IN BRIEF (Page 19)

Celebrex causes arrhythmia

Celebrex, an arthritis drug in the same class as the recalled painkiller Vioxx, caused irregular heartbeats in fruit flies and in heart cells taken from laboratory rats, US researchers said on Friday. "When we tried this drug on the fly's heart it became clear that it gave rise to very pronounced arrhythmia," said Dr Satpal Singh, a pharmacologist at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Youth drinking tied to heart risks

People who drink heavily in their youth may have a higher risk of developing a collection of risk factors for heart disease and stroke, new research suggests. In a study that examined the lifetime drinking habits of more than 2,800 adults, researchers found that those who drank heavily in their teens and young adulthood were more likely to have metabolic syndromes than those who drank more moderately throughout adulthood.

Aspirin reduces death rate

In people with stable heart disease, low-dose aspirin reduces the occurrence of heart attacks, strokes, and deaths from all causes, according to a new analysis. Although aspirin also increases the risk of bleeding, the benefits outweigh the risk, lead author Dr Jeffrey Berger, of the Duke Clinical Research Institute, Durham, North Carolina, and his associates conclude in their report in the American Journal of Medicine.

Vitamin D ups bone-building

In elderly women, adding vitamin D to regular calcium supplements produces long-term improvements in hip bone density, researchers report. To evaluate the relative benefits of calcium with or without vitamin D on bone health, Dr Richard Prince, at the University of Western Australia, Perth, assigned 120 women to take 1,200 milligrams of calcium daily along with an inactive placebo pill or a vitamin D tablet, or two placebo tablets.

Needle-free, pain treatment

A needle-free method of relieving acute pain after an operation has been launched on markets in Germany, Britain and Ireland this month.

The fentanyl iontophoretic transdermal system (IONSYS) aims to replace needles, pumps, catheters or intravenous pump stands and greatly reduces the risk of needle-stick injuries and infection.

It also has the potential to make the administration of post-operative pain management a less time-consuming task for healthcare professionals and less intrusive for patients, according to Janssen-Cilag International NV, the company marketing the new product.

Sized like a credit card, it is secured to a patient's upper outer arm or chest and uses a nearly imperceptible low-intensity electrical field to rapidly transport doses of fentanyl, a painkiller, through the skin and into the bloodstream.

And because it automatically shuts down after the maximum number of doses has been administered, it reduces the potential for abuse.

DNA test traces prostate cancer

A new DNA test may prove helpful in identifying prostate cancer, according to new research conducted at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and in the United States.

The test would supplement current methods, including so-called PSA tests that have relatively low sensitivity, researchers say.

Researchers have so far identified five gene variants that affect the risk of prostate cancer that has been linked to inherited factors.

By analyzing "the cumulative effect of these gene variants", researchers were able to state "that men who carry four or more risk variants run a four to five times greater risk of developing prostate cancer".

Men with a family history of prostate cancer were even more at risk.

Cranberries fight infections

A well-known home remedy for urinary tract infections may in fact work for some women, a review of the published research suggests. Cranberry juice has long been espoused as a treatment for repeat urinary tract infections (UTIs), and research suggests that certain substances in the fruit can hinder bacteria from sticking to the lining of the bladder.

Caffeine ups blood sugar level

Cutting down on caffeine could help people with the most common form of diabetes better control their blood sugar levels, researchers said on Monday. Giving caffeine to a small group of people with type 2 diabetes caused their levels of the blood sugar glucose to rise through the day, especially after meals, researchers at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, found.

Agencies

(China Daily 01/30/2008 page19)