A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health examined the connection between Baltimore City's needle exchange program and drug treatment programs.Individuals
Patients with early stage oral cancer may benefit from a more advanced screening process allowing for a more accurate diagnosis, according to a study presented at the plenary session at the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium in Rancho Mir
The addition of Cetuximab (brand name Erbitux) to radiation therapy treatments does not increase the rate or duration of some side effects in the treatment of advanced head and neck cancers, according to a study presented at the plenary session today a
Preliminary findings show adding the chemotherapy drug cetuximab (brand name Erbitux) to radiation therapy and chemotherapy may help some patients with head and neck cancer live longer, according to a study presented at the plenary session of the Multi
Giving patients with head and neck cancer a combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy controls the cancer and allows many patients to avoid additional surgery to the neck, according to a study presented at the plenary session at the Multidiscip
The majority of fertility clinic Web sites do not adhere to their own association's advertising guidelines, according to a University of Illinois at Chicago study published in the January issue of Fertilit
Doctors should encourage patients with sexually transmitted infections to tell their partners to seek treatment and, in some cases, provide home testing kits or drugs to help reduce infection rates, says a new study on
Changing to a healthier lifestyle appears to be at least as effective as taking prescription drugs in reducing the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, says a new British Medical Journal study. Type
According to a study conducted in five Northern European countries, there is no clear connection between mobile phone use and malignant brain tumours. The results of the study were published in the web version of the International Journal of Ca
Some high-level athletes who take part in endurance sports can develop a rare but life-threatening condition called ventricular arrhythmia (VA) in which the heart beats at an abnormal rate and rhythm. Now, a new study has shown that most of the
Date: Wednesday, 15-Nov-2006
In what will come as a surprise to many doctors, researchers in the United States how found that contrary to current belief, heart attack survivors with mild or no symptoms who wait three days or more to seek medical help, will achieve little benefit from the procedures used to open clogged arteries.Opening arteries that are 100 percent blocked in the first 12 hours after a heart attack with angioplasty can quickly restore vital blood flow to the heart, and is considered the best treatment for almost all patients.
However doctors in the U.S. often open blocked coronary arteries with angioplasty in stable patients who have passed beyond this treatment window.
The early treatment restores blood flow to the heart, preserving the heart muscle and reducing the risks of death and heart failure, a chronic condition in which the heart pumps blood less efficiently.
But it seems 30 percent of acute heart attack patients, around 100,000 patients per year, arrive at the hospital after the 12-hour treatment window has closed.
This latest study says though many doctors assume some benefit would still be achieved with angioplasty, in fact it is at this stage no better than standard drug therapy at reducing the risk of death, a second heart attack or heart failure.
Lead study author, Dr. Judith Hochman of New York University School of Medicine says the findings that there was absolutely no benefit in performing angioplasty after the 12 hour window had passed were not what was expected.
Hochman says the research underscores the need for patients to seek treatment early for a heart attack.
She says though in some ways the results are disappointing, they do demonstrate how good medical therapy such as beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, statins, and aspirin, has become, as critical life-saving medicines.
The study covered a four-year period, involving 2,166 stable heart attack survivors at 217 sites on five continents and looked at patients who were treated with either drugs or angioplasty to see how long their arteries stayed open and whether angioplasty helped improve the heart's pumping efficiency.
The patients were randomly assigned by computer to receive medical therapy alone or medical therapy plus balloon angioplasty and stenting, a procedure where a catheter is passed through the artery, inflating a balloon in the blocked vessel and inserting a tiny, wire-mesh tube or stent to keep the artery open.
The study found there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in the occurrence of death, heart attacks, or heart failure in up to five years of follow up.
The researchers say however that they saw a "worrisome" trend toward excess rates of repeat heart attack in the group receiving the angioplasty and stents.
The study called TOSCA-2 originally started as an independent trial funded by the National Institutes of Health and was later combined with a larger trial, Occluded Artery Trial known as OAT.
It found that 83 percent of arteries stayed open in patients treated with angioplasty, compared with only 25 percent in the medication group, but the treatment did not improve the heart's pumping ability.
The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.