All News

LONDON -- As a quick screening tool, the ratio of a patient's white blood cell types differentiated acute purulent tonsillitis from infectious mononucleosis, researchers here reported.

GAITHERSBURG, Md. -- Despite the sturm and drang over the thrombosis threats posed by the two first generation drug-eluting coronary stents, there is unflagging enthusiasm for new and improved devices.

NEW YORK -- For reasons that are unclear, black patients in New York State who had a coronary bypass in 1999 were more likely than whites to have surgery without a cardiopulmonary pump -- but by surgeons not well experienced in the demanding technique.

LEICESTER, England -- One of the apparently myriad benefits of statins in coronary artery disease may be to retard the shortening of telomeres, the bits of DNA that cap the ends of chromosomes.

BOSTON -- Few of the safeguards routinely used for infusion chemotherapy have been adopted for oral chemotherapy at major U.S. cancer centers, according to an analysis.

GAITHERSBURG, Md. -- Although the problem of stent thrombosis has been acknowledged, it is not at all certain what the circumstances are that trigger formation of a thrombus.

BOSTON -- An endoscopic surgical procedure to treat symptomatic gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) was safe and effective over a three-year follow-up, found researchers here.

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.

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.