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

Researchers Say HRT Studies Were Flawed

A major U.S. study finding that the health risks of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) outweigh the benefits is now being called into question.

The huge Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study, which was halted early in 2002 after finding that women were at a higher risk heart attack and strokes, was deeply flawed, according to Yale University researchers.

In the Yale analysis, the researchers contend that the negative effects of HRT on the heart weren't proven in younger women who were just entering menopause, according to an account in the British newspaper The Guardian. They say most of the women examined in the WHI had been menopausal for some years, and that the possibility that younger women may actually be protected by HRT shouldn't be dismissed.

Results of the Yale analysis appear in the June 28 issue of the journal Fertility and Sterility.

Since the release of the WHI and subsequent negative studies, many women have stopped the treatment.

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Antidepressant Doesn't Help Children, Maker Concedes

The antidepressant Lexapro does not appear to help depressed children and adolescents, its maker concedes from a recent clinical study.

Forest Laboratories' acknowledgement, reported by The New York Times, is significant since the medication contains the same active ingredient as another company antidepressant -- Celexa -- which is widely prescribed for children.

The Times also reported that Forest has neglected to make light of a failed, unpublished 2002 study of Celexa use in children and adolescents. Forest denies any wrongdoing, the newspaper reported.

Makers of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) -- of which Lexapro and Celexa are two -- have come under increased scrutiny of late, following studies that found a link between the medications and suicidal tendencies among young users. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has begun investigating the merits of such a link.

While the Eli Lilly drug Prozac is the only SSRI that's FDA-approved for use in children, doctors are free to prescribe other antidepressants to young people. Celexa has become the fourth-leading drug prescribed for pediatric depression, the Times reported.

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New York Mandates Fire-Safe Cigarettes

Beginning Monday, if you take too long to puff on your cigarette in New York, you may have to relight it.

New York is the first state to require fire-safe cigarettes designed to extinguish themselves if not puffed regularly. The law is meant to cut down on the number of smoking-related fires, according to the Associated Press.

The cigarettes are wrapped in ultra-thin banded paper than inhibits burning. Makers of the new models warn, however, that while the cigarettes may go out on their own, they still are capable of starting fires.

Some 900 Americans die and another 2,500 are hurt by fires started by unattended cigarettes, the AP said.

Packs of cigarettes that comply with the new law will bear a tiny mark next to the bar code -- an asterisk, dash, or diamond, the wire service said.

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Hemophilia Drug Shows Promise as Stroke Treatment

They're called hemorrhagic strokes, they are the most devastating type of stroke, and they strike 80,000 Americans annually. But in what researchers are calling the first possible treatment for this type of stroke that causes bleeding in the brain, a new study finds that a hemophilia drug sharply cuts the chances that victims will die or be severely disabled.

A worldwide study of 400 patients revealed that a single infusion of the drug, NovoSeven, given within three hours after onset of stroke cut by about one-third the risk of death or severe disability, the Washington Post reported Sunday.

If confirmed with additional research, the finding would mark only the second time that any treatment has been shown effective for any type of stroke. And it would be the first effective treatment for hemorrhagic stroke, the newspaper said.

"These results are beyond my wildest dreams," said Stephan A. Mayer, an associate professor of neurology and neurosurgery at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, who led the study. "I thought this might work, but I had no idea it would work so well. I'm walking around in a state of shock. I'm very excited."

Mayer presented his findings at the World Stroke Congress in Vancouver, Canada.

The drug will require more testing before it is approved by U.S. health officials for use with stroke patients. Still, Mayer and other experts predicted it would likely become the standard stroke treatment and "transform care for what had essentially been tens of thousands of hopeless patients," the Post said.

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U.S. Tests for Possible Mad Cow Case

U.S. health officials said Saturday that it was safe to eat beef, even though preliminary testing indicated a possible second case of mad cow disease in the country, the Associated Press reported.

A preliminary screening test designed to give rapid results had indicated an animal had mad cow disease, which is also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). These preliminary tests can't confirm whether an animal is truly infected, the AP said.

Definitive tests are being done at the U.S. Agriculture Department's National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa. Results from those tests could take up to seven days, the news service quoted the department as saying. The Iowa lab diagnosed the nation's only confirmed case of BSE, in a Washington state Holstein, last December.

Until those definitive tests are complete, the Agriculture Department said it would not identify the animal, the state it came from or the slaughterhouse where it was killed, the AP said.

"The inconclusive result does not mean we have found another case of BSE in this country," said Dr. John Clifford, deputy administrator of the department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. "Inconclusive results are a normal part of most screening tests."

The department remains confident in the safety of the U.S. food supply, Clifford said. Meat from the animal did not enter the human food supply or livestock feed, he said. Keeping the carcass out of the supply chain is one of several federal safeguards against introduction of BSE into the food supply. These include rules that prohibit the use of the riskiest cattle parts, such as brains and spinal cords, according to the AP.

People who eat infected products can contract a rare but fatal disease similar to BSE, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

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