Medscape Today News

• Survival After in-Hospital CPR Static Since 1992 An analysis of Medicare records for over 433 000 patients who received CPR between 1992 and 2005 showed that the rate of survival to hospital discharge hovered at around 18%, in spite of efforts to improve CPR delivery.
  Heartwire, July 2009
• System-of-Care Managers Reduce Burden of Depression for Elderly Primary-Care Patients Older patients with major depression with access to trained care managers are more likely to receive treatment and have reduced suicidal ideation and increased remission rates vs usual care.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2009
• Alert Insulin Glargine Potentially Associated With Increased Cancer Risk The increased risk has been seen in 3 of 4 observational studies, but these findings warrant further follow-up studies to confirm an association, according to the FDA.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2009
• Use of BMP in Spinal Fusion Surgery Linked to More Complications, Higher Costs A study shows that use of bone-morphogenetic protein in spinal-fusion surgery is associated with a higher rate of complications and higher hospital costs than surgeries where it was not used.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2009
• ENS 2009: Migraine Linked to Vascular Risk Factors In addition to a neurological exam, patients with migraine should be tested for cardiovascular risk factors, report specialists.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2009
• ENS 2009: First Signs of Parkinson's Often Not Motor-Related Olfactory dysfunction, dysautonomia, or mood and sleep disorders can emerge years before the motor manifestations of Parkinson's, report experts.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2009
• Prostate Cancer Patients Should Not Take Selenium Supplements Higher blood levels of selenium were associated with aggressive prostate cancer, particularly in men with a certain variant of the superoxide dismutase gene.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2009
• Congressional Committee Hears of "Erratic" Placement of Radiation Seeds in Prostate Cancer Patients Implantation of radiation seeds for the treatment of prostate cancer at 1 center in Philadelphia was "substandard," but this appears to be an isolated situation.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2009
• Alert Chantix and Zyban to Receive Boxed Warnings for Serious Neuropsychiatric Symptoms Varenicline and bupropion are receiving boxed warnings regarding the risks for changes in behavior, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts and behavior, and attempted suicide.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2009
• FDA Safety Changes: Prevpac, Arava, Treanda The FDA has approved safety labeling revisions for a prepackaged regimen of lansoprazole, amoxicillin, and clarithromycin tablets; leflunomide tablets; and bendamustine HCl intravenous infusion.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2009
• Severe Community-Acquired Pneumonia Score May Help Predict Adverse Outcomes The severe community-acquired pneumonia score is at least as accurate as other current scoring systems in predicting adverse outcomes in patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2009
• New Hemoglobin Target Levels in Chronic Kidney Disease Suggested A meta-analysis shows that targeting hemoglobin levels higher than 12.0 g/dL leads to small and not clinically meaningful improvements in health-related quality of life, despite safety concerns.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2009
• Enalapril, Losartan May Have Retinal, but Not Renal, Benefits in Type 1 Diabetes In a controlled trial, early blockade of the renin-angiotensin system did not slow the progression of nephropathy but slowed the progression of retinopathy in patients with type 1 diabetes.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2009
• Phthalate Exposure Linked to Low Birth Weight Findings from a study of Chinese newborns suggest that maternal-fetal exposure to phthalates -- plasticizer chemicals used in many consumer products -- increases the risk of low birth weight (LBW).
  Reuters Health Information, June 2009
• Alert FDA May Restrict Acetaminophen Advisers tell the FDA to lower the over-the-counter dosage of the popular pain drug.
  WebMD Health News, July 2009
• Neurologist Ralph Sacco President-Elect of the American Heart Association Dr. Sacco is the first neurologist to take the presidency of AHA.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2009
• CRP, Other Biomarkers, Not Clinically Useful to Predict CVD Risk Screening for contemporary biomarkers, such as CRP, will not add much to conventional cardiovascular risk factors in terms of helping to predict future events in the primary-prevention setting, say the authors of a new study.
  Heartwire, June 2009
• Alogliptin Delayed; Cancer Concerns With Insulin Glargine The makers of alogliptin say it will be two years before they have the cardiovascular data needed by the FDA, while the EASD raises concerns over a possible cancer risk with insulin glargine.
  Heartwire, June 2009
• Mainly Medical Unknowns Regarding Michael Jackson's Apparent Cardiac Arrest With concerns raised about the use of prescription painkillers in Jackson's death, as well as the stress he was under with an impending world tour, Dr Douglas Zipes, from the ACC, and Dr Vinay Nadkarmi, from the AHA, both weigh in on some of the speculation.
  Heartwire, June 2009
• Masitinib May Be Effective Against Refractory Rheumatoid Arthritis Researchers report RA patients find relief with masitinib from their symptoms.
  WebMD Health News, June 2009