This from the great NYU Clinical Correlations website.  Enjoy

Hello again Primecutters and welcome to another edition of your favorite weekly blog. Our fearless editor has allowed me a repeat performance of last week and I am honored to provide the followers of this column with another scintillating tale of the week’s medical knowledge.

Malignant breast masses often show evidence of increased blood flow compared to normal tissue or benign masses. Using 3-D power Doppler ultrasound radiologists are able to identify vessels with higher flow speeds which likely designate cancer. Lead author Dr. LeCarpentier Ph.D. assistant professor in the Department of Radiology at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and colleagues took out a study on 78 women between the ages of 26 and 70 who where scheduled for biopsy of a suspicious breast mass.

  Malignant and benign breast masses can now be better distinguished by radiologists utilizing a three-dimensional power Doppler ultrasound. This finding is published in a new report in the November edition of the journal Radiology. The blood flow through different tissue masses can indicate whether they are benign or malignant. It is often higher through breast masses which are malignant as opposed to those that are benign. Radiologists can thereby detect vessels with this Doppler ultrasound method.

Saliva Test For Oral Cancer? New research published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research on October 1st predicts that a simple test of saliva proteins will one day be utilised by physicians to diagnose oral cancer. Saliva samples from 64 candidates with oral squamous cell carcinoma as well as samples from 64 cancer-free subjects were analysed in the research. The project was undertaken as part of the U.S. National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research’s Human Saliva Proteome Project.

Spiriva Atrovent and other inhaled anticholinergic agents are among those most commonly used for COPD. Dr. Sonal Singh assistant professor of internal medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem N.C reports that "We found a 58 percent increased risk of cardiac death heart attack or stroke " in people taking these drugs. In absolute terms what it means is that if you were to use these drugs for a year your...

A new study by Canadian researchers found that only about forty percent of the patients who had atrial fibrillation which is a risk factor for stroke were taking warfarin a well known and effective anti clotting drug. Even those who were taking the drug in 75 percent of those studied were not taking enough of it to actively prevent a stroke.Further 25 percent more patients were taking a drug that was less effective than warfarin. "These are missed opportunities for stroke prevention " said Dr. David J.

Important new research can help to assure the survival of Islet cell transplants and thereby improve the treatment of those who have type 1 diabetes. A strategy for treatment of type 1 diabetes that has had wide appeal is the transplantation of the insulin producing cells (called the Islets of Langerhans) but as it happens the procedure requires repeating since the transplanted cells don't live long.

Diverticular disease a common disorder whereby an out-pouching of the colon occurs can bring with it diverticulitis (an inflammation of those pouches) or bleeding. Typically even though the reasons for the inflammation were not known those who were affected by diverticular disease were warned against eating tree nuts popcorn or seeds and in some cases even corn. A new study challenges the accuracy of that long standing traditional directive: reported results now indicate that these foods do not in fact associate with diverticular  disease.