The next flu season will come. To prevent high-risk people from infections, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recently published a final guidance on the use of the drugs oseltamivir, amantadine and zanamivir for the prophylaxis of influenza. "But vaccination is the main way to prevent flu", says Gillian Leng, NICE Deputy Chief Executive.
Injections, that's everyday business for the men and women working in healthcare. As long as it is the patients who have to face the needle, it seems. Like in the years before Dr Heinzpeter Moecke, medical director of Asklepios Klinik Nord-Heidberg in Hamburg, Germany, set an example for his staff and had a vaccination.
Until recently, physicians believed that stenosis was responsible for strokes. But new investigations show that the composition of complicated plaques are the major cause. Canadian researchers now used 3-D MRI to accuratly detect bleeding by those plaques within the vessel walls.
A hearing test screening, designed to detect hearing impairments in newborns, shell help prevent irreversible and permanent hearing problems in about 2000 babies in Germany per year. From 1 January 2009, this test might be covered by the statutory health insurances
Now it seems to be proven: The reason why people in Mediterranean countries live longer and healthier can be connected with their nutrition. Researchers in Italy found that sticking rigidly to a full Mediterranean diet can help reduce deaths from major chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.
Mediterranean diet protects against chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. Italian scientists bolstering one more time the idea that low intake of meat, dairy products and alcohol, but high intake of vegetables, fruits, nuts, olive oil, grains and fish servers as a model of healthy eating, according to a study in the British Medical Journal.
Good news for diabetes patients in the UK: According to a report published recently by the Department of Health, diabetes care in the NHS is improving and focusing more on prevention. The result: More patients have been identified, and in more people at risk development of the condition could be prevented.
Researchers have discovered a potential new treatment for diabetes by isolating and killing defective cells which prevent the natural production of insulin. The investigation opens the door to a potential therapy for patients with type 1 diabetes.
The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research recently agreed funding for a diabetes competence network — the first diabetes mellitus project to be funded by the ministry's new “Health Research — Research for People” programme.
Optimal treatment of diabetes is very difficult to achieve since many obstacles have to be overcome such as expensive treatments, poor patient compliance or insufficient datac. With these challenges in mind, a new research project titled "Computerassisted Diabetes Risk Management (CDRM)" was put in place to examine how eHealth solutions can improve diabetes care.
Experts starts to identify nutrition's components that might support the fight against diseases. Recently researchers from John Hopkins Medical School found that a decrease in lung concentrations of NFR2-dependent antioxidants, key components of the lung's defense system, is linked to the severity of chronic obstructive pulmany disease (COPD) in smokers.
Vulvar cancer is the fourth most common cancer of the female genital tract. In 2008, roughly 3,460 cases of vulvar cancer will be diagnosed in the United States and about 870 will die of this cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.
Lifestyle and risk factor results show that recommended scientific guidelines form a contrast to what is achieved in daily practice in high risk individuals in primary prevention of CVD. Together with its partners the ESC demands a comprehensive and multisdicplinary primary prevention programme involving the high-risk population, their GP's and other health professionals, a health insurance…
Between June 2004 and April 2008 the Dutch DECREASE III Study observed patients treated with Fluvastatin. The results show that Fluvastatin XL therapy can be associated with improved postoperative cardiac outcome in high-risk patients undergoing elective vascular surgery.
bioMérieux, a world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics (IVD), offers the most comprehensive diagnostic solution on the market to help hospitals and healthcare facilities fight Healthcare-Associated Infection (HAI).
Intima media thickness (IMT) is a valuable research tool that can be used as surrogate end points in clinical trails, says Professor Stefan Agewall.
Professor C Mueller adressed the issue of new biomarkers in acute cardiac care on the ESC on Monday, 1st September. Read his comment in the following.
Recent studies have shown that overweight and obesity during childhood and adolescence have a negative impact on the functioning of the internal walls of the arteries, paving the way to the development of an arteriosclerotic disease from an increasingly early age.
This year sees the fifth anniversary of EuroPRevent.
Countries vary widely in their capacity to manage hypertension, but globally the majority of diagnosed hypertensives is inadequately controlled. Not treated it can cause cardiovascular disease (CVD), myocardial infarction and stroke. According to the WHO, hypertension is estimated to cause 4.5% of the current global disease burden and is as prevalent in many developing countries as in the…
Martini Clinic, in the University Hospital Eppendorf (UKE) campus in Hamburg, is one of the world's major centres for nerve-sparing prostatectomy. The Martini physicians not only specialise in surgical intervention but are also at the cutting edge of diagnostics, being among the few in Germany to use sono-elastography, an innovative tool to detect prostate cancer. We asked Dr Georg Salomon (GS),…
An emerging discipline of noninvasive cardiac imaging, molecular imaging, has evolved constantly in the last few years and is increasingly being translated from the preclinical to the clinical level. Molecular imaging allows for unique insights into specific disease mechanisms and holds great promise to change the practice of cardiovascular medicine by facilitating early disease detection,…
What is the role of vascular ultrasound in stroke prevention? Asked by Karoline Laarmann of European Hospital, Professor Christian Arning MD, Medical Director of the Neurology Department at Asklepios Klinik Wandsbek, Germany, and Deputy Chairman of the German Society of Ultrasound in Medicine (DEGUM), gave an unequivocal answer: crucial - but only if the sonographer is properly qualified.
Every summer the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) holds Europe's biggest annual meeting of specialists in cardiovascular medicine, inviting and drawing in top international medical professionals. Karoline Laarmann asked Professor Kim Fox, President of the European Society of Cardiology and Consultant Cardiologist at the Royal Brompton Hospital, and professor of clinical cardiology at Imperial…
Bad economic conditions, e.g. a recession, at the time of birth may lead to a higher risk of cardiovascular mortality much later in life, according to a recent study published by researchers at the Institute for the Study of Labour (IZA) in Bonn.