These Bars Can Be Bad for Liver, Too
Riding mountain bikes equipped with bar ends--the curved upright grips attached to the main handlebar to assist in climbing--increases the risk of liver damage in a fall, Austrian physicians report in the Jan. 31 Lancet. Dr. Herman Nehoda of the University Hospital of Innsbruck reported that 52 patients were admitted to the hospital’s trauma ward after falls between 1995 and 1997. Eight of those had bleeding around the liver, causing abdominal pain, resulting from falls onto the bar ends. Nehoda recommended using forward-inclining and foam-covered bar ends.
Compounded Hepatitis Infections Can Be Deadly
In the alphabet soup of hepatitis infections, researchers have found that adding A to C can be a deadly mix. People living with the liver disease hepatitis C face a dramatically higher risk of dying if they eat food infected with the hepatitis A virus, according to a study in the Jan. 29 New England Journal of Medicine. As a result, everyone with a chronic hepatitis C infection should be vaccinated against hepatitis A, says the team of Italian doctors behind the new research.
Hepatitis A--which causes jaundice, fatigue, nausea and abdominal pain--is found in food and water contaminated by fecal material. Although as many as 200,000 Americans are infected each year, only about 100 die. But the team, led by Dr. Sandro Vento of the University of Verona, found that the death rate jumps dramatically among people who have already been infected with hepatitis C. They found that, of the 17 people they studied who were already suffering from hepatitis C, six who subsequently contracted hepatitis A died from sudden liver failure.
Multiple Sclerosis May Sever Brain Fibers
A new study challenges the long-held belief that multiple sclerosis damages nerves in the brain solely by stripping off their insulation. The research found that the disease actually severs nerve fibers in the brain, causing irreversible damage that probably begins even before symptoms are noticed. The research, also in the Jan. 29 New England Journal of Medicine, raises the possibility that patients should begin treatment very early in the disease.
Experts long believed that MS did its damage almost exclusively by attacking myelin, the protective covering on nerve fibers in the brain and spine, short-circuiting electrical signals. Dr. Richard Rudick and his colleagues at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation examined the nerve fibers under a microscope--something that, surprisingly, had not been done before--and found that they were severed in many places.
Garlic May Keep Main Artery Supple
Garlic, reputed to lower cholesterol and ward off colds, may also keep the main artery to the heart soft and supple, according to a recent issue of the journal Circulation. “The aortas of our 70-year-old subjects who took garlic were as elastic as the aortas of 55-year-old subjects who didn’t take garlic,” said Dr. Harisios Boudoulas of Ohio State University.
Boudoulas and colleagues in Germany tested 200 German volunteers ages 50 to 80. Half took the pills and half took dummy pills for two years. The team then measured the pressure of the blood pumping through the aorta. On average, people who took garlic pills showed 15% less stiffness in the aorta.
New Projections Boost Alzheimer’s Cases
More than 3 million Americans will likely have at least a mild case of Alzheimer’s disease by 2015, according to a new report from the General Accounting Office. That represents a 50% increase from the 2 million cases estimated in 1995.
The GAO produced the figures by looking at 18 studies that estimated rates for populations in other countries considered ethnically similar to the United States. Alzheimer’s disease, in which parts of the brain degenerate, is the most common form of dementia. The cause has not been clearly established.
Cream Facilitates At-Home Treatment of Genital Warts
A recently developed cream is safe and effective for at-home treatment of genital warts, according to a study in the January issue of Archives of Dermatology. The Human Papillomavirus Group studied 311 patients with anogenital warts. They found that the original warts disappeared in more than half of the patients treated using 5% imiquimod cream, which is sold under the brand name Aldara. Many showed a dramatic reduction of wart area when compared with those using a placebo cream.
The drug was also associated with a lower recurrence rate and produced only mild inflammation in some patients.
--Compiled by THOMAS H. MAUGH II
