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Consumer Reports taps ire over bad medical devices 
March 12th, 2012
By Debra Sherman CHICAGO | Mon Mar 12, 2012 6:13pm EDT CHICAGO (Reuters) – Consumer Reports, the 76-year-old publication best known for its reviews of automobiles and refrigerators, is trying to galvanize the American public into protesting the way medical devices are approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
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One-third of young U.S. adults have been arrested: study
December 19th, 2011
By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK | Mon Dec 19, 2011 8:01am EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Close to one in three teens and young adults get arrested by age 23, suggests a new study that finds more of them are being booked now than in the 1960s. Those arrests are for everything from underage drinking and petty theft to violent crime, researchers said. They added that the increase might not necessarily reflect more criminal behavior in youth, but rather a police force that’s more apt to arrest young people than in the past. “The vast majority of these kids will never be arrested again,” said John Paul Wright, who studies juvenile delinquency at the University of Cincinnati’s Institute of Crime Science, but wasn’t involved in the new study. “The real serious ones are embedded in the bigger population of kids who are just picking up one arrest,” he told Reuters Health. Though violent crimes might be on the rarer end of the spectrum of offenses, the study’s lead author pointed to the importance of catching the early warning signs of criminal behavior in adolescents and young adults, saying that pediatricians and parents can both play a role in turning those youngsters around. Robert Brame of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and his colleagues analyzed data from a nationally-representative youth survey conducted between 1997 and 2008. A group of more than 7,000 adolescents age 12 to 16 in the study’s first year filled out the annual surveys with questions including if and when they had ever been arrested. At age 12, less than one percent of participants who responded had been arrested. By the time they were 23, that climbed to 30 percent with a history of arrest. That compares to an estimated 22 percent of young adults who had been arrested in 1965, from a past study. “It was certainly higher than we expected based on what we saw in the 1960s, but it wasn’t dramatically higher,” said Brame. Arrests in adolescents are especially worrisome, he told Reuters Health, because many repeat offenders start their “criminal career” at a young age. The researchers said it seems that the criminal justice system has taken to arresting both the young and old more than it did in the past, when fines and citations might have been given to some people who are now arrested. “If (police) find kids that are intoxicated or they have pulled over someone intoxicated… now, nine times out of 10 they’re going to make an arrest,” Wright told Reuters Health. “We do have to question if arrest is an appropriate intervention in all circumstances, or if we need to rethink some of the policies we have enacted.” He pointed out that young people who have an arrest on their record might have more trouble getting jobs in the future. It’s one thing if that’s because they were involved in a violent crime, he continued, but another if their offence was non-violent, like drinking underage or smoking marijuana. “Arrest does have major social implications for people as they transition from adolescence to adulthood,” Wright said. While the report didn’t ask youth why they had been arrested, Brame said that common offenses in that age group also include stealing, vandalizing and arson. For most minor offenses, teens and young adults will get a term of probation or another minor penalty, he said. The most serious adolescent offenders and those with a prior record could be prosecuted as adults and end up getting a prison sentence. Brame said that being poor, struggling in school and having a difficult home life have all been linked to a higher risk of arrest in that age group. He and his colleagues wrote in Pediatrics on Monday that other warning signs of delinquent behavior include early instances of aggression and bullying, hyperactivity and delayed development. Pediatricians might be able to recognize those warning signs more clearly than parents, and can point kids toward resources to help keep them out of trouble, such as counseling services, Brame said. “We urge that parents who are concerned about their kids’ well-being, that they get those kids in to see a pediatrician on a regular basis so the pediatrician can do the things they’re trained to do.” SOURCE: bit.ly/jsoh2P Pediatrics, online December 19, 2011. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints
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Surgery checklist works, but benefits vary: study
December 19th, 2011
