ROCKVILLE, Md. -- The demand for obesity surgery has swelled by nearly 2,000% from 1998 to 2004, according to the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. -- With smoking bans extending to even the traditionally smoke-filled congressional Speaker's Lobby, a new tobacco-suffused hand gel called Nicogel promises to banish smokers' cravings for up to four hours.

GAITHERSBURG, Md. -- The issues surrounding drug-eluting coronary stents remain white hot. The core question is whether they will emerge, in the end, as a great boon to coronary patients or as a lethal insult of major magnitude.

ATLANTA -- Prescription and over-the-counter cough and cold remedies have been linked to the deaths of three infants, CDC researchers here reported.

WASHINGTON -- Diabetic patients and others at high risk for late thrombosis after drug-eluting coronary stent use should be considered for extended dual antiplatelet therapy -- longer than 12 months -- or higher dose of Plavix, cardiologists urged today.

LOS ANGELES -- For heart failure patients, the "obesity paradox" of better survival rates with increasing heft appears to hold true during acute hospitalization as well, according to a large registry study.

NEW YORK -- Two drugs, Sutent (sunitinib) and Nexavar (sorafenib), slowed progression of advanced renal-cell carcinoma, investigators reported today, but it was not clear whether either agent would extend overall survival significantly.

BALTIMORE -- Patients who live at least five years after a pancreaticoduodenectomy for periampullary adenocarcinoma have a better than 50-50 chance of living another five years, according to a study here.

BERLIN -- Black tea's purported cardiovascular benefits disappear when milk, even skimmed milk, is mixed into the brew, found researchers here.

TORONTO -- Heart attack survivors who conscientiously take prescribed statins or beta-blockers live longer than those who don't, but that's not so for compliant patients on calcium channel inhibitors, researchers here reported.

CLEVELAND -- In smoking-related head-and-neck squamous-cell carcinoma, genetic alterations in the apparently non-malignant connective tissue and in the epithelium have been found, according to a preliminary study.

SAN FRANCISCO -- B-type natriuretic peptide, a marker of myocardial stretch, predicted adverse coronary outcomes and mortality in patients with stable coronary heart disease, researchers reported.

MONTREAL -- There's been a sharp rise in the observed prevalence of congenital heart defects in the past 20 years, according to an analysis of Canadian medical databases.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Cells harvested from amniotic fluid express embryonic and adult stem cell markers, researchers here reported.

NEW YORK -- Folate appears associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease, although the relationship is tenuous, according to an observational study here.

BOSTON -- The interplay of genetic predisposition and modifiable risk factors, such as obesity and smoking, increases the risk for age-related macular degeneration, researchers reported.

SEATTLE -- Parents of a severely cognitively and physically disabled girl have publicly defended their decision to retard her growth through the use of hormonal therapy and surgery, saying they were acting out of love and compassion.

LIVERPOOL, England -- Premature babies have a better chance of survival without severe neurological impairment than they did in the 1980s, researchers here reported.

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- The FDA approved a diet drug today that it wants no one to even consider taking. Slentrol (dirlotapide), is an obesity agent for dogs, with nasty side effects if humans try it.

BERLIN -- The ergot-derived dopamine agonists Permax (pergolide) and Dostinex (cabergoline) are associated with an increased risk of cardiac-valve regurgitation, according to two studies.