The ankle brachial index may be useful to improve the accuracy of cardiovascular risk prediction, according to a new meta-analysis of previous studies. The researchers noted that attention has been given to indicators of asymptomatic atherosclerosis, such as coronary artery calcium and the ankle brachial index (ABI), which is the ratio of systolic pressure at [...]
Use of simvastatin by children with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), a genetic disorder that can cause learning disabilities, does not result in improved cognitive function, according to a new study. Characteristics of NF1 include skin disorders, problems with small and large movement skills as well as the frequent occurrence of cognitive disabilities, such as visual-spatial [...]
Dr Paul O’Connell writes that the campaign to ban ECT is wrong and that the tone of the debate gives the ‘alarming’ impression of doctors motivated to do harm. The following preamble may appear a little off the point, given that this article is about electro-convulsive therapy (ECT), which is an enduring and deeply controversial [...]
Dr Muhammad Arshad and Zoya Ali write about the psychiatric problems that can result from receiving a diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease “They certainly give very strange names to diseases” Plato (427 BC-347 BC). Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic disabling disease of unknown multifactorial origin characterised by periods of remissions and exacerbations. IBD [...]
Gary Culliton reports on the latest developments in paediatric nutrition — as reported to a recent meeting in Dublin — and the success that some clinicians are having treating some newly-diagnosed Crohn’s patients. The aim of paediatric nutritional intervention is to provide optimal nutrients to maintain growth and development and to support catch-up growth. The [...]
Prof Davis Coakley writes that investing in strategies to preserve health and prevent illness in older people will benefit the economy in the longer term. The number of people surviving into old age is increasing across all European states. In order to promote health and quality of life in this age group, it is necessary [...]
Slowing the ageing process would have a much greater benefit for people’s health than traditional medical approaches that target individual disease, according to leading experts. Most medical research focuses on preventing and curing individual diseases as if they were independent of one another, but as people in developed nations are living longer they are increasingly [...]
What exactly is the Euro Consumer Heart Index that ranks Irish heart care ranks only 16th out of 29 European countries? A rather dramatically-worded press release issued from Brussels on 3 July 2008 carrying the above headline went on to state that Luxembourg leads the first Euro Consumer Index with a score of 836 points [...]
Using data from clinical encounters and drug prescriptions over three years, researchers have devised a model to predict emergency hospital admissions in the following year in individuals aged 40 years and older, according to a new report from Scotland. Scottish researchers studied 90,522 residents of Tayside, Scotland, where each individual who visits a general practitioner [...]
Older adults who have hip or knee replacement surgery for severe osteoarthritis may take several weeks to recover but appear to have excellent long-term outcomes, according to a new report. According to the report, doctors studied medical decision-making and treatment outcomes in 174 patients aged 65 years or older who had severe osteoarthritis of the [...]
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