposure and the risk of possible adverse effects. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-shorter-duration-steroid-therapy-similar.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 21 May 2013 15:18:08 EST news288368280 African-Americans are less likely than whites and women are more likely than men to have had a prior diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) regardless of their current disease severity, according to a new study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-gender-diagnosis-copd.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 21 May 2013 15:17:30 EST news288368244