Sun Dec 18, 2011 10:39pm EST (Reuters) – A surgical checklist, similar to what pilots use before every flight, can lower patient death rates — though the drop was smaller than past research has found, a Netherlands study said. The study, conducted at one hospital and published in the Annals of Surgery, found that the results depend on surgical teams actually completing the checklist. About 100,000 hospitals worldwide now use the surgical safety checklist developed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The list has 19 items that surgical teams check right before and after a patient’s procedure, including making sure they have the right patient and are operating on the right side of the patient’s body. A 2009 study of eight hospitals in different countries found that in the year after the centers adopted the checklist, the overall death rate among surgery patients dropped from 1.5 percent to 0.8 percent. But researchers at University Medical Center Utrecht, in the Netherlands, found a significantly smaller effect at their hospital, with the death rate of surgery patients dipping from 3.1 percent to 2.8 percent in the year-and-a-half after the hospital began using the checklist. “Checklist compliance was clearly far from perfect in our hospital,” wrote Wilton van Klein and his colleagues. “Mortality was strongly associated with checklist compliance, suggesting that large variations in the level of implementation for different groups of patients need to be reduced.” One reason for the difference was that more critical patients needing emergency surgery were less likely to have a completed checklist, the researchers said. Another may be that the center where van Klein and his team works is a university hospital that tends to get more critically ill patients than a community hospital would, The overall death rate among surgery patients there was higher than the average seen in the 2009 study, which included a mix of university and community medical centers. It’s estimated that medical errors occur in about one in 75,000 surgeries in the United States every year. But surgical checklists alone are unlikely to be enough without an overall focus on the “safety culture” at hospitals, van Klein’s team wrote. Some of the biggest problems in hospitals aren’t involved with surgery at all but concern infections, medication errors and injuries to patients who fall, according to the WHO. SOURCE: bit.ly/uoA69F (Reporting from New York by Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints
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India targets hunger with huge food subsidy plan
December 19th, 2011
By Nigam Prusty NEW DELHI | Sun Dec 18, 2011 9:20pm EST NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s cabinet agreed on Sunday to tackle widespread malnutrition with food subsidies for two-thirds of the country’s 1.2 billion population, a move that may shore up support for the government but carries risks for the faltering economy. The bill will be sent to parliament next week, a senior minister who asked not to be named told Reuters. “The food security bill is cleared,” the minister said. The government’s Congress party-led coalition has a majority and the multi-billion dollar project has a good chance of being passed into law ahead of elections in the poor, politically important state of Uttar Pradesh early next year. The new scheme aims to tackle rates of child malnutrition that are worse than in sub-Saharan Africa, but critics say slowing growth and a widening fiscal deficit in Asia’s third largest economy mean the timing of the bill is irresponsible. “The economy may be in a bad shape but the fact is elections are coming,” D.H. Pai Panandikar, head of private economic think tank RPG Foundation, said, before the cabinet cleared the bill. “Any policy they approve now will be aimed at extracting some political mileage. When you think what this means for public finances, you know the government is living for the day.” Growth in the second quarter of the 2012 fiscal year has slowed to its lowest rate for more than two years. The rupee is the worst performing currency in Asia so far this year, the country’s current account deficit has grown and the stock market has lost some 22 percent since January. Earlier in the month, opposition from coalition allies forced Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to backtrack from a policy allowing foreign supermarkets access to India’s retail sector. In contrast, the subsidy plan is likely to find broad support. Voter anger at high food prices has damaged the popularity of Singh’s centre-left government in a country where 40 percent of its population live below the U.N. poverty line. Existing food subsidy programs are plagued by corruption, with only a small proportion of the grain reaching the intended beneficiaries. BACKED BY GANDHIS Rural welfare schemes helped the ruling Congress party and allies return to power three years ago. The new bill will provide subsidized grain to 75 percent of people in the countryside and half the urban population deemed too poor to eat properly. A total of 810 million people could benefit. The food security bill and other welfare orientated laws are backed by Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, who heads the party’s campaign in Uttar Pradesh. The Gandhis are seen as being politically to the left of Singh. The planned subsidies double the cost of an existing program that sells cheap grains and pulses to nearly 180 million poor families, the agriculture ministry says. Last year, the government spent $12 billion, or 1 percent of GDP, on that program. India aims to cut the fiscal deficit to a targeted 4.6 percent in 2011/12, but policymakers say it will be difficult to meet that target. The food ministry is assuming grain purchases at around 30 percent of output for the new food bill, relying on increased yields and lower wastage to cover extra requirements and keeping exports on the agenda. But it is still not clear how 30 percent of all grain output could cover 810 million beneficiaries. India, the world’s second-biggest rice and wheat producer, aims to grow 186 million tons of these grains in the crop year that began in June 2011. In 2010/11, output was at 181.25 million tons. The extra annual requirement for rice and wheat under the draft law will be at least 45.6 million tons, calculated on a monthly outlay of about four million tons. (Reporting by Nigam Prusty; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints
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Elite athletes at greater risk for arthritis: study
December 19th, 2011
