Tagcloud

abortion, accupuncture, ACE inhibitors, acne, ADHD, alcohol, allergies, Alzheimer's, anaemia, anaethesia, anorexia, antibiotics, antidepressants, antihistamine, anxiety, appetite control, arthritis, ASCOT, aspirin, asthma, atherosclerosis, autism, autoantibodies, back pain, beta carotene, beta-blockers, bipolar disorder, birth, bleeding, blindness, blood pressure, body dysmorphic disorder, body mass, breast cancer, breast feeding, bronchitis, Caesarean section, calcium, cancer, carcinogens, carcinoma, cardiac syncope, cardiolgy, cataracts, cervical cancer, chemotherapy, child psychiatry, children, cholesterol, clinical trial, clopidogrel, Clostridium difficile, cognitive behavioural therapy, colectomy, colic, colorectal cancer, complementary and alternative therapies, contraception, COPD, coronary care, coronary stents, Crohn's, cystic fibrosis, defibrillator, dementia, depression, dermatology, diabetes management, diet, disability, DNA, Down's syndrome, eating disorders, echinacea, ECT, eczema, elderly people, endoscopy, epilepsy, erectile dysfunction, euthanasia, exercise, fat, fertility, fitness, flu pandemic, fluoxetine, folic acid, food labelling, fracture, fragile X syndrome, general surgery, genetics, gerontology, GIK infusion therapy, GORD, gout, haemodialysis, hearing, heart attack, heart disease, heart failure, heart health, hepatitis, HIV, hospital care, HPV, HRT, hyperglycaemia, hypertension, hypoglycaemia, IBD, ICU, incontinence, infant, infant mortality, infection, inflammatory bowel disease, influenza, invasive candidiasis, IQ, Irish Heart Foundation, irritable bowel syndrome, keyhole surgery, kidney disease, laser, learning difficulties, leukaemia, liver disease, lumbar disk herniation, lung cancer, lung disease, lymph nodes, macular degeneration, macular oedema, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), malaria, malnutrition, Marfan syndrome, media, medical ethics, medical research, medication, meningitis, mental health, mental illness, metabolic syndrome, migraine, miscarriage, mortality rate, MRSA, multiple sclerosis (MS), NCHDs, nephrology, neurology, OAB, obesity, obstetrics, occupational health, ocular medicine, omega-3, opthalmology, oral cancer, organ transplantation, orthopaedics, osteoporosis, otolaryngology, ovarian cancer, paediatrics, pain management, pancreatic cancer, panic, Parkinson’s disease, patient safety, patient-physician communication, personality disorders, physiotherapy, plastic surgery, polio, practice, pre-eclampsia, pregnancy, preventative health care, probiotics, prostate cancer, psoriasis, psychiatric admission, psychiatry, psychotherapy, PTSD, public health, quality of life, radiology, radiotherapy, rectal cancer, reproductive health, research, resuscitation, rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatology, rhinitis, salt, SARS, schizophrenia, screening, seizures, self harm, sexual abuse, sexual health, sexually transmitted infections, SGA, sinusitis, skin cancer, sleep disorders, smoking, smoking ban, spinal injury, sports medicine, statins, stem cells, stress, stroke, substance abuse, suicide, supplement, surgery, syncope, technology, teenagers, testosterone, thoracic surgery, thrombosis, thyroid cancer, tonsillectomy, tonsillitis, Tourette's syndrome, toxicology, travel medicine, tuberculosis, tumour angiogenesis, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, ulcer, ulcerative colitis, urinary incontinence, vaccine, vitamins, weight, WHO, women's health, World Health Assembly

Clinical Times: November 2007

Education, exercise and diet are needed to stop diabetes epidemic

Dr Mary Ryan | 30 November 2007 | Diabetes

There is an alarming rise in obesity going hand in hand with an increase in Type 2 diabetes in Irish children and adolescents. Obviously, prevention must start early in life with very simple tools such as the facilitation of physical... Read more

Patient seizure counts are invalid

Archives of Neurology | 30 November 2007 | Mental Health & CNS

Asking patients with focal epilepsy how often they have seizures does not appear to provide an accurate count, according to a report. Researchers in Germany studied 91 consecutive patients with focal epilepsy who were admitted to a video-EEG monitoring unit... Read more

Ophthalmic surgical errors are rare but have serious consequences

Archives of Ophthalmology | 30 November 2007 | Eye, Ear, Nose & Throat

Surgical confusions– for instance, operations involving the wrong site, the wrong patient, or the wrong procedure– occur infrequently in eye surgery procedures, according to a new report. Although most surgical confusions cause little or no permanent injury, they may involve... Read more

Evaluating the safety of intravitreal triamcinolone

Mr Abid Mahmood Qammar | 30 November 2007 | Eye, Ear, Nose & Throat

The use of intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide has proliferated. Indications have included macular odema secondary to diabetes mellitus, retinal vein occlusion, uveitis and pseudophakia. Other indications are treatment of choroidal neovascularisation, proliferative diabetic retinopathy, idiopathic juxtafoveal telangiectasia and intraoperative visualisation of... Read more

