Paying Attention to High Blood Pressure Programs Helps Reduce Stroke Risk
Aggressive, broad-based programs offering health screenings and education programs to help people lower high blood pressure show dramatically better results than more laissez-faire programs developed to achieve the same goal, scientists say (06/08/98)

Better Stress Management Could Help Reduce Women's Stroke Risk
Researchers report that women who exhibit large increases in blood pressure and heart rate during mental stress may develop accelerated atherosclerosis in the carotid arteries, the vessels that carry blood to the brain. (06/08/98)

Vaccine Triggers Immune System
Using a vaccine made from specialized white blood cells called dendritic cells spiked with cancer proteins, University of Michigan scientists have found a way to activate the immune system to attack malignant tumors and prevent the development of new tumors in mice. Clinical trial under way to test in humans (06/08/98)

Gender Differences in Adolescent Depression
Gender differences in worrying or rumination may be one of the reasons that by age 18 females have twice the rate of depression as males.

New Consensus Guidelines on Evaluating the Cough
The first consensus statement on the management of the most common reason patients seek medical attention--the cough--was published today by the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP).

Reducing High Noise Levels in the ICU
Damaging noise levels in the medical intensive care unit that often reach the level of a noisy subway ride were reduced significantly through behavioral modification sesssions for the staff, according to a study
published in theaugust issue of CHEST, journal of the American College of Chest Physicians.

Sedation May Keep Patients on Mechanical Ventilation
The administration of continuous intravenous (IV) sedation keeps ICU patients on mechanical ventilation far longer than is necessary, according to a new report in the August issue of CHEST, the journal of the American College of Chest Physicians.

New Clinical Syndrome: Maryland Researchers Document Human Health Effects of Pfiesteria
For the first time, researchers have published scientific data documenting novel, serious but reversible neuropsychological effects of exposure to waterways infested with Pfiesteria toxins.

 Remembering Your Medications: Older Are Wiser
 "Being too busy, not being old, is what leads people to make mistakes in taking their medications," says Denise C. Park, a psychologist at the U-M Institute for Social Research.

 Bladder Pacemaker Restores Urinary Control
 Just as a cardiac pacemaker helps maintain a steady heartbeat, a new bladder pacemaker helps men and women with debilitating bladder problems regain control of this vital function, according to UCSF
 Stanford Health Care physicians, who pioneered the technology.

 
 Unsticking the "Glue" in Blood Cells Could Save Lives
 When platelets in the bloodstream clump together as a clot, they can trigger a heart attack or a stroke or mask cancer. A Johns Hopkins University scientist is working on ways to disable platelets' unhealthy
 habits while preserving their ability to halt blood loss.

 Survival Advantage with Certain Types of Hereditary Colon Cancer
 In a recent issue of the medical journal Cancer, Creighton researchers published an article proving that people who have hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal carcinoma (HNPCC, also known as the Lynch
 syndrome) have a significantly better survival rate than those who develop sporadic colorectal cancer.

 Directing Traffic in the Brain
 A single brain chemical can switch the direction of nerve messages in the brain's cerebral cortex, Stanford researchers have found. The chemical, called acetylcholine, acts through inhibitory circuits to
 turn on nerve cells that send messages horizontally across the cortex and to turn off nerve cells that send messages vertically.

 Women's Shame Stalls Abuse Disclosure To Physicians
 Shame, denial and fear of others' reactions keep many abused women from confiding in their physicians, a Johns Hopkins study among Baltimore women has found.