CAMBRIDGE, England -- In families with two or members who have multiple sclerosis, the age of onset is likely to be similar, although the disease severity may differ, an international research team has found.

MADRID -- Starting artificial nutrition early but at a limited energy requirement may protect against liver dysfunction for intensive care patients with sepsis, according to a large cohort study here.

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- For cancer patients with anemia not caused by chemotherapy, the off-label use of Aranesp (darbepoetin alfa) is ineffective and also boosts mortality, the FDA reported.

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 29 -- Off-pump coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) offers no advantage for cognitive function over on-pump surgery, researchers said here.

ORLANDO -- For predicting survival after pancreatic cancer surgery, the ratio of metastatic to examined nodes might be more accurate than the absolute number metastatic nodes sampled, researchers reported here.

LIVERPOOL, England -- Low-dose glucocorticoid agents given along with standard disease-modifying drugs reduced the progression of early rheumatoid arthritis for up to two years, Cochrane reviewers reported.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Folic acid supplements during pregnancy apparently reduce the risk of a cleft lip in addition to neural tube defects, according to a study in Norway.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Offering hospitals a relatively small financial incentive improved their quality of care for acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, and pneumonia, researchers here reported.

GRAFTON, New Zealand -- An ounce of reassurance may be worth a pound of cure for some chest pain patients undergoing diagnostic tests, researchers here report.

AARHUS, Denmark -- Pregnant women can drink coffee without the fear it will lead to a premature birth or a low-birth-weight baby, according to researchers here.

LOS ANGELES -- The impulse to smoke cigarettes may be one of the conscious urges that are intimately involved with the insula, a cortical region of the brain, according to researchers here. A damaged insula, they discovered, makes smokers forget to smoke.

ORLANDO -- Treatment of gastrointestinal cancers can be improved with a more thorough understanding of tumor biology, researchers here reported.

ATLANTA -- The self-reported use of annual or biennial mammography screening by U.S. women declined by nearly 2% in the years from 2000 to 2005, according to CDC investigators.

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- An FDA advisory panel has recommended that the agency expand post-marketing surveillance of oral contraceptives and require that their manufacturers study safety and efficacy in wide-ranging populations.

IRVINE, Calif. -- Male breast cancer is comparatively rare, but its diagnosis carries an elevated risk of second primaries, found epidemiologists here.

WOLVERHAMPTON, England -- Diuretics offered no clear benefit for preventing preeclampsia in pregnant women and should not be used to prevent its onset, Cochrane reviewers concluded.

HAIFA, Israel -- The phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors led to a 26.7% successful intercourse rate, compared with controls, for men with diabetes-related erectile dysfunction, according to a meta-analysis.

BASEL, Switzerland -- Contrary to a previous report, the presence in the blood of two types of antibodies to myelin is neither diagnostic of multiple sclerosis, nor of risk of progression to MS, according to European and Canadian investigators.

GLASGOW, Scotland -- Among women with symptomatic fibroids, the faster recovery after uterine-artery embolization must be weighed against the possibility of needing further treatment, researchers here reported.

SEATTLE -- Gastrointestinal graft-versus-host disease has been significantly reduced following allogeneic stem-cell transplants by the use of a common topical corticosteroid that was reformulated into pill form, according to researchers here.