Sun Dec 18, 2011 8:39pm EST (Reuters) – Elite male athletes who participate in high-contact sports such as football, soccer and rugby have a higher risk of developing knee and hip osteoarthritis than men who exercise little or not at all, a Swedish study found. There was a doubled risk in soccer and handball players, and a tripled risk in ice hockey players, added the researchers, whose study was published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine. Osteoarthritis, also called “wear and tear” arthritis, occurs when the cartilage cushioning the joints wears down. That allows bones to rub together, which can cause pain, swelling and limited range of motion. “Hip and knee osteoarthritis … are more commonly found in former male elite athletes than expected,” wrote co-author Magnus Tveit at Lund University in Sweden. “A previous knee injury is associated with knee osteoarthritis in former impact athletes but not in nonimpact athletes.” The study included more than 700 retired Swedish athletes aged 50 to 93 who had played professional and Olympic level sports, and nearly 1,400 men of the same age who exercised a little or not at all. The group of retired athletes included men involved in high-contact sports such as soccer and hockey, and those who participated in non-contact sports like running, swimming and cycling. The risk of having hip or knee arthritis was 85 percent higher in elite athletes. In athletes who had had joint surgery, the risk more than doubled. The risk for those who got little to no exercise was 19 percent. “Regular exercise is important to health and well being, but certain kinds of exercise expose you to greater risk of injury,” said Joseph Buckwalter, who studies osteoarthritis and sports medicine at the University of Iowa and was not involved in the study. “Elite athletes engage in challenging, physically demanding sports, so they’re at higher risk of joint injuries and repetitive joint injuries.” Though the study found little impact on younger or weekend athletes, there are a few lessons for some, added Tveit. “If you’re an overweight, middle-aged runner who wants to run at an intense level, there are better ways of staying in shape without risking a knee injury,” he wrote in an email. Experts agreed that physical activity regardless of the type of sport had health benefits that outweigh the risk of arthritis, and recommended sports with less risk of injury such as swimming, cycling, moderate running and yoga. SOURCE: bit.ly/uSjtXd (Reporting from New York by Linda Thrasybule at Reuters Health; Editing by Elaine Lies and Robert Birsel) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints
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Alexza to explore strategic options
December 17th, 2011
Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:04pm EST (Reuters) – Alexza Pharmaceuticals Inc said it will explore options including sale of assets, strategic business combination, or partnerships. The company has also given a 60-day notice of layoffs to all its employees to conserve cash to support operations. Alexza expects to significantly reduce its work force as it continues to pursue FDA approval of ADASUVE – its experimental anti-agitation therapeutic delivered via the company’s Staccato inhaler to treat schizophrenia – and pursue its marketing authorization application work with the European Medicines Agency. Recently, an advisory panel narrowly recommended U.S. approval of ADASUVE and called for restrictions on how the drug is used. Three injectable drugs, Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Abilify, Eli Lilly’s Zyprexa and Pfizer’s Geodon, are already approved to calm patients with mental illnesses, but Alexza’s drug would be the first that is inhaled. In October, the Alexza entered into a marketing partnership with privately held Barcelona, Spain-based Grupo Ferrer International for the drug. Alexza said it has retained Lazard to assist in exploring strategic options. Shares of the Mountain View, California-based company closed down nearly 3 percent at 66 cents on Friday on Nasdaq. The stock has lost more than three-quarters of its value since last October. (Reporting by Soham Chatterjee in Bangalore; editing by Carol Bishopric) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints
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Extra walking does not improve muscle strength
December 16th, 2011
By Kerry Grens NEW YORK | Fri Dec 16, 2011 6:30pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Women who walk at least 10,000 steps a day have no greater muscle strength and perform no better on tests of balance and agility than women who walk fewer than 7,500 steps, according to a new study. Researchers did find, however, that extra walking each day is tied to favorable measures of body fat, weight and endurance. “This tells me more is better in terms of body composition and fitness,” said Catrine Tudor-Locke, a professor at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, who was not involved in this study. But “none of us think that if you walk a huge amount that you’re going to have huge muscles.” The researchers, led by professor Mylène Aubertin-Leheudre at the University of Quebec in Montreal, tracked the walking habits of 57 women between 50 and 70 years old. Women wore pedometers for a week to tally how many steps they took in day that occurred from any walking periods lasting longer than three minutes. The women were split pretty much equally among three activity groups: low activity women walked fewer than 7,500 steps a day, the medium activity group walked between 7,500 and 10,000 steps and the high activity group walked more than 10,000 steps each day. The researchers also measured the women’s body weight, fat and muscle mass; muscle strength through hand grip and knee extension exercises; and balancing and functional skills by exercises such as standing on one leg or jumping onto a step with both feet. The women who walked the most weighed less and had a smaller percentage of body fat. “This is good for the prevention