By Kate Kelland LONDON | Tue May 22, 2012 7:12pm EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have for the first time succeeded in taking skin cells from patients with heart failure and transforming them into healthy, beating heart tissue that could one day be used to treat the condition. The researchers, based in Haifa, Israel, said there were still many years of testing and refining ahead. But the results meant they might eventually be able to reprogram patients' cells to repair their own damaged hearts."We have shown that it's possible to take skin cells from an elderly patient with advanced heart failure and end up with his own beating cells in a laboratory dish that are healthy and young - the equivalent to the stage of ... Continue reading →

WASHINGTON | Mon May 21, 2012 9:23am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. drug reviewers said missing data for Johnson & Johnson's blood thinner Xarelto raised doubts about whether the drug actually reduced the risk of new heart attacks and strokes in people with heart problems. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration staff also said it was doubtful the pill reduced the risk of death in patients with acute coronary syndrome, which analysts had seen as the drug's most important advantage for treating this heart condition.An FDA advisory panel of outside experts will vote Wednesday on whether to recommend the drug. The FDA usually follows panel recommendations, although it is not required to. The agency is due to make a final decision on Xarelto by the ... Continue reading →

By Sharon Begley NEW YORK | Fri May 11, 2012 9:58am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - One night when Lynn McAfee was 5 years old, her psychologically troubled mother left her at the side of a road as punishment for a now forgotten infraction. In the minutes before her mother's car returned, the terrified girl looked toward the nearby houses on the suburban Philadelphia street and wondered if she should walk over and ask for help."But I didn't," said McAfee, 62, who is now the director of medical advocacy for the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination. "I didn't think anyone would want a fat child."The stigmatization of obesity begins in preschool: Children as young as 3 tell scientists studying the phenomenon that overweight people ... Continue reading →

By Anna Yukhananov WASHINGTON | Thu May 10, 2012 12:03pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. drug regulators are warning people with multiple sclerosis that an experimental treatment that props open internal veins in the neck and chest can cause death or serious injury. The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday said at least two people had died from the procedure, which uses stents or balloon angioplasties to widen veins that connect the brain and spinal cord to the heart. One person was permanently paralyzed, and others had bleeding in the brain, suffered strokes, blood clots or other side effects.It is unknown how many people received the treatment and how many had problems, as stents and angioplasties are not approved for this use by the FDA, ... Continue reading →

By Amy Norton NEW YORK | Wed May 9, 2012 3:56pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study suggests that women who have liposuction to trim their tummies may gain some fat deeper within the abdomen -- a type of fat that's particularly unhealthy. Brazilian researchers found that within months of abdominal liposuction, there may be an increase in the so-called "visceral" fat that surrounds the abdominal organs.But the good news, they say, is that regular exercise may prevent that deep fat from forming.Fat is not "inert tissue," said study leader Fabiana Benatti, of the University of Sao Paulo."Removing it by surgery may have important consequences such as the compensatory growth of visceral fat, which may be deleterious in the long term," Benatti ... Continue reading →

Thu May 10, 2012 9:42am EDT (Reuters) - Cameron Health Inc, which agreed in March to be acquired by Boston Scientific Corp, said on Thursday its implantable heart defibrillator proved safe and effective for treating patients at risk for sudden cardiac arrest in a 330-patient clinical trial. Cameron's implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) is the first such device that does not use intravenous leads, or electric wires, to transmit electricity from the device to the heart. Leads are often the weak link of the defibrillator system and can cause serious complications."Conventional ICDs are a proven therapy with a long clinical track record; however, complications related to transvenous leads, or wires placed in the heart, can be quite serious for patients," said Dr Martin Burke, professor of ... Continue reading →

By David Morgan WASHINGTON | Wed May 9, 2012 12:54pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate panel has launched a probe of possible links between three drugmakers and nonprofit medical groups that advocated for increasing the use of prescription painkillers, now the target of a nationwide law enforcement crackdown. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Democrat, and the panel's leading Republican, Senator Chuck Grassley, said the drugmakers and allied groups could be behind dubious marketing practices that have coincided with a huge jump in deadly overdoses from painkillers known as opioids."These painkillers have an important role in health care when prescribed and used properly, but pushing misinformation on consumers to boost profits is not only wrong, it's dangerous," Baucus said in a statement.Baucus ... Continue reading →

By on Eight British blood donors recently paraded around London painted in circulatory system body art as part of a campaign to encourage blood donation ahead of the London Olympics. The campaign is by the National Health Service. via Metro.co.uk & Street Anatomy Continue reading →