EAR CORRECTION
(Otoplasty)
OBJECTIVES:
Ear surgery, or otoplasty, is usually done to set prominent ears back closer to the head or
to reduce the size of large ears. Read more…
Woman requires plastic surgery after dog attack
A young mum is facing plastic surgery after she was attacked by two alsations while walking her own puppy.
Maria Clarke (pictured) instinctively picked up her seven-month-old cocker spaniel, Reuben when she saw the two big dogs charging towards them on fields close to Howe Bridge sports centre in Atherton.
But in their bid to get to the puppy, the pair attacked 30-year-old Maria. Read more…
Treatment may need to be modified for elderly glioblastoma patients
Medical Condition News
Glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive type of brain tumor, accounts for a majority of the brain tumors seen in patients 65 years or older.
This segment of the population is growing faster than any other age group and not surprisingly, the incidence of glioblastoma in older adults is on the rise. Because survival in older patients tends to be short and they have a higher risk of suffering debilitating side effects from therapy, physicians are unsure how to manage their treatment. A new study examining the patterns of treatment in older patients with glioblastoma was published in Annals of Neurology (http://www.interscience.wiley.com/), the official journal of the American Neurological Association. Read more…
Women may be more likely to experience EMS delays for heart care
Women’s Health News
Women who called 9-1-1 complaining of cardiac symptoms were 52 percent more likely than men to experience delays during emergency medical services’ (EMS) care, according to a report in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
Read more…
Smoking during pregnancy impacts thyroid function of mother and fetus
Women’s Health News
Cigarette smoking during pregnancy is associated with potentially harmful changes in both maternal and fetal thyroid function, according to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism ( JCEM ).
“We studied the influence of cigarette smoking on thyroid function of two groups of women at different stages of pregnancy - one in the first trimester and the other in the third trimester,” said Dr. Bijay Vaidya, Ph.D., of Peninsula Medical School at Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital in the United Kingdom, and coauthor of the study. “In both groups we found that smoking during pregnancy is associated with changes in the mothers’ thyroid hormone levels.”
Optimal maternal thyroid function during pregnancy is vital for a successful pregnancy outcome, said Dr. Vaidya. The adverse outcomes associated with thyroid dysfunction during pregnancy include increased risk of miscarriage, premature birth, low birth weight and impaired neuropsychological development of the baby.
Dr. Vaidya and his colleagues also measured thyroid hormone levels in the umbilical cord of babies born to smoking mothers and found that smoking-related changes in thyroid function extend to the fetus. Dr. Vaidya believes that impaired thyroid function in the fetus could have potentially harmful biological consequences.
The study also found that in mothers who stopped smoking during pregnancy their thyroid hormone levels were comparable to levels found in non-smokers, which suggests that changes in thyroid function are rapidly reversible.
There is currently no definitive explanation for how smoking affects thyroid function, but Dr. Vaidya suggests that smoking may influence thyroid hormone levels by affecting the enzyme which converts the active form of thyroid hormone to an inactive form.
http://www.endo-society.org/
Women suffer more from rheumatoid arthritis
Women’s Health News
Women appear to suffer more from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) than men.
This is revealed in research published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Arthritis Research and Therapy .
Tuulikki Sokka from the Jyvaskyla Central Hospital, Finland, along with other members of the Quantitative Standard Monitoring of Patients with RA (QUEST-RA) program, explored possible associations between gender and disease activity measures, treatments, and clinical characteristics in more than 6,000 RA patients from 70 sites in 25 countries. She said, “The possible influence of gender and gender-related variables on the symptoms, severity, and prognosis of rheumatoid arthritis has been of considerable interest for some time. Generally, women report more severe symptoms, greater disability, and often have higher work disability rates than men.” Read more…
Treadmill exercise improves walking endurance for patients with PAD
Medical Research News
Patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), which can include symptoms such as pain in the legs, who participated in supervised treadmill exercise improved their walking endurance and quality of life, according to a study in the January 14 issue of JAMA.
Read more…
Transplanted fatty livers associated with worse prognosis for patients with hepatitis C
Medical Research News
A new study suggests that patients with hepatitis C (HCV) who need a liver transplant should not receive an organ with high levels of fatty deposits (a.k.a. hepatic steatosis).
HCV recurrence was more frequent and earlier among those transplanted with such livers. These findings are in the January issue of Liver Transplantation , a journal published by John Wiley & Sons. The article is also available online at Wiley Interscience (www.interscience.wiley.com). Read more…
Theraputic target for prostate cancer
Men’s Health News
The report, entitled Cytosolic Phospholipase A2-: A Potential Therapeutic Target for Prostate Cancer, describes the possible role of an enzyme called cPLA2- in prostate cancer and its potential to be a treatment target for prostate cancers that no longer respond to hormone-related therapy. Read more…
Pediatric vaccine propels sharp drop in meningitis cases
Disease/Infection News
A pediatric vaccine with University of Rochester roots has proven to be highly successful at reducing cases of bacterial meningitis across all age groups.That is the conclusion of a seven-year study, the results of which appeared today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“This is a very effective vaccine and a textbook example of herd immunity,” said Nancy M. Bennett, M.D., M.S., professor of Medicine, director of the Center for Community Health at the University of Rochester Medical Center, and deputy director of the Monroe County Department of Public Health.”Even though the vaccine is only given to infants, it has proven highly effective in reducing infections among people who don’t get vaccine, as well as among those who do.” Read more…
