  
| 
| ||||||||||||
  This week in the medical journalsBy Peggy Peck Editor's note: CNN.com has a business partnership with MedPageToday.com, which provides custom health content. A medical journal roundup from MedPage Today appears each Thursday. Benefits may outweigh risks International teams of multiple sclerosis researchers took a second look at Tysabri (natalizumab), a promising MS drug that was taken off the market last year amid reports that it was linked to a sometimes fatal condition called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy Three studies published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine provided evidence that the drug's benefits -- reducing MS relapse rate as well as disease progression -- may outweigh its risks. The studies follow by two weeks a move by the FDA to allow resumption of clinical studies of Tysabri in patients who had already been treated with the drug. Tysabri studies suggest ms efficacy may more than balance PML risk Risks may outweigh benefitsBut another study in this week's NEJM found that the risks of an antibiotic may outweigh its benefits. The drug, called Tequin (gatifloxacin), was linked to dangerous -- and sometimes fatal -- highs and lows in blood sugar in elderly patients who used the broad-spectrum antibiotic to treat infections. Patients taking Tequin were four times as likely to be hospitalized for hypoglycemia and 17 times as likely to be hospitalized for hyperglycemia as 70-year-olds treated with antibiotics such as Biaxin (clarithromycin) or Zithromax (azithromycin). Based on those findings from Canadian researchers, an editorial writer recommended what seemed obvious, that other less costly and safer antibiotics are a better choice for patients. Tequin linked to high risk of dangerous glucose changes Deadly infectionsAnd speaking of infections, it turns out that women who undergo bypass surgery have a high risk of infection. Researchers at the University of Michigan reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine that 16 percent of women undergoing bypass surgery develop infections versus 10 percent of women. That difference, rather than smaller hearts and smaller veins, may be the real reason that women are more likely than men to die after bypass surgery. Infection may explain higher mortality for women after coronary bypass He who hesitates...Any operation can be risky, which makes many people hesitate before surgery. And hesitation is not necessarily a bad thing, according to prostate cancer researchers from Johns Hopkins in Baltimore who reported this week that some men can safely delay prostate surgery for as long as two years. Writing in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the Hopkins team report that men with small, low-grade prostate tumors who put off surgery for two years had the same outcome as men who had immediate surgery. Men with localized low-grade prostate tumors can delay surgery Not so benign lumpsSurgery, on the other hand, may be a good choice for women who have breast lumps diagnosed as benign by needle biopsy. Radiologists at NYU Medical Center in New York reported in Radiology that a substantial number of papillary breast lesions, initially diagnosed as benign, turned out to be malignant. In their study, 21 percent of the benign biopsies were wrong -- that was nine of 42 women included in the series. Needle biopsy of benign breast lesions can mislead Padding the issueThen again, sometimes surgery removes tissue that should stay where nature put it, according to Boston University researchers. They reported in Arthritis & Rheumatism that a standard surgery for osteoarthritic knee pain -- removing part or all of a damaged meniscus -- may just lead to more problems down the road. The meniscus covers and cushions the joint surfaces of the knee and cutting away this protective cover is like removing the padding from bedsprings -- a painful prospect. Arthritic knee procedures may lead to future deterioration Another reason for aggressive treatmentA second study in the same journal, Arthritis & Rheumatism, linked lymphoma to severe rheumatoid arthritis. Researchers from Uppsala, Sweden, reported that severe longstanding rheumatoid arthritis is associated with a 70-fold increase in the risk of lymphoma compared with the risk in patients with mild, well managed rheumatoid arthritis. The bottom line, the researchers concluded, is that rheumatoid arthritis requires aggressive treatment to reduce pain and disability -- and reduce the risk of lymphoma. Arthritic knee procedures may lead to future deterioration First the thrills...How is this for 21st century medicine? Israeli researchers reported that a "self-propelled, self-guided" investigational endoscope that uses a balloon and air pressure to pilot a tiny camera through the bowel may be a effective and safe way to screen for colon cancer. Yet the device, which is called the Aer-O-Scope , can only be used for diagnosis. Traditional colonoscopy would still be needed to removed polyps or take any suspicious tissue for biopsy, they wrote in Gastroenterology. Self-navigating device would screen for colon cancer ... then the spillsThe idea that stem cells could be used to regenerate heart muscle damaged by a heart attack is so appealing that researchers in several countries have been pursuing this goal. But this week the exciting research hit a speed bump. Stem cells didn't build new heart muscle. A team of German researchers reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association that giving heart attack survivors infusions of a hormone that triggers stem cell production didn't improve outcome compared to placebo. The patients received the hormone treatments for five days based on the theory that the excess stem cells would home in on the damaged heart muscle and start producing new heart muscle cells. Stem cells fall way short for repair of heart attack damage By contrast two simple approaches demonstrated benefit in the fight against heart disease. Put on a happy faceAll that musical advice about staying on the sunny side of the street and letting a smile be your umbrella was good advice, especially for men. A team of Dutch researchers reported that a merry old soul has only about half the risk of dying of heart disease as a grouchy old man. Optimism, they wrote in Archives of Internal Medicine, is inversely related to mortality, at least from heart disease. Cheery optimistic men less likely to die from heart disease Cocoa, food for lifeAnd old men for whom happiness is a good cup of cocoa or a cocoa-rich chocolate bar are really lucky, according to a second study in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Another team of Dutch researchers reported that men who included a cup of cocoa or its equivalent in their daily diet had lower blood pressure than men who didn't fancy cocoa. And the cocoa drinkers were also less likely to die of heart disease. Sipping cocoa and nibbling chocolate cuts blood pressure and mortality Finally, there was a curious study about yet another health risk linked to smoking. Now, this is riskyMen who smoke cigarettes are twice as likely to need root canal treatment as men who never smoked. That was the finding from the VA Dental Longitudinal Study, which will be published in the April issue of the Journal of Dental Research. A Boston University researcher reported the smoking-root canal link at an American Medical Association-American Dental Association press briefing this week. Endnote: Aside from heart disease, lung cancer, emphysema, and, now, root canal procedures, why worry about smoking? Smoking nearly doubles root canal requirements 
|
| ||||||||||||
| © 2007 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us. Site Map. |
 |
|
External sites open in new window; not endorsed by CNN.com
Pay service with live and archived video. 
