http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. A group of independent experts has slammed Britain's cosmetic surgery industry for not protecting patients adequately and is calling for stricter controls in the aftermath of a breast implant scandal in Europe last year that left tens of thousands of women with cheap silicone implants prone to ruptures. A top British health official, meanwhile, signaled support for their recommendations. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-uk-experts-cosmetic-surgery-tighter.html Surgery Tue, 23 Apr 2013 19:28:24 EST news285964094 Britain's competition watchdog accused GlaxoSmithKline on Friday of paying off competitors to delay launches of their own versions of GSK's best-selling antidepressant, Seroxat. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-uk-alleges-gsk-paid-competitors.html Medications Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:51:59 EST news285591110 The first multi-gene DNA sequencing test that can help predict cancer patients' responses to treatment has been launched in the National Health Service (NHS), thanks to a partnership between scientists at the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-gene-sequencing-cancer-patients-nhs.html Cancer Mon, 25 Mar 2013 10:59:22 EST news283427954 Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has written to hospitals in England to warn them against using "gagging orders" to stop staff from exposing poor practices, the ministry said Saturday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-british-minister-gagging-clauses-nhs.html Health Sun, 17 Feb 2013 08:20:20 EST news280311610 Britain's state-run health service needs a fundamental change of culture to restore public trust after patients at one hospital received appalling care, an inquiry found Wednesday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-britain-nhs-braced-appalling-hospital.html Health Wed, 06 Feb 2013 07:50:45 EST news279359430 Britain's National Health Service may soon offer women at high risk of developing breast cancer drugs normally used to treat the disease as a prevention strategy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-uk-drugs-breast-cancer.html Cancer Tue, 15 Jan 2013 08:23:45 EST news277460619 (AP)—Thousands of Spanish medical workers marched through downtown Madrid on Monday to protest against budget cuts and plans to partly privatize their cherished national health service. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-large-spanish-protest-health-privatization.html Health Mon, 07 Jan 2013 10:12:48 EST news276775953 (HealthDay)—For patients with acute or chronic low back pain (LBP), predictors have been identified for clinically relevant improvements in LBP, pain down the leg (LP), and disability at three months, according to research published in the November issue of The Spine Journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-spanish-registry-ids-predictors-pain.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 20 Dec 2012 13:30:01 EST news275228975 More costly, intensive treatment works no better than usual care at speeding up recovery from whiplash injuries, according to new research published Online First in The Lancet. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-intensive-therapy-traditional-recovery-whiplash.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 17 Dec 2012 18:30:01 EST news274986980 (AP)—Thousands of Spanish medical workers and residents angered by budget cuts and plans to partly privatize the cherished national health service marched through some of Madrid's most famous squares on Sunday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-thousands-protest-spain-health-austerity.html Health Sun, 09 Dec 2012 12:30:02 EST news274275813 For anyone who has had hyperemesis gravidarum, the pregnancy-induced vomiting that has caused Prince William's wife Kate to be hospitalised, the term "morning sickness" is way off the mark. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-hyperemesis-gravidarum-acute-morning-sickness.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 04 Dec 2012 09:57:48 EST news273837462 The British government was to announce plans on Wednesday for a minimum alcohol price of £0.45 ($0.72, 0.56 euros) in England and Wales in an attempt to restrain an infamous binge-drinking culture. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-binge-drink-britain-unveils-minimum-booze.html Health Wed, 28 Nov 2012 07:29:58 EST news273310189 Bus stops in the northern Swedish town of Umeaa have been fitted with light therapy panels to help commuters fight off the winter blues, the energy company behind the move said Tuesday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-therapy-bus-north-sweden-commuters.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 27 Nov 2012 10:10:10 EST news273232763 (HealthDay)—Women with cystic fibrosis (CF) can have successful pregnancies, according to research published online Nov. 12 in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-successful-pregnancy-outcomes-women-cystic.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:10:01 EST news272729084 (AP)—Britain's new health secretary has said he favors reducing the limit for women to have abortions from 24 weeks of pregnancy to 12, reigniting a divisive political debate and sparking criticism from women's rights activists Saturday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-uk-health-secretary-week-abortion.html Health Sat, 06 Oct 2012 16:43:16 EST news268760562 (HealthDay)—About 10 percent of U.K. women who undergo cesarean section develop a surgical site infection, with the odds significantly increased for overweight or obese women, according to a study published in the October issue of BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-post-cesarean-infection-overweight-obese.