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Health

List of medications with potential safety problems


Associated Press
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:47 UTC
Drugs under investigation by the Food and Drug Administration, what they are used for and the potential problem:

R-Gene 10, a growth hormone, pediatric overdose due to labeling/packaging confusion.

Suprane, an anesthetic, cardiac arrest.

Cymbalta, for depression and other conditions, urinary retention.

Intelence, an HIV medication, bleeding into joints.

Carac and Kuric, creams for skin conditions and fungal infections, name confusion.

Heparin, a blood-thinner, serious allergic reactions.

Extraneal, used in kidney dialysis, low blood sugars.
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Info

Infant formula from China tainted by chemical

Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
Associated Press
Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:42 UTC
Washington - Tainted infant formula from China may be on sale at ethnic groceries in this country, even though it is not approved for importation, federal officials warned on Thursday.

However, the Food and Drug Administration stressed that the domestic supply of infant formula is safe.

FDA officials are urging U.S. consumers to avoid all infant formula from China, after several brands sold in that country came under suspicion of being contaminated with melamine, a chemical used in plastics. Officials said there have been reports from China of babies developing kidney stones as a result. There have been no reports of illnesses in the U.S.

"We're concerned that there may be some infant formula that may have gotten into the United States illegally and may be on the ethnic market," said Janice Oliver, deputy director of the FDA's food safety program. "No infant formula from China should be entering the United States, but in the past we have found it on at least one occasion."
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Health

FDA cites brain virus with Genentech, Biogen drug

Matthew Perrone
Associated Press
Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:40 UTC
Washington - Federal regulators said Thursday one case of a deadly brain infection has been reported in a patient taking Genentech and Biogen Idec's blockbuster arthritis and cancer drug Rituxan.

The Food and Drug Administration said the woman died of the rare viral infection more than a year and a half after discontinuing the drug. Genentech and Biogen Idec comarket the drug in the U.S.

Cases of PML have previously been reported in patients taking Rituxan for unapproved uses, including blood cancer. But FDA said the latest case is the first reported in a patient taking the drug for arthritis. The drug is also approved for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

A company spokeswoman for Genentech noted the drug's label already mentions risks of the infection.
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Health

Infectious Heart Disease Death Rates Rising Again


Science Daily
Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:35 UTC
Infectious heart disease is still a major killer in spite of improvements in health care, but the way the disease develops has changed so much since its discovery that nineteenth century doctors would not recognise it, scientists heard at the Society for General Microbiology's Autumn meeting being held this week at Trinity College, Dublin.

Infective endocarditis is a devastating, progressive and frequently fatal heart disease usually caused by bacterial pathogens. It was first identified in the nineteenth century and has changed beyond all recognition due to evolution of the disease itself and developments in modern healthcare such as open-heart surgery, antibiotics and new medical imaging techniques.

"In spite of these medical advances, infective endocarditis is still evolving and we are seeing new patterns of the disease and its complications. Despite all our improvements in health care, the death rate has been virtually unchanged for the last 20 years, and now seems to be rising again," said cardiologist Dr Bernard Prendergast from the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, UK.
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Unproven therapies used on traumatized kids: study


Reuters
Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:53 UTC
Many doctors and therapists use unproven approaches such as drugs, art or play therapy on children suffering trauma when old-fashioned talk therapy has been shown to work, a report released on Tuesday said.

A review of a dozen different studies showed no evidence that alternative therapies helped children traumatized by violence or abuse, even though more than 75 percent of U.S. mental health professionals who treat children and teens with post traumatic stress disorder may use them.
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Immaturity Of The Brain May Cause Schizophrenia


Science Daily
Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:34 UTC
The underdevelopment of a specific region in the brain may lead to schizophrenia in individuals. According to research published today in BioMed Central's open access journal Molecular Brain, dentate gyrus, which is located in the hippocampus in the brain and thought to be responsible for working memory and mood regulation, remained immature in an animal model of schizophrenia.

hippocampus
©iStockphoto/Vasiliy Yakobchuk
The immaturity of the dentate gyrus -- located in the hippocampus of the brain -- may be an underlying cause for schizophrenia.