of cardiovascular risk factors,” said Aubertin-Leheudre. The highest activity group, for instance, had an average body mass index (BMI) — a measure of weight compared to height — of 25, which is considered normal weight. The other two groups had BMI numbers in the overweight range. Muscle strength and the percentage of muscle mass on the body were the same among the three groups, however. Women also performed similarly on the balance and physical ability tests regardless of how much they walked. Aubertin-Leheudre said she had expected to see women who walked more perform better on these tests because inactivity is known to weaken muscles. “Maybe we don’t walk the way we need to walk” to see any muscle benefits, Aubertin-Leheudre said. “I always see the postmenopausal women in my study sliding more than walking.” Perhaps a more proper stride or a more intense walk — one that would make it difficult to talk while walking — would have made a bigger impact on women’s strength and abilities, she added. DOES ’10,000 STEPS A DAY’ NEED REVISION? Her team did not measure the quality or intensity of the walking, but it is working on future studies to measure whether higher-impact walking could make a difference. Health advocacy groups have tossed around 10,000 steps as a daily walking goal to keep people fit. Aubertin-Leheudre said that recommendation might need to be revised to specify the impact of the activity so that women gain some muscle benefit. Tudor-Locke said she expects that if the researchers had compared truly sedentary women — those who walk fewer than 3,000 steps per day — to the super walkers, they would likely have seen a difference. “Maybe there is such a relationship where you get the biggest bang for your buck in this lower end (of activity) and maybe any additional walking is not going to add any extra muscle strength,” Tudor-Locke said. SOURCE: bit.ly/ufmyGG Menopause: The Journal of The North American Menopause Society, December 8, 2011. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints
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How watching football was nearly the death of a fan
December 16th, 2011
By Philip Baillie LONDON | Fri Dec 16, 2011 6:29pm EST LONDON (Reuters) – Watching your favorite football team trying to hang on to a precarious lead in the dying minutes of a match is enough to frazzle anyone’s nerves, but for one Manchester United fan the stress was nearly too much. The 58-year-old woman gets so anxious she has to take treatment for a life-threatening condition brought on by watching knife-edge games at the Old Trafford stadium. The condition, known as an Addisonian crisis, comes about when the adrenal glands do not produce enough of the stress-reducing hormone cortisol, a lack of which can lead to low blood pressure and even a coma. “We believe that our patient was having difficulty mounting an appropriate physiological cortisol response during the big games and therefore we present this as the first description of Manchester United-induced Addisonian crisis,” said Dr Akbar Choudhry, who treated the patient. Doctors suspected the condition when the woman started getting bouts of anxiety, palpitations, panic, light headedness, and a sense of impending doom towards the end of matches. The symptoms were less serious when the home side was playing a lower-rated team. An Addisonian crisis, which is a manifestation of Addison’s disease, is difficult to diagnose because the main symptoms include fatigue, lethargy and low mood — often experienced by otherwise healthy people and frequently reported in many other chronic conditions. “Luckily, the patient was on holiday for United’s 6-1 defeat by local rivals Manchester City in October,” Choudhry said in a report on the website of the BMJ. “But, by this time, doctors had fine-tuned her therapy and she has remained symptom-free during recent tense contests against Sunderland and FC Basel,” he added. Treatment coincided with the start of the 2011/12 football season and the patient has managed to attend all games at Old Trafford without any adverse effects. SOURCE: bit.ly/vJd6xL BMJ.com Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints
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Elite athletes at greater risk for arthritis
December 16th, 2011
By Linda Thrasybule NEW YORK | Fri Dec 16, 2011 6:10pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Elite male athletes who participate in high-contact sports like football, soccer and rugby have a higher risk of developing knee and hip arthritis later in life than men who exercise a little or not at all, a recent study found. About 30 percent of athletes had hip or knee arthritis, compared to 19 percent who weren’t athletes. “Regular exercise is important to health and well being,” said Dr. Joseph Buckwalter, who studies osteoarthritis and sports medicine at the University of Iowa, “but certain kinds of exercise expose you to greater risk of injury.” “Elite athletes engage in challenging, physically demanding sports, so they’re at higher risk of joint injuries and repetitive joint injuries,” said Buckwalter, who was not involved in the study. Osteoarthritis, also called “wear and tear” arthritis, occurs when the cartilage cushioning your joints wears down. That allows bones to rub together, which can cause pain, swelling and limited range of motion. An estimated 27 million U.S. adults had osteoarthritis in 2005, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study, published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine, included more than 700 retired Swedish athletes aged 50 to 93 who had played professional and Olympic level sports and nearly 1,400 men of the same age who exercised a little or not at all. The group of retired athletes included men involved in high-contact sports such as soccer and hockey, and those who participated in non-contact sports like running, swimming and