Health and Medicine

Vasopressin as an agent for cardio-pulmonary resuscitation

Diseases of the cardiovascular system continue to be the most frequent causes of death in the Western world. For over 100 years, Adrenaline has been the standard drug of choice in the treatment of sudden cardiac arrest. A team of researchers headed by Karl H. Lindner and Volker Wenzel from the University Department of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, University of Innsbruck, has, with the support of the Austrian Sc

UK researchers have developed a novel method of treating uterine fibroids that allows women to be treated under local anaesthetic as outpatients. Their technique, which uses a laser guided by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), is reported today (Friday 27 September) in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal, Human Reproduction.*

Around a quarter of women have fibroids – benign fibrous tumours – in their wombs. Many have no symptoms but others suffer heavy or prolonged periods and pain

A common spermicide gel which has previously been proposed as a preventative agent against HIV-1 infection has been shown to be ineffective, according to authors of a study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET-and could actually increase HIV-1 transmission if used frequently.

Nonoxynol-9 is an inexpensive over-the-counter spermicide; laboratory studies have suggested that it could be a barrier to HIV-1 infection and other sexually transmitted diseases, although previous studies among women hav

he New England Journal of Medicine’s Sept. 26 issue carries the first published report showing that a combination treatment with peginterferon alfa-2a (Pegasys) – a new long-acting interferon drug – and an antiviral medication is more beneficial than the standard combination therapy for people with the most-difficult-to-treat and most common strain of hepatitis C.

The large international study, headed by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is also the first p

Research results from the “Era of Hope” Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program meeting

iopsy is the standard tool to determine whether small breast tumors have invaded nearby lymph nodes, a signal that additional therapy is called for to destroy roving cancer cells. But the traditional procedure for nodal biopsy is, itself, major surgery with serious potential complications, and many women with early-stage cancer have no biopsy or follow up therapy, putting them at risk

When a stroke affects the language areas in the left side of the brain, the right side takes over and learns how to perform language tasks, according to research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The study found that patients’ right side of the brain is more active than normal during a verbal language task, and that the right side’s activity decreases with practice, similar to what happens on the left side of the brain in healthy individuals.

“This is the f