Professor Tsuyoshi Miyakawa of Fujita Health University, National Institute for Physiological Sciences (NIPS), and Kyoto University led a research team in Japan, with support from the CREST program of Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).

First, the team investigated behaviors by conducting a systematic and well-defined behavioral test battery with alpha-CaMKII mutant mice, an animal model of schizophrenia. These mice showed abnormal behaviors similar to those of schizophrenic patients.

Next, the team found the dentate gyrus neurons in hippocampus of the brain of these mice were not matured morphologically and physiologically. By a gene expression analysis, changes of gene expression related to the maturation of dentate gyrus neurons were also found in the brains of schizophrenic patients.
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India: Mysterious disease continues to baffle Uttar Pradesh


uaedailynews.com
Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:07 UTC
After an unknown disease claimed 140 lives in four weeks in Kanpur Dehat district, Uttar Pradesh health authorities now face the challenge of another mysterious malady that has claimed 28 lives in the Rampur district.

According to official records, in the last 30 days about 28 people have died of the unknown disease in Rampur district, over 200 km from here.
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Health

Researchers Identify Natural Tumor Suppressor


Science Daily
Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:05 UTC
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified a key step in the formation - and suppression - of esophageal cancers and perhaps carcinomas of the breast, head, and neck. By studying human tissue samples, they found that Fbx4, a naturally occurring enzyme, plays a key role in stopping production of another protein called Cyclin D1, which is thought to contribute to the early stages of cancer development.

When mutations block production of Fbx4, Cyclin D1 is not broken down, and subsequently contributes to cancer's advance. Fbx4 acts like a bouncer, stopping trouble before it starts by breaking down Cyclin D1 before it can affect the body.

"Cyclin D1 was identified nearly 20 years ago and after that, it became apparent that it was overexpressed in a high percentage of tumors," says J. Alan Diehl, PhD, Associate Professor of Cancer Biology at the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute. "But its expression didn't correlate to mutations within Cyclin D1, so we were looking for a protein that regulates accumulation. That's Fbx4."
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World's Largest-ever Study Of Near-Death Experiences


Science Daily
Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:59 UTC
The University of Southampton is launching the world's largest-ever study of near-death experiences this week.

Image
©iStockphoto/Felix Möckel
Contrary to popular perception, death is not a specific moment, scientists say. It is a process that begins when the heart stops beating, the lungs stop working and the brain ceases functioning.

The AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation) study is to be launched by the Human Consciousness Project of the University of Southampton - an international collaboration of scientists and physicians who have joined forces to study the human brain, consciousness and clinical death.

The study is led by Dr Sam Parnia, an expert in the field of consciousness during clinical death, together with Dr Peter Fenwick and Professors Stephen Holgate and Robert Peveler of the University of Southampton. Following a successful 18-month pilot phase at selected hospitals in the UK, the study is now being expanded to include other centres within the UK, mainland Europe and North America.

"Contrary to popular perception," Dr Parnia explains, "death is not a specific moment. It is a process that begins when the heart stops beating, the lungs stop working and the brain ceases functioning - a medical condition termed cardiac arrest, which from a biological viewpoint is synonymous with clinical death.
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A New Addiction: Internet Junkies


Science Daily
Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:17 UTC
While compulsive gambling is only beginning to be addressed by mental health professionals, they must now face a new affliction: Internet addiction.

"The problem isn't widespread but we know of serious cases in which teenagers don't leave the house, don't have interpersonal relationships, and have been isolated in front of their computer screen for the past two or three years, and only speak in the language of the characters they play with in network video games," says Louise Nadeau, a professor at the Université de Montréal's Department of Psychology.

"In a few years we'll have couples in therapy because the Internet will have become their main occupation."

Nadeau is director of the new university institute on addiction. It was created last year by the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux. The mandate of the institute is to conduct epidemiological studies on addiction, evaluate the services available to patients, guarantee state-of-the-art practices, and document new forms of addiction.
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