Gale Scott

Just one e-cigarette exposure makes people less likely to cough, a dampening of a protective reflex. Researchers are not sure what the implications of the finding might be.

Peanut allergy is a much-publicized pediatric concern, as is asthma. In a new study, a team of researchers from Ohio reported that many asthma patients were found to have a documented peanut allergy but were not aware of that fact.

Study results show that, despite being promoted by manufacturers as a healthier alternative to smoking tobacco, electronic cigarettes emit hazardous substances.

A team from Argentina reports that reusing certain medical devices saved 90% of the cost of use of single-use devices without causing complications for patients.

Even though their hospital is close to an international airport identified as a likely entry point for travelers from West African countries with Ebola, physicians at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens, NY, did not know as much as they should have about the virus, a study shows.

A Chicago team surveyed medical residents and found harrowing tales of mishaps and near-misses due to botched handoffs when patients are stepped down from ICU care.

Holding family meetings when patients are in intensive care can benefit patients, family, and caregivers. A research team reports on the electronic templates it is developing to keep records of what happens in those meetings.

Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is a proven therapy for recurrent C. difficile infection. A team of researchers from OpenBiome outlined plans for a depository for frozen stool from screened donors. The goal is to have a consistent and safe product for use by clinicians who treat patients with this ailment.

Newer tests for Clostridium difficile can detect the infection in pediatric patients even when there is no blood in the stool.

Patients with inflammatory bowel diseases are sometimes treated with immunosuppressive drugs, particularly if they have a significant co-morbidity. A Boston team of researchers found that when that co-morbidity is diabetes, patients are at greater risk of coming down with infections.

Critically ill patients benefit from sleep, but noise levels in intensive care units may interfere, a study from the Universitgy of Iowa shows.

Cruise ships are not the only place where vacationers can get the dreaded norovirus. A US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report today documents an outbreak in a recreational lake in Oregon and warns that swimming in lakes can be hazardous.

Sports supplements can contain dangerous unlabelled compounds. In Annals of Internal Medicine, physicians report on a healthy woman who had a stroke likely caused by an amphetamine-like substance in a supplement sold as Jacked Power.

Ebola infection isn't always over even when the viremia is cleared. In an account in the New England Journal of Medicine, Ian Crozier, MD, and colleagues report on a sight-threatening Ebola eye infection that mysteriously turned his left eye from blue to green before it retreated. Crozier, a World Health Organization volunteer working in West Africa, was the patient.

When heart patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation do not respond to antiarrhythmic medications, physicians may turn to percutaneous catheter ablation. The unanswered treatment question has been how extensive that ablation should be. A new study indicates several techniques achieve the same results.

With several new antivirals for hepatitis C infection available and more in the pipeline, the need for liver transplantation could drop, making more donor organs available for those who do need them, a Philadelphia team reports.

Hepatitis C infection has increased more than 3-fold in parts of the US, a CDC research team reports. Their analysis tracks the spike to an increase in drug users injecting opioids.

A 7-year followup study of a drug approved in 2011 shows it has better results than cyclosporine in kidney patients. But it comes with a warning.

When New York City panicked about the possible spread of Ebola months ago, there were no definitive answers on how long the virus could survive on surfaces outside a living host. A new US Centers for Disease Control report finds the answer is several days.

Electronic health records (EHRs) have been touted as a key tool toward improving the quality of health care. An analysis in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology shows that is not the case.

People who have blunted cardiovascular responses to psychologically stressful tasks have an increased risk of dying. Poor blood pressure responses to this stress can be associated with adverse outcomes.

Ebola virus appears to persist in survivors longer than thought, leading the US Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization to urge men who survive infection to use condoms indefinitely. The public health fear is that sexual transmission from survivors could lead to a new outbreak of cases.

In a multicenter observational study reported April 29 at the Asian Pacific Society of Cardiology Congress 2015, held in Abu Dhabi, researchers examined the relationship between the severity and presence of coronary artery disease in male patients and the number of wives they have. The more wives, the more heart disease.

Progress in treating multiple sclerosis (MS) has come at a price-rapidly escalating drug costs, according to an opinion piece analysis published online today in Neurology. The increases outstrip drug-price inflation by 5 to 7 times. When it comes to pharma pricing, the rules of classic economics seem not to apply, the report concludes, urging a protest.

A group of 6 physicians, psychologists, and ethicists has released a report charging the American Psychological Association (APA) with secretly working with the US government to design the torture techniques used on prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Despite the wealth of choices physicians have in finding drugs to treat hepatitis C infection, two challenges remain in eradicating the disease-price and lack of global screening for the virus.

Researchers believe they have found a novel therapeutic to target a growth factor pathway that plays a role in liver cancer.

Another investigational diabetes drug appears to have promise for patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, researchers reported at the International Liver Congress in Vienna, Austria.

The explosion in new drugs to treat hepatitis C is leading to predictions the viral infection will no longer be a major health problem. But before that can happen, much has to be done in the realm of public health, researchers said April 25 at the International Liver Congress in Vienna, Austria.

In addition to injection drug use, alcohol consumption puts people at risk of dying from hepatitis C infection by increasing the severity of the disease. A French research study spells out the risks.