Examination of lymph nodes after surgery not linked to survival

JAMA 2007;298:2149-2154 | 30 November 2007 | Cancer

Examining a specific number of lymph nodes after colon cancer surgery, recommended as a quality indicator for hospitals, is not associated with length of patient survival, according to a study. Several studies suggested improved survival among patients in whom a... Read more

Urinary incontinence and prolapse

Dr Kelvin Boos | 30 November 2007 | Genito-urinary, Women's Health

Female urinary incontinence and prolapse are common conditions. While not life-threatening, they can have a considerable impact on the quality of life of those who suffer from them. It is estimated that 25 per cent of women wait more than... Read more

Beta carotene fortifies cognition

Archives of Internal Medicine | 30 November 2007 | Nutrition

Men who take beta carotene supplements for 15 years or longer may have less cognitive decline. Researchers assessed the antioxidant beta carotene and its effect on cognitive ability in two groups of men. A long-term group included 4,052 men who,... Read more

Tezosentan does not improve heart failure symptoms

JAMA | 23 November 2007 | Cardiovascular

The medication tezosentan, which was thought could be beneficial for the treatment of acute heart failure, does not improve breathlessness or reduce the risk of fatal or non-fatal cardiovascular events. In a study, researchers tested the hypothesis that tezosentan would... Read more

Substance-abuse treatable with fluoxetine and therapy

Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine | 23 November 2007 | Mental Health & CNS

The antidepressant fluoxetine, combined with cognitive behavioural therapy, appears as effective for treating depression among teens who also have substance-abuse disorders, as among those without substance-abuse problems, according to a new report. In the study, doctors involved 126 teenagers who... Read more

Studies show pre-eclampsia is linked with heart disease

BMJ Online First | 23 November 2007 | Cardiovascular, Women's Health

Two new studies have added further weight to the theory that pre-eclampsia and cardiovascular diseases may share common causes or mechanisms. The first study found that women who had pre-eclampsia during pregnancy had a more than two-fold higher risk of... Read more

Emotionally unstable personality disorders

Dr Farhan Haq | 23 November 2007 | Mental Health & CNS

The term ‘personality’ refers to the enduring characteristics of an individual, as shown in their ways of behaving in a wide variety of circumstances. Personality can be thought of as being made up of more circumscribed characteristics known as traits,... Read more

Bupropion, along with counselling, may help teens kick smoking habit

Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine | 23 November 2007 | Mental Health & CNS

The medication bupropion, as well as counselling, appears to help adolescents quit cigarette smoking in the short-term, according to a new report from the US. Doctors at the University of Arizona conducted a clinical trial of 312 adolescents aged 14... Read more

Neurosurgery: 50 years evolving

Prof Ciaran Bolger | 23 November 2007 | Mental Health & CNS

Neurosurgery is, perhaps more than any other surgical specialty, a discipline driven by technology and technological development. In this regard, the world of neurosurgery from 50 years ago is unrecognisable to modern day practitioners, and I am sure practitioners from... Read more

Whole-grain cereals reduce heart failure

Archives of Internal Medicine | 16 November 2007 | Cardiovascular, Nutrition

Men who consume a higher amount of whole-grain breakfast cereals may have a reduced risk of heart failure, according to a new report. In the study, researchers analysed the association between breakfast cereal intake and new cases of heart failure... Read more

Lumbar facet syndrome: a common cause of back pain

Dr Connail McCrory | 16 November 2007 | Musculoskeletal

Low back pain (LBP) remains a frequent musculoskeletal complaint. It is the most common musculoskeletal reason for consulting a doctor. Many structures have been incriminated as causing lower back pain, however facet joints have become increasingly accepted as a significant... Read more

Losing weight before bariatric surgery leads to shorter stays in hospital

Archives of Surgery | 16 November 2007 | Gastro-intestinal

High-risk, morbidly obese patients who lose five to 10 per cent of their excess body weight before undergoing gastric bypass surgery appear to have shorter hospital stays and more rapid postoperative weight loss, according to a new report. In the... Read more

Fluoxetine and psychotherapy effective for treatment of depressed teenagers

Archives of General Psychiatry | 16 November 2007 | Mental Health & CNS

The combination of the antidepressant medication fluoxetine and cognitive behaviour therapy appears more effective than either strategy alone for the long-term treatment of adolescents with depression, according to a new report from the US. The research team randomly assigned 439... Read more

The challenges of patient adherence in transplant therapy

16 November 2007 | Genito-urinary

Solid-organ transplantation has a relatively short history of approximately 50 years, with most of the revolutionary progress having been achieved in the last two decades. Transplantation is one of the greatest success stories of the 20th century and enables people... Read more

Women still face cancer risk 25 years after treatment

BMJ | 16 November 2007 | Cancer, Women's Health

Women are still at risk of developing invasive cancer of the cervix or vagina 25 years after being treated for pre-cancerous lesions, according to a new study. Researchers in Sweden studied data from the National Swedish Cancer Register, which included... Read more

