A study published this week reports that a machine known as magnetoencephalography can correctly identify PTSD 90% of the time.  Researchers at the VA in Minneapolis, Minnesota used technology that has been studied for years: imaging the activity of the brain using magnetic sensors.  Wikipedia has a nice article about the technique, but it should be noted that the Wikipedia article about Magneto the comic book character is probably longer.»

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So I had the bright idea to call Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel. Part of the power trio of Emanuel brothers this seems to be a guy who can get things done in Washington. He has met with Barack Obama to advise him on health care reform written books on the subject etc. I thought I could appeal to him about this JNCI issue. Basically I think the journal of our National Cancer Institute should be free for all American taxpayers to access. We paid for that research and writing and we should get to read it for free. It would be like NOAA making you pay to get the weather data.

WSJ today reports a fascinating piece that exposes the dark underbelly of clinical research. "Jonathan Leo a professor of neuro-anatomy at tiny Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate Tenn. posted a letter on the Web site of the British Medical Journal this month criticizing a study that appeared in JAMA last spring. The study concerned the use of the anti-depressant Lexapro in stroke patients.

Hypospadias is considered as the most common birth defect of a male genitalia in which the penile meatus is not at the tip of the penis. The meatus is the term for opening the penis through which urine usually exits the bladder. This deficiency can be found in 1 in 125 boys born in the US. The name "hypospadias" comes from the Greek word (hypo under and spadias rent). It refers to the position of the opening through which the child urinates.

  Josh Villa was involved in a late night car accident in 2005. He had a drink with a friend before driving home and ended up mounting the kerb and flipping over. The 26 year old went through the windscreen and was comatosed. 12 months after the crash there was little cause for optimism. “He would open his eyes but he was not responsive to any external stimuli in his environment " noted Theresa Pape of the US Department of Veterans Affairs in Chicago who assisted in his treatment. In most cases there is not much more that can be done for patients in such a condition.

The patient with type 2 or adult onset diabetes and who keeps a tight rein on their blood sugar even if they only do so for the first ten years after being diagnosed will have far lower risks of heart attacks and multiple other complications. Followup studies indicate a "legacy effect" which will likely put an emphasis on increasingly "rigorous" treatment of type 2 diabetes when they are first diagnosed. "What you don't want is for people to think that they had a period of good glucose control and then they allow their blood glucose to go high _ that would be disadvantageous " said Dr.

A press release yesterday on the SEAS trial suggests that intensive cholesterol reduction with simvastatin and ezetimibe combination among patients with mild-moderate aortic stenosis (AS) does not reduce the rate of progression of AS but does appear to reduce the risk of coronary artery disease events. The SEAS (Simvastatin and Ezetimibe in Aortic Stenosis) trial is a randomized multinational study which determined the effects of intensive lipid (LDL cholesterol) lowering among patients with mild to moderate aortic stenosis.