Our weekly round up of the latest news in the world of health. This week we look at new recommendations for performing CPR, at how genes affect people's risk of smoking addiction and lung cancer, and at why even older people can make good donors for cornea transplants. We also learn that blood pressure drugs already on the market lower heart risks and that premature babies may face a greater risk of autism.
Stay well.
This Issue:
Hands-Only CPR Genes, Smoking and Lung Cancer Older Corneas OK to Transplant Cheap BP Drugs Prevent Heart Problems Preemies and Autism In the News:
Hands-Only CPR New guidelines take the mouth-to-mouth out of CPR. New recommendations from the American Heart Association, released this week, say chest compressions alone work as well as traditional CPR to keep adult cardiac arrest victim alive until help arrives. This hands-only CPR requires 100 uninterrupted chest compressions per minute. The goal is to get more bystanders willing to perform CPR when they see someone collapse, the heart association says. However, hands-only CPR should not be substituted for traditional CPR in all cases. Children who collapse and adults who have suffered from lack of oxygen due to near-drowning, drug overdose, or carbon monoxide poisoning need mouth-to-mouth, the Associated Press reports.
Genes, Smoking and Lung Cancer
Researchers have identified genetic variations that could make people more likely to become addicted to cigarettes -- and more likely to develop deadly lung cancer -- than those without it. Three studies from the United States and Europe, published in the journals Nature and Nature Genetics, found that almost one in four smokers who inherit particular gene variants from both parents develop lung cancer than smokers without the gene variants. They also smoke more cigarettes per day and have a harder time quitting, the studies found. They looked at 35,000 white people of European descent in Europe and North America, most of whom were smokers or ex-smokers. They focused on a specific set of genetic differences that encode nicotine receptors on cells. They may be a set of variations in one gene or in three closely connected genes -- the researchers aren't sure. They found that smokers who inherited the set of variants from only one parent had a risk of lung cancer that is a third higher than those without any variants. They also smoked about one more cigarette a day. Smokers who inherit the variants from both parents had a risk 70-80% percent higher than smokers without the genetic variants, a 45% higher risk of peripheral artery disease and smoked an average of two extra cigarettes a day. The researchers disagreed on whether the genes themselves increased smokers' risk of lung cancer, or whether smoking more was what upped the risk, the Associated Press reports. The findings could one day help develop customized treatments for quitting smoking.
Older Corneas OK to Transplant
Corneas from older people may transplant as well as those from younger donors, according to a study published in the journal Ophthalmology. In the study, researchers randomly assigned about 1,000 cornea transplant recipients at 80 medical centers to get tissue either from a donor age 12 to 65 or one age 66 to 75. The transplant patients needed new corneas because of one of two conditions, Fuch's dystrophy or a complication of cataract surgery. Five years later, 86 percent of both groups had successful transplants. The researchers say that the study involved transplant patients who were mostly in their 60s and 70s and had a medium risk of transplant failure. It's possible that younger patients or those at higher risk of failure would fare better with younger corneal tissue, although they say they thought the findings should hold for all age groups, the Associated Press reports. It's also not clear whether the older tissue might lose epithelial cells more quickly.
Cheap BP Drugs Prevent Heart Problems
A combination of two types of blood pressure medicines, available as an inexpensive generics, can lower patients' risk of heart attack and stroke and death. That's the conclusion of two studies presented at the American College of Cardiology meeting in Chicago this week. One study compared the effectiveness of a pill containing a diuretic and the ACE inhibitor benazepril with a daily pill containing benazepril and a calcium channel blocker, amlodipine in over 11,400 people, age 58 on average, in the United States and Nordic countries. Besides high blood pressure, the participants were obese and had diabetes or other health problems. The researchers stopped the study early when it became apparent that people taking the ACE-calcium blocker combination were faring better that those taking the ACE-diuretic combination, with 15% fewer heart-related problems or strokes. The second study looked at 3,845 as old as 80 in Europe, China and other countries who took either the diuretic indapamide or dummy pills plus an ACE inhibitor. The researchers also halted their study early when they found that those taking the diuretic had 39% fewer fatal strokes and 21 percent fewer deaths from any cause than those getting the ACE inhibitor, the Associated Press reports.
Preemies and Autism
Babies born very prematurely may be more likely to develop signs of autism. A small study published in the journal Pediatrics looked at 91 toddlers ages 18 months to 2 years. The children had been born 10 weeks early, on average, and weighed less than 4 pounds. The researchers performed an early screening test for autism on the children, and found suspected autism in one-quarter of them. However, the findings are considered preliminary since the researchers did not do formal autism testing, just a behavior checklist. The Associated Press quotes other experts who say that the screening results could be due to the fact that preemies typically experience developmental delays before catching up with their peers, rather than because they are autistic.
Used with the permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved. The above summaries are not intended to provide advice on personal medical matters, nor are they intended to be a substitute for consultation with a physician.
