Category: News Archive

A study published in Archives of Internal Medicine shows that joint replacement relieves symptoms in older people with osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common causes of pain and disability in the knees and hips of older people, and joint replacement surgery relieves pain and restores function. The study assessed 174 patients over […]

According to a study in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, combination treatment for early rheumatoid arthritis is better than methotrexate alone. Dr Choy of King's College London and colleagues studied 467 patients treated for nine months with methotrexate alone, or with methotrexate plus ciclosporin, prednisolone or both. Assessing 379 patients over two years, the […]

A flying water-bottle cap caused a serious injury to the right eye of a 14-year-old girl. Teenagers have taken to twisting empty plastic water bottles until the pressure inside shoots the loose cap into the air, and it can hit the eye. The girl could see only hand movements, and the pressure inside her eye […]

Long-term use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), especially ibuprofen, was linked with a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease in a new study from Boston University School of Medicine. People who used ibuprofen for more than five years had a 40% lower risk of Alzheimer's, while those who took some other NSAIDs had a 25% lower […]

Researchers have found more than 250 genes that contribute to the development of leukaemia (cancer of the white blood cells). Jaap Kool, Anthony Uren and colleagues at the Netherlands Cancer Institute traced 10,000 mutations in 500 mouse leukaemias, and analysing them revealed more than 250 new cancer genes. In mice, the researchers used a technique […]

Children exposed in the womb to some infections of the mother, such as vaginal thrush and diarrhoea, have a higher risk of epilepsy, according to results reported in Pediatrics. Infections in pregnancy have been linked with a higher risk of cerebral palsy, learning disability and schizophrenia, but their link with epilepsy was unclear. Seasonal patterns […]

A study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology stresses the need to treat eczema in children properly, to help prevent asthma later. The study, carried out at a university in Melbourne, included 8,500 people aged 7 to 44. People who had eczema as children were more likely to develop asthma in childhood […]

A study published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that more than half of adults with diabetes also have arthritis, and the pain can get in the way of the physical activity that plays a key role in managing diabetes. In the United States about 46.4 million adults have arthritis […]

Intravenous aminoglycoside antibiotics, especially gentamicin, raise the risk of acute kidney failure in people with cystic fibrosis (CF), so intravenous gentamicin is no longer recommended for treating chest flare-ups in CF, says Dr Alan Smyth of the University of Nottingham. Using gentamicin within the past year was linked with a higher risk of kidney failure, […]

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have seen areas of a mother's brain light up when she looks at pictures of her own baby smiling. This response is thought to be key to the mother–baby bond, which matters greatly for the child's healthy development. The researchers used functional MRI, which measures blood flow in the […]

A study published in Archives of Disease in Childhood shows that one daily dose of amoxicillin by mouth works as well as penicillin V twice a day for throat infection caused by group A beta-haemolytic streptococcus (GABHS) in children at high risk of acute rheumatic fever. Rheumatic fever is a complication of GABHS throat infection, […]

Health regulators have warned for the second time about transplant drugs from Roche and Novartis that can cause miscarriage and birth defects if used during pregnancy. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it had received reports of miscarriages, and of ear and mouth defects in newborns whose mothers took Roche's CellCept (mycophenolate mofetil), […]