cycling. The researchers found the risk of having hip or knee arthritis was 85% higher in elite athletes. And in athletes who had joint surgery, the risk more than doubled. Greater risk was seen in high contact sports, with a doubled risk in soccer and handball (also known as team handball) players and a tripled risk in ice hockey players. If you’re a weekend warrior or a young athlete, you may not have to worry about the results from the study, noted co-author Dr. Magnus Tveit at Lund University in Sweden. “But if you’re an overweight, middle-aged runner who wants to run at an intense level, there are better ways of staying in shape without risking a knee injury,” he wrote in an email. Buckwalter recommends activities that don’t have the same risk of injury such as swimming, cycling, moderate running and yoga. “There are strategies in every sport to decrease injury,” he told Reuters Health. “That includes proper form and overall fitness regimen. And if you have an injury, make sure you’re recovered and rehabilitated before returning to the sport.” Dr. John Wilson, who specializes in primary care sports medicine at the University of Wisconsin but was not part of the study, noted that physical activity regardless of the type of sport may have health benefits that outweigh the risk of arthritis. “Playing a sport offers so many benefits like cardiovascular fitness, lower rates of obesity and lower blood pressure,” he said, “not mention other benefits like confidence building and teamwork that comes from being on a team.” SOURCE: bit.ly/uSjtXd American Journal of Sports Medicine, December 8, 2011. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints
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Drug helps prevent mountain sickness, herbs don’t
December 16th, 2011
By Lindsey Konkel NEW YORK | Fri Dec 16, 2011 6:05pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) — Acetazolamide, a drug commonly used to prevent acute mountain sickness, may reduce symptoms for some people who use it, a review of studies indicates. However, herbal supplements were not effective treatments for the condition, found the researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine. Acute mountain sickness, also called altitude sickness, “feels exactly like a hangover but can last a day or two,” Dr. Peter Hackett, director of the Institute for Altitude Medicine in Telluride, Colorado told Reuters Health. According to Hackett, upon arriving to Colorado mountain ski resorts, as many as 40 percent of tourists experience symptoms of headache, nausea and fatigue. “Our aim was to determine which medications or supplements most effectively prevented acute mountain sickness with the fewest side effects in adults traveling to high elevations,” lead author Dr. Rawle Seupaul told Reuters Health. Seupaul and his team reviewed seven studies that compared several drugs and supplements for treating the symptoms of acute mountain sickness, and published the review this month in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. Three trials studied acetazolamide, marketed as Diamox and approved by the Food and Drug Administration to prevent acute mountain sickness. Acetazolamide speeds up the body’s natural acclimation to altitude by stimulating breathing, which in turn increases the amount of oxygen in the blood. The other studies looked at the effects of gabapentin (marketed as Neurontin), used to treat seizures and chronic pain, sumatriptan (Imitrex), used to treat migraine headaches, antioxidants, magnesium and Ginkgo biloba. All trials were published after 2000 and had at least 50 participants. Acetazolamide, which costs about $6 per 500 milligram pill, prevented symptoms in as many as one of every three people taking the drug, at doses ranging from 125 milligrams twice per day to 750 milligrams once a day. Lower doses, though slightly less effective, were also associated with fewer side effects. The most common side effects reported by people using acetazolamide included numbness and tingling, or a “pins-and-needles” sensation, frequent urination and an alteration in the way things taste. Though gabapentin and sumatriptan are not commonly prescribed for acute mountain sickness, they each showed benefit in a single trial for one of every six people treated with gabapentin and one of every four people using sumatriptan. People using antioxidants, magnesium and Ginkgo biloba experienced acute mountain sickness at similar rates as those given a placebo. “There’s a lot of enthusiasm for antioxidants and herbals, but no evidence to back it up,” said Seupaul. The review did not include trials studying the use of dexamethasone, a medication given to treat severe cases of altitude sickness, but rarely prescribed preventatively, according to Hackett. Acute mountain sickness occurs most frequently in people who travel rapidly to elevations above 8,000 feet. Anyone can get acute mountain sickness, although some people appear more genetically prone to it. A slow ascent to altitude is considered the best way to prevent acute mountain sickness, but often isn’t an option for people flying directly from sea level to a mountain resort. It’s helpful to stay overnight at an intermediate altitude if possible, suggested Hackett, for example staying a night in Denver before traveling to your resort. It’s also a good idea to avoid alcohol the first night you arrive and take care not to overexert yourself the first day, he said. While acute mountain sickness can leave you feeling crummy, it usually clears up within a day or two on its own. Ibuprofen, rest and drinking plenty of water can help said Dr. Hackett, but do seek medical care if you are short of breath, you feel dizzy or your headache worsens. SOURCE: bit.ly/u59kUp Annals of Emergency Medicine, online December 9, 2011. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints
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