By: Gayle R. Lewis, Esquire Sources: British Medical Journal 2013;346:f2023; BBC Health News A STUDY initiated by Sweedish researchers was recently published in the British Medical Joural. The goal of the study was to determine the association (if any) between concentration of prostate specific antigen (PSA) at age 40-55 and subsequent risk of prostate cancer metastasis (spread) and [...]
Sources: Nature Medicine (2013) Published online April 14, 2013; BBC Health News RESEARCHERS at Massachusetts General Hospital have taken the first steps towards creating usable bio-engineered kidneys. The kidney from a rat was removed and cleaned until all that remained was the proteins and vessles, a "scaffolding" on which to build another usable kidney. While windpipes [...]
Sources: BBC Health News; Jorunal Oncology THE BRCA2 gene has been linked to hereditary breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Now scientists say that as well as being more likely to get prostate cancer, men with BRCA2 are also more likely to develop aggressive tumours and have the poorest survival rates. Men with the gene should [...]
Sources: World Health Organization; BBC Health News; British Medical Journal THE World Health Organisation has issued its first guidelines on potassium intake, recommending that adults should consume more than 4g of potassium (or 90 to 100mmol) per day. This follows recent publication in the British Medical Journal which adds to the body of evidence suggesting that [...]
Sources: National Cancer Institute; US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) ON AVERAGE 1 to 2 out of every 10,000 children in the United States are diagnosed with some form of cancer. Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease among U.S. children 1 to 14 years of age. Over the past 20 years, [...]
Injury: Hypoxic brain injury from anesthesia for a 6 year old girl in a Pediatric Hospital Age of Patient at Injury: 6 years of age Result: $7 Million Settlement Court: Philadelphia County, PA Comments: Heart breaking case of injury following anesthesia for a cardiac procedure at a Pediatric Hospital. The young child sustained life-altering brain [...]
Sources: National Cancer Institute; National Institutes for Health PANCREATIC cancer will kill 38,460 of the 45,220 people who are diagnosed with it in 2013 in the US. Pancreatic cancer is a disease in which malignant (cancer) cells are found in the tissues of the pancreas. Also called exocrine cancer. The pancreas makes pancreatic juices. These [...]
Sources: American Cancer Society; MD Anderson Cancer Center of the University of Texas LIVER cancer is one of the most rapidly increasing cancers in the US, with 22,600 cases of primary liver diagnosed in the United States in 2009. It is a killer cancer with an overall 5-year survival rate of around 15%. The Liver [...]
Sources: NPR (National Public Radio); US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) WE'VE blogged about MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), VRE (cancomycin Resistant Enterococcus) and C-Diff (Clostridium difficile). Get ready to add another nasty super bug to the list -CRE (carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae). Federal officials warn that the newest kid on the block has become a significant health problem [...]
Sources: Bloomberg News, US Food & Drug Administration THEY have been hailed as the latest state of the art technology and their manufacturer has given them a name worthy of a medical rennaissance -the Da Vinci. But are robotic surgeries actually safer than those performed directly by the hand of a surgeon? Robot systems (da [...]