SanLuisObispo.com: Health

Patient photos aid docs reading faceless CT scans

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:36 PST

By By LINDSEY TANNER -- Imagine sitting in a dark room all day, evaluating CT scans and other medical images on a computer screen but never actually seeing real patients. That's life for many radiologists.

But an intriguing Israeli study found adding photos of patients' faces to the file made these doctors more meticulous when looking at the X-rays. They reported more details and said they felt more empathy for patients who were otherwise strangers.

Adding patients' photos is a simple, low-tech way to reap rewards for both doctors and their patients, the researchers concluded.

Dirty teeth reveal ancient diet

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:06 PST

Thanks to poor dental hygiene, researchers are getting a more detailed understanding of what people ate thousands of years ago in what is now Peru.

Dental plaque scraped from the teeth of people who lived as much as 9,200 years ago revealed traces of cultivated crops, including squash and beans, according to a report in Monday's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

These ancient people also ate peanuts and a local fruit known as pacay, according to the report by Dolores Piperno, a staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the National Museum of Natural History, and Tom Dillehay, professor of archaeology at Vanderbilt University.

1 in 5 young adults has personality disorder

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:31 PST

By By LINDSEY TANNER -- Almost one in five young American adults has a personality disorder that interferes with everyday life, and even more abuse alcohol or drugs, researchers reported Monday in the most extensive study of its kind.

The disorders include problems such as obsessive or compulsive tendencies and anti-social behavior that can sometimes lead to violence. The study also found that fewer than 25 percent of college-aged Americans with mental problems get treatment.

One expert said personality disorders may be overdiagnosed. But others said the results were not surprising since previous, less rigorous evidence has suggested mental problems are common on college campuses and elsewhere.

Depression leads to internal fat in 70-somethings

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:16 PST

By By CARLA K. JOHNSON -- Older people who are depressed are much more likely to develop a dangerous type of internal body fat - the kind that can lead to diabetes and heart disease - than people who are not depressed, a disturbing new study found.

The connection goes beyond obesity and suggests some biological link between a person's mental state and fat that collects around the internal organs, scientists said.

"For the depressed public, it should be another reason to take one's symptoms seriously and look for treatment," said study co-author Stephen Kritchevsky, director of the Sticht Center on Aging at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Deadlines for other inhalers to go eco-friendly

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:11 PST

Patients with asthma and other lung diseases should stay tuned: Quick-acting albuterol inhalers aren't the only lung medicines poised for changes because they're powered by ozone-damaging chemicals called CFCs.

The most-used daily medications used to prevent asthma attacks already are CFC-free, and all albuterol inhalers - the kind used to treat attacks - must be by Dec. 31.

Other types of CFC-containing inhalers will be phased out later.

Asthma inhalers to go 'green' on Dec. 31

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:36 PST

By By LAURAN NEERGAARD -- Last warning: Asthma inhalers go "green" on Dec. 31, forcing patients still using the old-fashioned kind to make a pricey and even confusing switch. The medicine inside these rescue inhalers - the albuterol that quickly opens airways during an asthma attack - isn't changing. But the chemicals used to puff that drug into your lungs are.

No more chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, that damage Earth's protective ozone layer. By year's end, all albuterol inhalers must be powered by the more eco-friendly chemical HFA, or hydrofluoroalkane.

The down side: The new inhalers cost more, $30 to $60 compared to as little as $5 or $10 for the disappearing generic CFC inhalers.

UN officials launch "Year of the Gorilla"

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:36 PST

By By MARTA FALCONI -- The "Year of the Gorilla" began Monday - a U.N. effort to raise money for primates threatened with extinction from disease, hunting and deforestation.

Officials for the U.N.-backed Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals said they hoped to raise half a million euros ($630,000) for projects aimed at fighting the animals' biggest threats.

"We need to use the resources that we raise to promote more gorilla-watching tourism, to get more equipment and infrastructure to help rangers combat poaching," Robert Hepworth, an official with the Convention, said. "We need to do more to conserve their habitat."

Study shows families' financial strain from autism

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 07:41 PST

By By LINDSEY TANNER -- More than half a million U.S. children have autism with costly health care needs that often put an unprecedented financial strain on their families, national data show.

Compared with parents whose youngsters have chronic health care needs but not autism, those with autistic children are three times more likely to have to quit their jobs or reduce work hours to care for their kids. They pay more for their kids' health needs, spend more time providing or arranging for that care, and are more likely to have money difficulties, the study found.

"This is the first national survey that looked at the impact on families of having kids with special health care needs," said lead author Michael Kogan, a researcher with the government's Maternal and Child Health Bureau.

Some doctors may give up vaccines because of cost

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 07:36 PST

By By MIKE STOBBE -- About one in 10 doctors who vaccinate privately insured children are considering dropping that service largely because they are losing money when they do it, according to a new survey.

