Harvard Health Content API

A new drug to treat a low platelet count in the blood worked better than standard treatments in a study. Researchers reported on the study November 11 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The drug is called romiplostim. It mimics a natural body chemical that prompts the bone marrow to make platelets. These are a type of blood cell that causes clotting. Researchers tested the drug in 234 people. They all had a condition called immune thrombocytopenic purpura. This condition causes a low platelet count. It can lead to bleeding and bruising. Standard treatments often fail. Spleen removal is a last-resort treatment. It can cure the condition but increase the risk of infections for a lifetime. People in the study were randomly assigned to receive standard treatments or weekly injections of romiplostim.

Women who breastfeed don’t get less sleep than women who bottle-feed, a new study finds. Researchers looked into the question because very young babies get hungry and wake up more often if they are breastfed. That’s because breast milk is more easily digested than formula. The study included 80 women with young babies. Most of them were newborns. The study lasted for 12 weeks. Some women fed their babies breast milk only. Others used formula only, or both methods of feeding. The women kept electronic diaries about their sleep patterns. They recorded the number of times they woke up at night, the quality of sleep and how rested they felt during the day. They also wore devices to measure sleep. Overall, the feeding method did not affect how much sleep women got or how rested they felt. The journal Pediatrics published the study online. HealthDay News wrote about it November 8.

Women who drink sugary soda and juices are more likely to develop gout, new research finds. Gout is a type of arthritis. It is caused by a buildup of uric acid in the body. Sweetened sodas and juices contain fructose, which can cause uric acid buildup. The study focused on 78,906 women who took part in the long-term Nurses’ Health Study. They had no history of gout at the start of the study. In the next 22 years, 778 women were diagnosed with gout. Women who had 2 or more sugary sodas or glasses of orange juice a day were 2.4 times as likely to develop gout as women who drank them less than once a month. Gout risk also was higher, but less so, for women who had 1 soda or glass of juice daily. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the study online. HealthDay News wrote about it November 10.

People having heart attacks are still waiting too long to get to the hospital, a new study finds. Doctors say heart attacks are best treated soon after symptoms start. But people in the study took an average of 2.6 hours to get to the hospital. Response time did not improve between 2001 and 2006. The study focused on a type of heart attack called non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction, or NSTEMI. It is often less serious than another type, called STEMI. The names refer to the patterns on an electrocardiogram (EKG). Researchers looked at records of 104,000 NSTEMI heart attacks. About 59% of patients took more than 2 hours to get to the hospital. Some groups took even longer than average. They included women, older adults, smokers, non-whites and diabetics. The journal Archives of Internal Medicine published the study. HealthDay News wrote about it November 8.

Most teens who have oral sex for the first time go on to have vaginal sex within 6 months, a survey has found. Moreover, half of teens who had oral sex in 9th grade also had vaginal sex before they were seniors, the survey found. But among teens who didn’t have oral sex until the end of 11th grade, 84% finished that grade without having vaginal sex. The study began with surveys of 630 California teens at the start of 9th grade. Most of them also filled out surveys every 6 months until the end of 11th grade. About 1 out of 5 teens had had oral sex before 9th grade. Only 71 had had vaginal sex. For all ages, students were twice as likely to have oral sex rather than vaginal sex first. The study was published online in the journal Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine. HealthDay News wrote about it November 1.

Most teens who have oral sex for the first time go on to have vaginal sex within 6 months, a survey has found. Moreover, half of teens who had oral sex in 9th grade also had vaginal sex before they were seniors, the survey found. But among teens who didn’t have oral sex until the end of 11th grade, 84% finished that grade without having vaginal sex. The study began with surveys of 630 California teens at the start of 9th grade. Most of them also filled out surveys every 6 months until the end of 11th grade. About 1 out of 5 teens had had oral sex before 9th grade. Only 71 had had vaginal sex. For all ages, students were twice as likely to have oral sex rather than vaginal sex first. The study was published online in the journal Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine. HealthDay News wrote about it November 1.

Giving heavy smokers regular CT scans can reduce their chance of dying from lung cancer, a large new study concludes. The study included 53,000 current or former heavy smokers. They were 55 to 74 years old and had no signs or history of lung cancer. Researchers randomly divided them into 2 groups. One group received three annual computed tomography (CT) scans with a low-dose spiral CT machine. The other group received three annual X-rays. Researchers kept track of both groups for another 5 years. In that period, people who got the CT scans were 20% less likely to die of lung cancer than those who got X-rays. In the spiral CT group, 354 people died, compared with 442 people in the other group. The National Cancer Institute announced the study results November 4, the Associated Press reported.