Happy Nirvana

A new US study found that older patients who survived severe sepsis were more likely to experience signficant mental and physical decline, in some cases not unlike dementia, and suggested this was an unrecognized public health problem with major implications not only for patients but also for families and healthcare providers. You can read how [...]

If obese/overweight patients with diabetes Type 2 are helped to get fit, lose weight and control blood glucose levels, their long-term outlook improves significantly, according to a report published in Archives of Internal Medicine. Addressing cardiovascular risk factors and blood glucose control is vital in preventing the long-term complications that are linked to diabetes Type [...]

Every wondered why emergency departments in the USA are so crowded? The answer seems to be in people’s changing behaviors over the last few years. Today, only 45% of the 354 million yearly visits for acute care in the USA are made to the patient’s personal doctor, while an enormous number are going straight to [...]

Ivabradine (Procorala), a heart-rate-lowering medication, considerably lowers cardiovascular death and hospitalization risk when added to standard treatment in patients suffering from heart failure and a high heart rate (pulse rate), an Article reveals in the medical journal The Lancet. Details of a clinical trial were presented at the European Society of Cardiology Annual Congress 2010, [...]

Researchers have managed to convert skin from individuals with metabolic diseases into liver cells using stem cell technology, according to an article published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. This research will allow scientists to determine precisely what is happening in a diseased liver cell, then try out potential treatments. The scientists say that eventually [...]

Patients with glaucoma appear to have more rapid visual field change if they are older or if they have abnormal levels of anticardiolipin antibody (an antibody directed against a certain protein in the body), according to a report posted online today that will appear in the October print issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of [...]

One of the UK’s largest radiotherapy departments has begun treatments using fast and efficient RapidArc® technology from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR). Four head & neck cancer patients have been treated to date at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre in Glasgow. The advanced RapidArc system, which has been introduced clinically on two Varian [...]

Patients with heart disease who also suffer from an anxiety disorder have a significantly higher risk of having a heart attack, heart failure, stroke and death, compared to other heart disease patients, according to Dutch scientists. You can read about this study in the peer-reviewed medical journal Archives of General Psychiatry. Researchers from Tilburg University, [...]

According to a new trial, patients with high blood pressure (hypertension) who are trained to check their blood pressure at home, according to some pre-determined rules, tend to experience a more significant fall in blood pressure, when compared to patients receiving conventional treatment. You can read about this in the latest issue of The Lancet… [...]

ORLANDO – The dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP-4) inhibitor sitagliptin seems to confer multiple benefits in type 1 diabetics with suboptimal glycemic control, according to early results released at the 70th Annual Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association (ADA). In a pilot study that included 20 type 1 patients, four weeks’ treatment with sitagliptin led to [...]