Expensive runners are a waste of money

British Journal of Sports Medicine | 09 November 2007 | Musculoskeletal

Expensive runners are just not worth the money, a UK study has found. In fact, the study found that cheap and moderately priced running shoes are just as good, if not better, in terms of cushioning impact and overall comfort.... Read more

Presence of immune protein could foretell lung cancer

Thorax | 09 November 2007 | Cancer

An immune system protein could act as an early warning system for lung cancer, new research has revealed. The research team analysed blood samples from 50 healthy volunteers and 104 people with different types of lung cancer. The researchers tested... Read more

Nipping cancer in the bud

Prof Desmond N Carney & Dr Grzegorz Korpanty | 09 November 2007 | Cancer

The most recent report from the National Cancer Registry in Ireland issued in September 2007, shows a steady increase in the number of patients diagnosed with cancer in years 1994-2005. One of the explanations for this trend is the ageing... Read more

Clinical threshold for bowel surgery too high

BMJ Online First | 09 November 2007 | Gastro-intestinal

The clinical threshold for undertaking elective surgery to remove part or all of the colon for people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) may be too high, researchers in the UK have warned. Researchers from Swansea and Oxford in the UK... Read more

Turning the spotlight on Bipolar Affective Disorder, part three

09 November 2007 | Mental Health & CNS

This is week three of a three-week clinical vignettes series entitled 'Turning the spotlight on Bipolar Affective Disorder' which will look at the various aspects of the disorder and maintenance regimes. With the patient’s agreement, and brought to you by... Read more

Caesarean births pose a higher risk for both mother and baby

BMJ Online First | 09 November 2007 | Women's Health

Women having a non-emergency Caesarean birth have double the risk of illness or even death compared to a vaginal birth, according to a new study from Latin America. However, the researchers found Caesarean delivery prevented deaths in breech-born babies. The... Read more

Upping the ante for global safety

02 November 2007 | Infections & Immunology

Recent scientific advances and increased vaccine manufacturing capacity have prompted experts to increase their projections of how many pandemic influenza vaccine courses can be made available in the coming years. Last spring, the World Health Organization (WHO) and vaccine manufacturers... Read more

Unravelling ulcerative colitis

Dr Richard J Farrell, Consultant Gastroenterologist, Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown | 02 November 2007 | Cancer, Gastro-intestinal

Optimising the dose or combining oral and topical aminosalicylates is the key to successful management of most patients with active ulcerative (UC) colitis, says Dr Richard Farrell. UC is a chronic relapsing inflammatory disease of the rectum and colon which... Read more

Healthy lifestyle significantly lowers MI risk for women

Archives of Internal Medicine 2007;167:2122-2127 | 02 November 2007 | Cardiovascular

Women who eat a healthy diet, drink moderate amounts of alcohol, are physically active, maintain a healthy weight and do not smoke have a significantly reduced risk of heart attack, according to a Swedish study. Researchers identified dietary patterns in... Read more

Pain management and the myths that still persist

Natalya Brown | 02 November 2007 | Mental Health & CNS

Pain management should be viewed as a fundamental human right, and more work needs to be done to promote proper pain management in the areas of acute pain, chronic pain and cancer pain, according to research presented by Prof Michael... Read more

Long QT syndromes and drugs

Dr Muhammad Arshad, Prof Michael Fitzgerald & Zoya Ali | 02 November 2007 | Cardiovascular

"Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome." (Isaac Asimov, US science fiction novelist and scholar 1920-1992). Medical professionals prescribe medications from infancy for a multitude of reasons such as to treat infection, pain, asthma etc, and... Read more

Kidney kindness pays off

02 November 2007 | Genito-urinary

Management strategies which provide optimal long-term protection to already transplanted kidneys are highly cost-effective and can help patients avoid the need for dialysis or re-transplantation, according to an innovative, transplant healthcare model presented for the first time today at the... Read more

Anti-anaemia drug may improve health of kidney disease patients

The Lancet 2007;370:1395,1415-1421 | 02 November 2007 | Cardiovascular, Genito-urinary

The use of a long-acting form of the anti-anaemia drug epoetin could result in improved quality of life and simplified anaemia management, compared with conventional therapy for treating anaemia, according to a new study. In the study, doctors compared the... Read more

Weight gain is related to an increased breast cancer risk

Archives of Internal Medicine 2007;167:2091-2102 | 02 November 2007 | Cancer, Women's Health

Women who gain weight throughout adulthood rather than maintaining a stable weight may have an increased risk for breast cancer, according to a new study. In the study, researchers analysed data from 99,039 postmenopausal women who reported their current body... Read more

Asthma symptoms substantially reduced by interleukin inhibitor

The Lancet 2007;370:1396,1422-1431 | 02 November 2007 | Respiratory

Targeted treatment with the drug pitrakinra to inhibit interleukins-4 and -13 in the lung could substantially diminish the symptoms of asthma, a new study has found. While it has been thought that cytokines such as interleukin-4 or interleukin-13 have a... Read more