A second survey revealed startling differences between what doctors pay for vaccines and what private health insurers reimburse: For example, one in 10 doctors lost money on one recommended infant vaccine, but others made almost $40 per dose on the same shot.

The survey was revealing even to some doctors. "Many physicians really weren't aware and that they were getting reimbursed so little," said Dr. Gary Freed of the University of Michigan, a co-author of both articles published in the December issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Space shuttle glides to safe landing in California

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 01:53 PST

By By JOHN ANTCZAK -- Space shuttle Endeavour slipped out of a brilliant desert sky and touched down safely in California after a nearly 16-day mission to repair and upgrade the international space station.

Stormy weather at the shuttle's main Florida landing site forced controllers to divert Endeavour and its crew of seven astronauts across the country to Edwards Air Force Base, where it glided to Earth at 4:25 p.m. EST Sunday.

"It's great to be back on the ground, and it's great to be in California," shuttle commander Christopher Ferguson said, standing with three of his crew members on the tarmac near the shuttle.

Global AIDS crisis overblown? Some dare to say so

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 09:03 PST

By By MARIA CHENG -- As World AIDS Day is marked on Monday, some experts are growing more outspoken in complaining that AIDS is eating up funding at the expense of more pressing health needs.

They argue that the world has entered a post-AIDS era in which the disease's spread has largely been curbed in much of the world, Africa excepted.

"AIDS is a terrible humanitarian tragedy, but it's just one of many terrible humanitarian tragedies," said Jeremy Shiffman, who studies health spending at Syracuse University.

Problems prompt manual docking at space station

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 08:23 PST

By By STEVE GUTTERMAN -- A Russian cosmonaut used a joystick to guide a modernized cargo ship to the international space station Sunday after problems with an automated system prompted a last-minute switch to a manual docking.

The Progress M-01M craft docked safely with the station on schedule, Russian Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said. It delivered thousands of pounds of propellant, oxygen and water as well as equipment, hardware and holiday gifts for cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov and his two American crew mates..

But the docking was the first for a new model of Russia's the long-serving Progress line of cargo ships - equipped with a fully digital telemetric system - and Lyndin said problems with the automatic docking procedure prompted the switch to manual docking.

Food crunch opens doors to bioengineered crops

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:33 PST

By By ELAINE KURTENBACH -- Zeng Yawen's outdoor laboratory in the terraced hills of southern China is a trove of genetic potential - rice that thrives in unusually cool temperatures, high altitudes or in dry soil; rice rich in calcium, vitamins or iron.

"See these plants? They can tolerate the cold," Zeng says as he walks through a checkerboard of test fields sown with different rice varieties on the outskirts of Kunming, capital of southwestern China's Yunnan province.

"We can extract the cold-tolerant gene from this plant and use it in a genetically manipulated variety to improve its cold tolerance," Zeng says.

Space shuttle Endeavour finishes 16-day mission

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:28 PST

By By JOHN ANTCZAK -- Space shuttle Endeavour and its seven astronauts safely returned to Earth on Sunday, taking a detour to sunny California after storms hit the main landing strip in Florida.

Endeavour wrapped up a 16-day trip that left the international space station freshly remodeled and capable of housing bigger crews. The shuttle dropped off all kinds of home improvement equipment, including a new bathroom, kitchenette, exercise machine, two sleeping quarters and a recycling system designed to convert astronauts' urine and sweat into drinking water.

But the mission wasn't without its problems. Astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper let go of a $100,000 tool bag during the first spacewalk, muttering "Oh, great" as it floated away.

Wash. biologist hazes swans away from deadly lead

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 01:38 PST

By By PHUONG LE -- Years of collecting dead carcasses and examining lead-poisoned livers have convinced Mike Smith of this: to save Pacific Coast trumpeter swans, he has to haze them.

As the sun set behind Judson Lake - the likely source of the lead poisoning - the wildlife biologist kept vigil in a cramped watchtower with a night-vision scope, a noisemaker and a laser.

His mission is to scare the swans off the lake, away from the shotgun pellets that litter the lake bottom and have killed hundreds of the birds.

FDA sets melamine standard for baby formula

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 08:48 PST

By By JOAN LOWY and JUSTIN PRITCHARD -- Two months ago, federal food regulators said they were unable to set a safety threshold for the industrial chemical melamine in baby formula. Now, however, they found a way to settle on a standard that allows for higher levels than those found in U.S.-made batches of the product.

Food and Drug Administration officials on Friday set a threshold of 1 part per million of melamine in formula, provided a related chemical is not present. They insisted the formulas are safe.

The development comes days after The Associated Press reported that FDA tests found traces of melamine in the infant formula of one major U.S. manufacturer and cyanuric acid, a chemical relative, in the formula of a second major maker. The contaminated samples, which both measured at levels below the new standard, were analyzed several weeks ago.