http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. The number of children admitted to hospital as emergencies has steadily increased every year since 2003, with the largest rises seen among the under 5s, indicates research published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-yearly-emergency-admissions-kids-england.html Health Tue, 12 Feb 2013 01:36:08 EST news279855349 (HealthDay)—Prehospital use of antiplatelet therapy, either aspirin/clopidogrel or dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT), is associated with a lower incidence of major adverse cardiac events after saphenous vein graft (SVG) intervention, according to research published in the Jan. 15 issue of The American Journal of Cardiology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-prehospital-antiplatelets-graft-intervention-outcomes.html Cardiology Mon, 28 Jan 2013 13:20:05 EST news278599665 In a national sample of 72 children's hospitals, 6.5 percent of hospitalized children experienced an unplanned readmission within 30 days, with significant variability in readmission rates across conditions and hospitals, according to a study appearing in the January 23/30 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-substantial-variation-readmission-children-hospitals.html Health Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:00:08 EST news278091278 During cold and flu season, most of us inevitably will experience one or more acute illness. Fortunately, most acute problems are treatable without hospital admission. With that in mind, doctors say it is important to seek care in the proper place for the best possible treatment, outcome, cost and satisfaction. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-cold-flu-doctor-er.html Health Fri, 18 Jan 2013 07:59:42 EST news277718377 Hospital administrative databases, designed to provide general information on hospital stays and associated costs, are frequently used to find information that can lead to quality assessments of care or clinical research. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) extracted data on hospital readmissions following spine surgery at their institution from an administrative database to assess the clinical relevance of the information and to define clinically relevant predictors of readmission. What they found were readmission numbers substantially larger than expected or appropriate. The researchers' findings are reported in the article "Pitfalls of calculating hospital readmission rates based on nonvalidated administrative data sets. Clinical article," by Beejal Y. Amin, M.D., and colleagues, published online today, ahead of print, in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-administrative-source-surgical-complications.html Surgery Tue, 27 Nov 2012 11:42:39 EST news273238921 (Medical Xpress)—Children taking central nervous system stimulants such as Adderall and Ritalin do not face an increased risk of serious heart conditions during treatment, according to a new University of Florida study that confirms findings reported in 2011. Published in the British Medical Journal in August, the study contributes to a decade-long clinical and policy debate of treatment risks for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-adhd-drugs-heart-conditions-children.html Attention deficit disorders Thu, 01 Nov 2012 07:30:01 EST news270972156 (HealthDay)—The use of CT scans on children being brought to emergency rooms with abdominal pain has skyrocketed, new research reveals. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-ct-children-abdominal-pain-er.html Pediatrics Mon, 08 Oct 2012 16:10:02 EST news268930619 The most cost-effective treatment for cryptococcal meningitis (a serious infection of the brain membranes, usually in people with AIDS or other immune system deficiencies) is different to that currently recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), warranting a review of policy, according to the findings of a study published in this week's PLOS Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-treatment-regime-cryptococcal-meningitis.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 25 Sep 2012 17:00:04 EST news267808588 Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have identified reliable predictors of pain by surveying patients throughout their hospital stays about the severity of their pain and their levels of satisfaction with how their pain was managed by hospital staff. Using this data, interdisciplinary teams treating patients were able to identify patients at higher risk for pain prior to, or immediately upon, their admission to the hospital, and create and implement intervention plans resulting in patients reporting lower levels of pain and higher levels of satisfaction with their pain management. The study is published online in the American Journal of Medical Quality. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-predictors-inpatient-pain.html Health Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:46:41 EST news267446793 (Medical Xpress)—A University of Florida physician and colleagues have "mythbusted" a notion long held in medical circles: patients at teaching hospitals fare worse in July when new medical graduates start their residency training and older residents take on more responsibilities. A large national study revealed no such "July phenomenon" or "July effect"—at least not in the field of neurosurgery. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-patients-hospitals-dont-fare-worse.html Surgery Thu, 20 Sep 2012 06:46:01 EST news267342266 Patients of doctors who are more empathic have better outcomes and fewer complications, concludes a large, empirical study by a team of Thomas Jefferson University and Italian researchers who evaluated relationships between physician empathy and clinical outcomes among 20,961 diabetic patients and 242 physicians in Italy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-physician-empathy-positive-clinical-outcomes.html Health Mon, 10 Sep 2012 11:54:38 EST news266496734 (Medical Xpress)—Many people going into hospital have concerns about contracting the hospital acquired infection MRSA, yet the risk of acquiring - and dying from – hospital acquired venous thromboembolism (VTE) is much greater, warn scientists at the University of Birmingham. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-patients-underestimate-deep-vein-thrombosis.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 03 Sep 2012 07:42:06 EST news265876899 Among African Americans with type 1 diabetes mellitus, narrower central retinal arteriolar equivalent (average diameter of the small arteries in the retina) is associated with an increased risk of six-year incidence of any cardiovascular disease and lower extremity arterial disease, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of Ophthalmology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-retinal-vessel-diameter-cvd-african.html Ophthalmology Mon, 14 May 2012 11:00:03 EST news256209141 New research finds a strong link between healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and patient readmission after an initial hospital stay. The findings, published in the June 2012 issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), suggest that reducing such infections could help reduce readmissions, considered to be a major driver of unnecessary healthcare spending and increased patient morbidity and mortality. