Month: December 2011

Even children without special health needs are healthier and make better use of health care if they have a “medical home,” a new study finds. A medical home meets certain standards. Care should be easy to get. The office should coordinate all of it. Care should be sensitive to family needs and cultural differences. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a medical home for all children. The new study was based on a large health survey. It focused on 70,000 children who did not have special needs. About 58% had a medical home. They were more likely than other children to get preventive care. They had fewer sick visits and trips to the emergency room. Their parents were more likely to describe the kids’ health as excellent or very good. The kids also were more likely to wear a bike helmet. They watched less TV and were read to more often.

Treatment for obstructive sleep apnea may also reduce heart disease risk, a new study suggests. Obstructive sleep apnea blocks the airway and hinders breathing during sleep. Most people with this condition also have metabolic syndrome. This is a group of symptoms that add up to a higher risk of heart disease. The symptoms include a large waist, high blood sugar, low HDL (“good cholesterol”) and high levels of another blood fat, triglycerides. The study included 86 adults. All had obstructive sleep apnea. About 87% had metabolic syndrome. Half were treated with a machine that uses continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) to keep the airway open. Half got a fake treatment. That machine looked similar but did not maintain air pressure. After 3 months, each person was switched to receive the other treatment (real or fake).

Magnetic stimulation of the left side of the brain may help people recover from one after-effect of stroke, a small study suggests. The research focused on 20 people who had a stroke on the right side of the brain. This caused a condition called hemispatial neglect. They were unable to notice or react to things that happen on the left side of the body. People were randomly assigned to receive 10 sessions of either real or fake stimulation. An electromagnetic coil over the scalp was used to send quick electrical pulses to the undamaged left side of the brain. The purpose was to calm overactive circuits that were throwing the brain off balance. People with the sham treatment received very weak pulses. In people who got the real treatment, overactive circuits returned to normal. Tests showed a 16% improvement in how well people processed information on the left side.

Receiving a clot-busting drug can help prevent some after-effects of a blood clot in the leg, a study suggests. The study included 189 people with deep vein thrombosis. Sometimes these clots travel to the lungs, where they can be fatal. A clot that stays in the leg can cause a different problem called post-phlebitic or post-thrombotic syndrome. It leads to pain, swelling, skin problems and a heavy feeling in the leg. People in the study were randomly divided into 2 groups. One group received just standard treatment. This including blood-thinning drugs to help keep the clot from getting bigger or reaching the lungs. The second group also got standard treatment. But they also got the clot-busting drug alteplase, delivered in a small dose directly to the clot. In the next 2 years, people who got the clot-buster had a 25% lower risk of further problems related to the clot.