Home > News

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

Drug Delays Onset of Alzheimer's Symptoms

A drug used to treat mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease may delay development of the less severe forms of brain impairment, HealthDay reports.

Patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) who took donepezil (brand name Aricept) had a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's compared to people taking a placebo, according to research presented at the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders being held in Philadelphia from July 17-22.

The reduction in risk lasted only for the first 18 months of the three-year trial, however. When those taking donepezil did develop Alzheimer's, it was an average of six months later than those who took a non-medicinal placebo.

The data is consistent with what experts already know about this class of drugs, cholinesterase inhibitors, which is that they have an effect on symptoms but do not affect the underlying disease process, said William Thies, vice president of medical and scientific affairs at the Alzheimer's Association.

A number of questions remain unanswered, including why the benefit appears to end at 18 months, whether there is a specific window of opportunity during which these drugs work, whether the observed slowdown holds throughout the course of Alzheimer's in people who go on to develop it, and whether the drug has any promise for actual prevention, HealthDay reported.

-----

Researchers: Flick -- Don't Squash -- Mosquitoes

A mosquito bite has a better chance of becoming infected if you squash the bloodsucking insect while it's stinging you than if you simply flick it off, according to an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The article focuses on the case of a 57-year-old Pennsylvania woman who died two years ago of a mosquito-borne muscular fungal infection called Brachiola algerae, according to the Associated Press.

The article's authors, including Christina Coyle of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, concluded that the victim must have smashed the bug on her skin, forcing some of its infected body parts into the bite.

The suggestion to flick the insect in mid-bite is similar to the long standing advice for tick-bite victims, the AP pointed out.

The new advice isn't without its critics, however. Roger Nasci, an expert at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says he doesn't see the scientific proof that flicking will do any better than squashing. And because flicking probably won't kill the mosquito, it may go on to bite you again, he notes.

-----

Woman's Honesty Saves Money for Minnesota HMO

Depending on whom you ask, Mary Simmons might just be the most unpopular woman in Minnesota right now.

The 79-year-old retired Roseville school librarian wound up saving the Medica Health Plans HMO big bucks by pointing out a computer bug that permitted pharmacists to give thousands of retirees free generic prescriptions for several weeks, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported.

The incident began when Simmons picked up $100 worth of prescriptions at a local pharmacy and was told they were free. The pharmacist explained that Simmons had been given a $600 drug credit for low-income people as a result of the new federal Medicare law.

But Simmons realized her income was too high to qualify. A phone call to Medica straightened the whole thing out, to the relief of the HMO, which hadn't been informed of the error by anyone else.

Medica -- which said it will allow people who already benefited from the mistake to keep their windfall -- is still trying to figure out just how much it lost, the newspaper said.

-----

Depression Tied to Increase in Nerve Cells

A new study finds that a higher number of nerve cells in a part of the brain called the thalamus may be responsible for major depression.

The study, appearing in the current issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, is the first to link a psychiatric disorder to the number of neurons a person has in a certain region of the brain.

The findings revealed that patients diagnosed with major depression had about 30 percent more nerve cells in regions of the thalamus involved with emotional regulation. Also, the regions seemed to be larger in patients with major depression, according to researchers at Central Texas Veterans Health Care System, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and the Texas A&M; University System Health Science Center.

"The finding of excess numbers of neurons in the thalamus in major depression is surprising," Keith A. Young, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at Texas A&M;, said in a statement. "Most previous work has shown that psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are associated with decreases, not increases, in neuron populations."

The researchers also said that a history of antidepressant use during the patient's lifetime did not appear to play a part in the neuron levels of depressed or bipolar subjects.

-----

Study Says Corn Syrup Gets Bad Rap

Virginia Tech University researchers say there's no good reason to single out high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) as a "unique" contributor to obesity.

Corn syrup, because it is cheaper to produce, has increasingly come to replace sugar and other sweeteners in products like soda. Researchers have blamed this for the lower prices of sweet snacks and drinks -- and thus more sales -- as a major reason for the rise in rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Consumption of corn syrup has increased dramatically in the last two decades.

But the Virginia Tech researchers say corn syrup shouldn't be the fall guy. "The composition of HFCS, sucrose, honey, and invert sugar is very similar," said David Lineback, director of the Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. "In addition, there is no reason to believe that humans absorb or metabolize HFCS any differently than sucrose."

The researchers add that the increasing use of corn syrup is a uniquely American phenomenon, but that the rise in obesity and diabetes rates is worldwide.

-----

Drug-Coated Heart Stents Recalled

Boston Scientific Corp. announced that it is recalling 85,000 of its drug-coated heart stents in the wake of reports that the devices have been linked to deaths and serious injuries.

The Boston Globe reports that the recall, the company's second in a month, has prompted several hospitals to halt using the stents.

The company said it has received reports linking the drug-coated Taxus stents to one death and 18 serious injuries, according to the Globe account. Boston Scientific also said that it is aware of two deaths and 25 serious injuries associated with an earlier stent system, called Express2, and that is recalling 11,000 of the 600,000 it has shipped.

The devices are seen as a huge advance in cardiovascular surgery. They are implanted in heart patients during angioplasty, as scaffolding to keep a vessel open. The drug coating the stent prevents inflammation and scarring that can lead to the re-clogging of an artery, which is common among those who undergo angioplasty.

Copyright © 2004 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.