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-expensive-hospital-readmissions-linked-health-care-associated.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 04 May 2012 14:10:07 EST news255357422 Black children are less likely than white children to receive medication for abdominal pain in the emergency department (ED) even when they report severe pain, according to a study presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Boston. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-racial-differences-children-ed.html Health Sun, 29 Apr 2012 06:20:01 EST news254896434 (Medical Xpress) -- A major study by researchers from the Universities of Otago and Oxford has found that overweight and obese middle-aged women are at much higher risk of developing potentially fatal blood clots than women who are a healthy weight. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-greater-blood-clot-heavier-middle-aged.html Cardiology Wed, 18 Apr 2012 02:10:01 EST news253930185 Experts from Bristol and Nottingham are leading a major new national study to investigate whether intravenous antibiotics are effective in killing a common germ that causes dangerous complications in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-clinical-trial-success-cystic-fibrosis.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:48:44 EST news252064114 Immediate skull reconstruction following trauma that penetrates or creates an indentation in the skull can aggravate brain damage inflicted by the initial injury, a study by a University of South Florida research team reports. Using a rat model for moderate and severe traumatic brain injury, the researchers also showed that a delay of just two days in the surgical repair of skull defects resulted in significantly less brain swelling and damage. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-skull-resconstruction-immediately-traumatic-brain.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 22 Mar 2012 09:12:54 EST news251626364 People whose blood pressure drops rapidly when they move from lying down to standing, known as orthostatic hypotension, may have a higher risk of developing heart failure, according to research published in Hypertension, an American Heart Association journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-sudden-blood-pressure-position-linked.html Cardiology Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:00:03 EST news251376427 Providing personal mobile computers to medical residents increases their efficiency, reduces delays in patient care and enhances continuity of care, according to a "research letter" in the March 12, 2012, issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-personal-mobile-doctors-efficiency.html Other Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:00:04 EST news250779376 Women with chronic heart failure survive longer than their male counterparts, according to a large analysis of studies comprising data on more than 40,000 subjects. The analysis represents the largest assessment of gender and mortality risk in heart failure - and provides evidence which many randomised trials have failed to do because they have been dominated by male patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-death-heart-failure-women-men.html Cardiology Thu, 08 Mar 2012 04:20:01 EST news250401661 A large population-based study has found that lung function and obstructive airway diseases are strongly and independently associated with increased risk of heart failure. Importantly, say the investigators, this association was even evident in never-smokers and was still evident after adjustment for smoking status and number of years smoking. This, they add, indicates "that our results are not primarily confounded by smoking". http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-airflow-obstruction-lung-function-heart.html Cardiology Sat, 25 Feb 2012 03:00:01 EST news249305890 Medication errors are common in primary care but the number of mistakes could be reduced significantly if GPs introduced an in-house pharmacist-led intervention scheme. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-in-house-pharmacists-gps-errors-percent.html Medications Mon, 20 Feb 2012 19:00:02 EST news248957279 The death rate from heart attack in England has halved in the last decade, claims a research paper published today in the British Medical Journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-deaths-heart-halved-decade.html Cardiology Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:50:03 EST news246774192 A review of 16 prognostic indices used to predict risk of death in older adults in a variety of clinical settings, such as in nursing homes and hospitals, found that there is insufficient evidence to recommend the widespread use of these indices in clinical practice, according to a study in the January 11 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-accuracy-prognostic-tools-mortality-older.html Other Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:00:01 EST news245436485 A substantial proportion of emergency department eye care in Florida is reimbursed through Medicaid or paid for out of pocket by patients, and those findings may help in strategic planning as the debate over how best to implement the nation's new health care reform law progresses, according to a study published in the Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-payment-emergency-department-eye-florida.html Other Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:29:12 EST news245348939 A new study published in the journal Respirology reveals that dust storms have an adverse effect on emergency hospital admission for chronic lung disease, often known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-storms-affect-subsequent-emergency-hospital.html Health Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:42:15 EST news242314927 New research from Scotland has shown that the rate of death in men and women hospitalised for chest pain unrelated to heart disease is higher in those with a history of psychiatric illness than without. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-prior-hospitalization-mental-illness-death.html Cardiology Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:20:44 EST news241928429 Patients with chronic conditions are likely to change their preferences for receiving emergency procedures in the event of cardiac arrest, according to new findings. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-decisions-life-sustaining-treatment.html Other Mon, 26 Sep 2011 04:31:44 EST news236230291 The number of children hospitalized for skin and soft-tissue infections, most due to community-acquired Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), has more than doubled since 2000, a study by researchers at UC Davis and elsewhere has found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-hospitalizations-due-skin-soft-tissue-infections.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:23:14 EST news232795385