MedNews

You are here: Home / Archives for Health & Medical News

H1N1 Vaccine Boosts Immune Response in Asthmatics

By Leave a Comment

A single dose of H1N1 vaccine is safe and induces a strong immune response predictive of protection, according to a clinical trial of inactivated H1N1 flu vaccine in people with asthma.

The findings also suggest that individuals over the age of 60 who have severe asthma may require a larger dose of vaccine.

“Asthma was the most common underlying health condition among those hospitalized in the United States with 2009 H1N1 influenza infection during the 2009-2010 influenza season,” says NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. “The results of this clinical trial show that the 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine was safe and led to adequate production of antibodies thought to be protective against the virus. This is important because the H1N1 vaccine is one component of the seasonal influenza vaccine currently being distributed for the 2010-2011 influenza season.” [Read more…]

Leading Causes of Death

By Leave a Comment

While deaths from stroke and several other chronic diseases are down, deaths due to chronic lower respiratory disease increased in 2008.

Stroke is now the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, down from the third place ranking it has held for decades, according to preliminary 2008 death statistics released today by CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

There were 133,750 deaths from stroke in 2008. Age-adjusted death rates from stroke declined 3.8 percent between 2007 and 2008. Meantime, there were 141,075 deaths from chronic lower respiratory disease and the death rate increased by 7.8 percent. [Read more…]

Beta-Amyloid Clearance from Brain May Underly Alzheimer’s Disease

By Leave a Comment

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia in older adults, and affects as many as 5.1 million Americans. In Alzheimer’s disease, a protein fragment called beta-amyloid accumulates at abnormally high levels in the brain. In the the most common type of Alzheimer’s disease, late-onset Alzheimer’s, symptoms usually appear after age 65.

Now researchers have found that in late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, beta-amyloid is produced in the brain at a normal rate but is not cleared, or removed from the brain, efficiently. [Read more…]

Key Mutation in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) Found

By Leave a Comment

Scientists have discovered mutations in a particular gene that affects the treatment prognosis for some patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), an aggressive blood cancer that kills 9,000 Americans annually.

The Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis team initially discovered a mutation by completely sequencing the genome of a single AML patient. They then used targeted DNA sequencing on nearly 300 additional AML patient samples to confirm that mutations discovered in one gene correlated with the disease. Although genetic changes previously were found in AML, this work shows that newly discovered mutations in a single gene, called DNA methyltransferase 3A or DNMT3A, appear responsible for treatment failure in a significant number of AML patients. The finding should prove rapidly useful in treating patients and may provide a molecular target against which to develop new drugs. [Read more…]

New Report Confirms Laws Regulating Alcohol Availability Help Reduce Associated Problems

By Leave a Comment

A newly released report shows that increasing the number of hours and days when alcohol can be sold in bars, restaurants, and liquor stores leads to greater alcohol use and related harms, especially motor-vehicle crashes. National, state, and local policies that remove previously banned alcohol sales on weekend days (usually Sundays) or that increase the hours of sale by 2 or more hours contribute to excessive drinking and many dangerous outcomes, including driving after drinking and alcohol-related assault and injury.

The Task Force on Community Preventive Services, an independent, nonfederal body of public health experts, recommends maintaining limits on the days or hours during which alcohol can legally be sold, based upon a state-of-the-art systematic review process of all available studies on the topic. [Read more…]

Public Awareness of COPD on the Rise

By 1 Comment

The number of Americans who report being aware of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, increased by 4 percentage points between 2008 and 2010, but many people at risk are still unaware of the disease, according to mailed survey results released today by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health.

Sixty-nine percent of adults said they are aware of COPD. However, up to 30 percent of Americans reported that they were unaware of the condition. Awareness increased steadily among current and former smokers as well as nonsmokers. [Read more…]

Hispanic Life Expectancy Statistics Report Released

By Leave a Comment

CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics has issued “United States Life Tables by Hispanic Origin,” which provides life tables by Hispanic origin based on 2006 death rate data.

Life expectancy at birth for the total population in 2006 was 77.7 years; 80.6 years for the Hispanic population, 78.1 years for the non-Hispanic white population, and 72.9 years for the non-Hispanic black population.

The Hispanic population has a life expectancy advantage at birth of 2.5 years over the non-Hispanic white population and 7.7 years over the non-Hispanic black population. The reasons behind the lower mortality are not known.

Source: CDC (10/13/2010)

Low Dose CT Benefits Lung Cancer Detection

By Leave a Comment

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is today releasing initial results from a large-scale test of screening methods to reduce deaths from lung cancer by detecting cancers at relatively early stages. The report shows twenty percent fewer lung cancer deaths seen among those who were screened with low-dose spiral CT than with chest X-ray.

The National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), a randomized national trial involving more than 53,000 current and former heavy smokers ages 55 to 74, compared the effects of two screening procedures for lung cancer — low-dose helical computed tomography (CT) and standard chest X-ray — on lung cancer mortality and found 20 percent fewer lung cancer deaths among trial participants screened with low-dose helical CT. The NLST was sponsored by NCI, a part of the National Institutes of Health, and conducted by the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN) and the Lung Screening Study group. A paper describing the design and protocol of the NLST, “The National Lung Screening Trial. [Read more…]

Genetics Influence Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

By Leave a Comment

A team led by researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI),  has captured the most comprehensive snapshot to date of DNA regions that regulate genes in human pancreatic islet cells, a subset of which produces insulin.

The study highlights the importance of genome regulatory sequences in human health and disease, particularly type 2 diabetes, which affects more than 20 million people in the United States and 200 million people worldwide.

“This study applies the power of epigenomics to a common disease with both inherited and environmental causes,”said NHGRI Scientific Director Daniel Kastner, M.D., Ph.D. “Epigenomic studies are exciting new avenues for genomic analysis, providing the opportunity to peer deeper into genome function, and giving rise to new insights about our genome’s adaptability and potential.” [Read more…]