http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. As the "individual mandate" of the Affordable Care Act moves forward, debate and speculation continue as to whether universal health insurance coverage will lead to significant cost savings for hospitals. The assumption is that providing appropriate primary care will improve the overall health of the population, resulting in less need for hospital services and less severe illness among hospitalized patients. Findings from a recent study published in Health Care Management Review challenge that assumption. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-massachusetts-individual-mandate-decreased-hospital.html Health Mon, 30 Jul 2012 10:28:24 EST news262862844 (HealthDay) -- For overweight or obese adolescents, two group-based behavioral weight control interventions, combined with either aerobic activity or activity-based peer therapy, produce sustained improvements in body mass index (BMI) through 24 months, according to a study published online July 2 in Pediatrics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-behavioral-weight-loss-long-term-benefit.html Pediatrics Mon, 02 Jul 2012 14:20:02 EST news260452495 (HealthDay) -- In ablative fractionated carbon-dioxide (CO2) laser treatment for photoaging, cold-air anesthesia used in conjunction with topical anesthesia reduces pain significantly more than topical anesthesia alone, according to research published online June 13 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-cold-air-anesthesia-pain-laser-treatment.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 22 Jun 2012 14:30:01 EST news259593020 Results of a study presented today at EULAR 2012, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism, suggest that the newly developed RABBIT Risk Score, which calculates the risk of serious infections in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who are treated with anti-tumour necrosis factor drugs (anti-TNFs) or conventional disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) is a valid and effective tool for rheumatologists to predict risk of serious infection. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-rabbit-score-rheumatologists-patients-high.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Fri, 08 Jun 2012 04:40:01 EST news258347916 Current screening strategies for Down syndrome, caused by fetal trisomy 21 (T21), and Edwards syndrome, caused by fetal trisomy 18 (T18), have false positive rates of 2 to 3%, and false negative rates of 5% or higher. Positive screening results must be confirmed by amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling, which carry a fetal loss rate of approximately 1 in 300 procedures. Now an international, multicenter cohort study finds that a genetic test to screen for trisomy 21 or 18 from a maternal blood sample is almost 100% accurate. The results of the study are published online in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-noninvasive-genetic-syndrome-edwards-highly.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Tue, 05 Jun 2012 16:22:52 EST news258132162 Physicians can reduce the number of heart failure deaths and unnecessary hospital admissions by using a new computer-based algorithm developed at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) that calculates each patient's individual risk of death. Published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the algorithm improves upon clinical decision-making and determines whether or not a patient with heart failure should be admitted to hospital. To bring this tool into the emergency departments, Peter Munk Cardiac Centre cardiologists are developing smartphone and web-based applications to assist physicians in the emergency department to determine patients' numerical risk score in real time. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-emergency-department-algorithm-death-heart.html Cardiology Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:00:10 EST news258044648 Investigators report that a simple bedside manual therapy to correct a painful misaligned sacroiliac joint was highly successful in a group of 45 patients 10 to 20 years of age. Thirty-six patients (80 percent) obtained significant pain relief, whereas nine patients (20 percent) experienced minimal to no relief. In 24 patients (53 percent) complete resolution of pain was experienced immediately upon treatment. Only two patients required a second treatment because of symptom recurrence. These findings are reported in a new article, "Sacroiliac joint pain in the pediatric population. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-quick-sacroiliac-joint-pain-children.html Surgery Tue, 22 May 2012 10:40:41 EST news256902013 (HealthDay) -- The majority of patients with long-bone fractures receive inadequate pain medication in the emergency department, and disparities in management exist, according to a study published in the May issue of the Journal of Emergency Nursing. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-inadequate-pain-meds-er-patients.html Other Mon, 21 May 2012 05:40:02 EST news256792169 (HealthDay) -- Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is not associated with adherence to pediatric asthma treatment, according to a study published online April 9 in Pediatrics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-alternative-medicine-doesnt-affect-asthma.html Inflammatory disorders Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:19:52 EST news253286376 A pre-procedure bleeding risk score can accurately identify high-risk, high-cost patients and may provide an opportunity to employ bleeding avoidance strategies to improve patient outcomes and reduce total costs related to percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures, according to a retrospective study being presented March 26 at the 61st annual American College of Cardiology (ACC) scientific session. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-pre-pci-score-greater-higher.html Cardiology Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:10:01 EST news251977754 Human geneticists have long debated whether the genetic risk of the most common medical conditions derive from many rare mutations, each conferring a high degree of risk in different people, or common differences throughout the genome that modestly influence risk. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-hidden-architecture-methods-uncover-gene.html Genetics Sun, 25 Mar 2012 13:58:06 EST news251902663 One in three older people who have difficulty reading and understanding basic health related information may be at increased risk of death, concludes a study published in the British Medical Journal today. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-poor-literacy-skills-linked-mortality.html Health Thu, 15 Mar 2012 18:30:02 EST news251052605 Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital has launched a study to determine whether genetic markers can be used to help identify children who are at risk of developing autism. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-cleveland-clinic-children-hospital-genetically.html Autism spectrum disorders Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:17:43 EST news249733055 A new study by researchers at The University of Nottingham has proved that assessing family medical history is a significant tool in helping GPs spot patients at high risk of heart disease and its widespread use could save lives. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-family-history-significant-cardiovascular.html Cardiology Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:14:35 EST news249131665 When diagnosing and treating patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), clinical research focuses primarily on the joints in the upper body. However, research carried out by rheumatologist Hetty Baan at the University of Twente reveals the importance of including the feet and ankles when examining and treating RA patients. She also makes the case for further research into how the treatment of RA patients can be improved in practice in order to prevent unnecessary infections and damage in the feet and ankles. Baan will defend her doctoral research on 6 December at the Faculty of Behavioral Sciences of the University of Twente. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-feet-rheumatoid-arthritis.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Wed, 07 Dec 2011 07:40:29 EST news242466015 Approximately 10-20 percent of prostate cancer patients have a family history of the disease. There are three major factors that are used to evaluate the extent and aggressiveness of prostate cancer, help make treatment decisions, and estimate prognosis: the Prostate Specific Antigen Level (PSA), Gleason score (GS) from the biopsy, and the digital rectal exam findings (DRE). However, men with a family history of prostate cancer have often been feared to have a more aggressive form of the disease not otherwise represented by these three factors and therefore are sometimes urged to undergo more aggressive treatment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-aggressive-treatment-men-family-history.html Cancer Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:54:32 EST news237041665 Patients with severe 2009 H1N1 influenza who developed respiratory failure and were treated with a system that adds oxygen to the patient's blood had a lower rate of in-hospital death than similar patients who did not receive this treatment, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being published early online to coincide with its presentation at the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine meeting in Berlin. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-oxygenating-death-h1n1-patients-respiratory.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 05 Oct 2011 09:47:45 EST news237026852 After a prostate cancer patient receives radiation treatment, his doctor carefully monitors the amount of prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, in his blood. An increase in PSA, called biochemical failure, is the first detectable sign of the cancer's return to the prostate. Fox Chase Cancer Center researcher have found that the time between the last radiation treatment and biochemical failure can accurately predict a patient's risk of death of prostate cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-tool-prostate-cancer-patients-highest.html Cancer Wed, 05 Oct 2011 09:08:33 EST news237024502 The changing tide of Alzheimer's diagnosis presents new challenges to the public, physicians and lawmakers: if you could find out your Alzheimer's risk, would you want to know? How should doctors tell you your risk? And what does it mean for the many newly diagnosed Americans still in the workplace? http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-safeguards-discrimination-early-alzheimer-patients.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:41:35 EST news235327271 A new and simple risk score may aid physicians in gauging the likelihood that a common drug will cause a hemorrhagic stroke or other major bleeding in patients with atrial fibrillation, potentially allowing wider but safer use of the effective drug. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-scorecard-patients-highest-blood-thinners.html Medical research Thu, 04 Aug 2011 09:40:01 EST news231669054 The ABCD2 score used to identify people at risk of stroke after suffering a transient ischemic attack — a "mini" or "warning" stroke — is not sensitive enough to distinguish between high- and low-risk patients and has limited clinical application, states an article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-abcd2-score-people-limited-clinical.html Cardiology Mon, 06 Jun 2011 12:59:49 EST news226583975 In a collaborative study, researchers found that incentives raised IQ scores by 10 points on average, with greater gains for lower-IQ participants. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-puzzle.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 01 Jun 2011 08:58:38 EST news226137493 The most lethal and sudden cardiovascular event can be the toughest for doctors to diagnose. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-simple-bedside-screening-effectively-patients.html Cardiology Mon, 16 May 2011 03:25:13 EST news224734540 Older, sicker heart-transplant recipients are significantly more likely to be alive a year after their operations if they have their transplants at hospitals that do a large number of them annually new Johns Hopkins research suggests. These patients fare less well at low-volume centers, the research shows. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-older-heart-transplant-patients-hospitals-yield.html Cardiology Mon, 09 May 2011 11:10:11 EST news224158190 (Medical Xpress) -- When the average person thinks of an IQ test, they think of a measurement of intelligence. A test designed to find those of high intelligence who will go on to succeed in academics and employment. While the question has long been debated by researchers as to what exactly the IQ test measures, a new study shows that intelligence may not be the main focus, but a person’s motivation as well. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-iq.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 26 Apr 2011 07:19:30 EST news223021093