"Health News - Medicine, Diet and Fitness"

Inspired by the device used to find lost coins in the sand, Johns Hopkins undergraduates have invented a small handheld metal detector to help doctors locate hidden orthopedic screws that need to be removed from patients’ bodies. The device emits a tone that rises in pitch as the surgeon moves closer to the metal screw. It also serves as a surgical tool to guide the removal of the hardware.

Orthopedic screws, usually made of a stainless steel or titanium alloy, are produced in varying lengths and can have screwheads that range from roughly 3 to 7 millimeters in diameter. Orthopedic surgeons often use these screws and related hardware to hold broken bone fragments together for proper healing. These doctors often need to remove orthopedic screws that shift position, trigger an infection or cause pain, but skin and scar tissue can make it difficult to find the troublesome hardware, even with the aid of real-time X-ray technology. The small handheld detector is designed to zero in on the hardware and steer the doctor’s screwdriver into position for prompt removal.

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Washington, DC — In a victory for consumers, the Senate today passed the “Food and Drug Administration Revitalization Act” sponsored by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) by a vote of 93 to 1.

The bill attempts to please both the powerful pharmaceutical industry and consumer groups. It increases the amount of money the FDA receives in fees from drug makers to speed the approval of new drugs, and includes language to protect consumers from unsafe prescription drugs.

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Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have shown that hormone therapy can extend life in ovarian cancer patients, giving women a new alternative to chemotherapy.

The study, published today in Clinical Cancer Research, has proved for the first time that the targeted use of an anti-oestrogen drug could prolong the life of some patients by up to three years, and delay the use of chemotherapy in others.

Letrozole hormone therapy – already used with great success in the treatment of breast tumours - attacks cancer by turning off its oestrogen supply. But scientists now believe that in those ovarian cancers which are highly sensitive to oestrogen, this blocking mechanism could slow the growth and spread of disease.

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Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston report finding a new way to increase stem cells in blood, suggesting a possible treatment to help patients who undergo chemotherapy or bone marrow transplant for leukemia and other cancers recover their immune function more quickly. In the June 21 issue of Nature, they demonstrate that a stable analog of prostaglandin can enhance the blood-forming system, both during embryonic development and after it’s been damaged.

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Eli Lilly is to buy back worldwide marketing rights for Yentreve/AriClaim (duloxetine hydrochloride) from Boehringer Ingelheim. As a stress urinary incontinence (SUI) treatment, along with future related urinary incontinence indications, the drug will continue to be marketed outside the US by Lilly but other treatments using duloxetine will remain under both firms.

Lilly president and chief operating officer John Lechleiter said: “Based on our collective experiences to date in the marketplace, both companies believe that the Yentreve/AriClaim opportunity is best suited and can be best commercialised in markets outside the US with the support of one company. “This is about ‘right sizing’ our investments to address our greatest opportunities and the greatest patient needs.” Dr Alessandro Banchi, Boehringer Ingelheim chairman of the board of managing directors, added: “There has been an excellent spirit of collaboration in our alliance with Lilly.
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Statement by Pedro Morillas, CALPIRG Legislative Advocate:

“We applaud the Senate for passing AB 8 (Nez) this afternoon.

“Regulating the insurance companies must be part of any meaningful health care reform. CALPIRG supports AB 8, in large part because the bill grants Californians access to more affordable health insurance.

“AB 8 sharply limits the insurance companies’ ability to deny consumers health care coverage, which far to many Californians experience when shopping for coverage today. AB 8 requires insurance companies to use community rating to determine their premium costs, so that individuals are guaranteed a fair price for health insurance. AB 8 also requires insurance companies to spend 85 percent of premium dollars on health care, assuring consumers that their monthly premiums are working to keep us healthy.

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SEATTLE — In a study of more than 100,000 patients treated for depression, suicide attempts declined during the first month of treatment—whether that treatment consisted of medication, psychotherapy, or both. The findings, published by Group Health researchers in the July American Journal of Psychiatry, show a similar pattern for populations of adolescents and young adults (up to age 24) as for older adults.

The study sheds new light on the “black box” advisory that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) placed in 2004 and has revised since then, said Greg Simon, MD, MPH, the Group Health psychiatrist who led the study. The advisory—which has concerned many patients, families, and care providers—warns that suicidal behavior may emerge soon after people younger than 25 start treatment with newer antidepressant medications called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). It was spurred by randomized placebo-controlled trials showing that starting to take an SSRI can make thoughts of suicide more common among some teens and young adults.

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Women can safely have DIY abortions at home, a study has concluded. The pilot study, set up by the Department of Health (DoH), found that women less than nine weeks pregnant could safely have the medical abortion outside of hospital.

None of the 172 women, who were given tablets to terminate their pregnancy supervised by a nurse in a health centre, suffered serious complications. Shirley Butler, who managed the pilot project, said: “This has been a successful pilot and it has proved that abortion is safe outside a hospital. “We have had few problems. Some women experienced pain and they were given painkillers. “One woman had haemorrhaging, but if she had been at home she would have called our helpline and she would have been given help.”
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Don’t wait for the holidays!
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(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Studies show up to 20 percent of a child’s IQ is influenced by prenatal and postnatal experience. Learn what you and your baby need before and after birth with these 15 compelling news reports produced by the leading medical news reporting team in the country:

1. Brainy Babies
2. Easier Pregnancies
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STANFORD, Calif. - The drug most commonly used to arrest preterm labor, magnesium sulfate, is more likely than another common treatment to cause mild to serious side effects in pregnant women, according to a study from researchers at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and Stanford University School of Medicine.

Their findings suggest that, since the effectiveness of the two drugs appears similar, physicians should consider side effects more strongly when choosing which drug to prescribe.

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