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Wed, 26 Sep 2012 13:55:08 EST news267886499 (HealthDay)—The risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in postmenopausal women differs considerably according to the formulation of hormone therapy (HT) used, with the highest VTE risk seen in users of oral estrogen-progestin HT containing medroxyprogesterone acetate, according to research published online Sept. 10 in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-vte-varies-hormone-therapy.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 18 Sep 2012 13:08:31 EST news267192498 Chronic heart failure (CHF) patients are less likely to have died a year after discharge if they are involved in a programme of active follow-up once they have returned home than patients given standard care, according to a new Cochrane Systematic Review. These patients were also less likely to need to go back into hospital in the six months that follow discharge. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-follow-up-deaths-chronic-heart-failure.html Cardiology Tue, 11 Sep 2012 19:00:03 EST news266598347 (HealthDay) -- For adult patients with acute or chronic low back pain (LBP), assessing the baseline score for catastrophizing does not help clinicians in routine clinical practice predict the evolution of LBP or the patient's disability at three months, according to a study published online July 23 in The Spine Journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-catastrophizing-doesnt-pain-evolution.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 16 Aug 2012 17:36:42 EST news264357378 A new spin-out from Oxford University will improve the quality and diagnostic power of the most widely used diagnostic imaging tool, ultrasound imaging. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-ultrasound-software-spin-out-nhs-millions.html Other Fri, 03 Aug 2012 06:32:22 EST news263194332 (HealthDay) -- In patients with invasive breast cancer, lymphovascular invasion (LVI) is a strong and independent predictor of both breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), according to a study published in the Aug. 1 issue of Cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-lymphovascular-invasion-independent-predictor-survival.html Cancer Sun, 29 Jul 2012 17:04:47 EST news262800180 A study of patients with stroke admitted to English National Health Service public hospitals suggests that patients who were hospitalized on weekends were less likely to receive urgent treatments and had worse outcomes, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Neurology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-poorer-outcomes-patients-hospitalized-weekends.html Neuroscience Mon, 09 Jul 2012 16:00:18 EST news261066506 Faulty breast implants made by PIP, the French company that sparked a global health scare, do not pose any long-term medical threats, British health authorities said in a final report Monday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-faulty-pip-breast-implants-toxic.html Other Mon, 18 Jun 2012 06:41:38 EST news259220492 (AP) -- The girls slumped in wheelchairs look barely conscious, their blond heads lolling above the plastic vomit bags tied like bibs around their necks. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-britain-bedeviled-binge.html Addiction Mon, 14 May 2012 09:50:01 EST news256206939 Treatment of subclinical hypothyroidism with the medication levothyroxine appears to be related to fewer ischemic heart disease events in younger patients but this finding was not evident in older patients, according to a report published Online First in Archives of Internal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-treatment-subclinical-hypothyroidism-linked-ischemic.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:00:01 EST news254398138 A pair of British plastic surgeons said Tuesday the rupture rate of PIP breast implants behind a global health scare may be as high as one in three, significantly more than previously thought. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-pip-implants-rupture-british-surgeons.html Other Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:33:49 EST news253881220 The British government will introduce a minimum price per unit of alcohol in England and Wales to tackle their infamous binge-drinking culture, Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Friday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-england-wales-minimum-alcohol-price.html Health Fri, 23 Mar 2012 09:11:53 EST news251712706 Around 7,000 more women than first thought in Britain have received potentially faulty PIP breast implants, the government said on Thursday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-women-britain-implants.html Surgery Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:23:52 EST news251040225 (AP) -- Britain's health minister was angrily heckled Monday over health care reforms that the government says will improve efficiency but opponents claim threaten the foundation of the country's state-funded health care service. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-british-minister-heckled-health-reforms.html Health Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:22:17 EST news248984531 Reports that the National Health Service in England has been declining in productivity in the last decade appear to have been accepted as fact. However, a Viewpoint published Online First by The Lancet disputes this. The Viewpoint is by Professor Nick Black, Department of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-declining-health-care-productivity-england.html Health Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:30:01 EST news248268228