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Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Hospital Lab Faulted in HIV, Hepatitis C Tests

More than 2,000 patients who were tested for HIV or hepatitis C at Baltimore's government-run hospital may have received invalid results, causing state health officials to call for immediate improvement in the facility's testing laboratory.

The Baltimore Sun reports that Maryland General Hospital's lab operation faces fines of up to $10,000 a day for possible erroneous results on 2,169 tests on patients for infections from HIV -- the virus that causes AIDS, and hepatitis C. What's more, the newspaper reports, the hospital issued about 460 test results in January, even though officials there suspected the results were wrong.

The Sun says that hospital officials now will offer the 2,169 patients new examinations and tests. Maryland General Hospital is part of the University of Maryland Health System.

An inspection was conducted in mid-March, the newspaper reports, and found "questionable test results for HIV, hepatitis B and C and sexually transmitted diseases such as chlamydia and gonorrhea. In several cases, inspectors found the hospital used chemical reagents for a variety of routine tests after they had passed their expiration date."

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Breast Implant Settlement Payments May Begin By Summer

It's been nine years since the mammoth chemical company Dow Corning was forced into bankruptcy after it agreed to pay thousands of women a total of more than $2 billion.

It's finally about to happen. And the $2.35 billion settlement amount isn't all bad news for Dow Corning.

The Associated Press reports that a federal judge's order in Detroit Apr. 2 for the payments to begin as early as June 15 also allows for Dow Corning to emerge from bankruptcy.

"This has been such a long time in coming," the wire service quotes one of the claiminants, said Sybil Niden Goldrich, as saying. "Now there's nothing standing in the way for women to be getting money that they need very badly for their medical care to proceed."

The reason it took so long to settle the case is because of disagreements among groups of the 170,000 women who filed the class action suit as to how much each individual should be paid. Dow Corning has now agreed to pay women between $2,000 and $330,000 each, and the federal judge has approved the amount. A.P. reports.

Some of the complaints included pain, disfigurement, and leakage of the silicone implants.

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FDA Warns Supplement Makers About False Weight-Loss Claims

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has sent warning letters to 16 dietary supplement distributors making false and misleading claims for weight-loss products promoted over the Internet, the agency said.

"Obesity in America is at epidemic proportions, and we will not tolerate companies making false claims promising easy fixes," Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said. "There is no substitute for eating well and remaining physically active."

Many of the products claim to block starch, carbohydrates and fat calories, while allowing consumers to lose weight without any changes in lifestyle, the FDA said.

"These products give unfounded hope to people who are attempting to lose weight. False and misleading claims have significant health consequences to individuals that may be overweight because these products do not produce the desired results," said Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Lester M. Crawford. "FDA will continue to enforce the law and pursue products that lure consumers with unsubstantiated weight loss claims."

The FDA said it's requesting a written response from the firms within 15 days of receiving the warning letters, stating the action the firms will take to correct the violations and to ensure that similar violations don't occur in the future.

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Drug Seems to Cut Stroke Risk After Artery Surgery

Taking the anti-clotting drug clopidogrel before surgery to unclog neck arteries may help prevent post-operative strokes, according to researchers at the University of Leicester in Great Britain.

Their study of 100 patients found that giving the drug to patients already taking aspirin prevented strokes after carotid endarterectomy surgery. This procedure is done to remove plaque that narrows neck arteries and increases a person's risk of stroke.

About three percent of patients who have this surgery die or have a stroke in the hours after the operation, BBC News Online reports. Tiny clots called microemboli can break off the surface of the cleaned artery and cause strokes in these patients.

In this study, half the patients received 75 milligrams of clopidogrel, while the other patients received a placebo the night before their surgery. Among those who received the drug, there was a 10-fold reduction in the number of patients who had more than 20 microemboli within three hours after the operation.

The study appears in the journal Circulation.

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Brain Implants May Cure Tourette Syndrome

U.S. surgeons implanted tiny electrodes into the brain of an Ohio man with Tourette syndrome in what appears to be a successful attempt to control the disorder.

University Hospital of Cleveland doctors placed the electrodes into Jeff Matovic's brain to regulate its electrical activity. This approach is called deep brain stimulation.

The doctors say Matovic's symptoms have virtually disappeared since he had the operation and suggest this procedure could help thousands of people with Tourette syndrome, BBC News Online reports.

Matovic, 31, has had the disorder since he was a child. People with Tourette syndrome experience uncontrollable movement and vocalizations.

Matovic told BBC News Online that he no longer suffers the uncontrollable muscle movements, jerking and grunting caused by Tourette syndrome. He said the surgery transformed his life.

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Preschoolers Fuel Growth of Antidepressant Use: Study

Children under 5 years old are the fastest growing group of new antidepressant users, according to a study published in the April issue of the journal Psychiatric Services.

The use of Paxil and similar antidepressants doubled among girls and grew by 64 percent among boys in the age group between 1998 and 2002, according to study sponsor Express Scripts, a St. Louis-based pharmacy benefit management firm. Overall, use of these drugs continued to grow by about 10 percent annually among children and adolescents, the researchers found.

The study's authors examined antidepressant use among some 2 million commercially insured patients 18 years and younger between 1998 and 2002.

The announcement followed last week's recommendation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that makers of Paxil and nine other popular antidepressants incorporate more stringent packaging labeling, warning of a possible link between the drugs and increased suicidal thinking among young users.

The 10 medications are among a class of drugs known as SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), which also includes Prozac and Zoloft.

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