NAPC News 8 September 2010

Ministers Take Doctors' Battle To Europe

Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, will say today that Ministers will go to Europe to negotiate a means of excluding junior doctors from the EU directive that limits their working hours and compromises both training and patient care.

Responding to a letter from John Black, the President of the Royal College of Surgeons, which told of the ‘invidious' worsening of care and training caused by the directive, Mr. Lansley told The Times that he was pursuing reform to end its adverse impact.

Paperwork Takes Up More Time Than Training

A study by the British Medical Association has suggested that junior doctors spend more time on administrative paperwork than they do on formal medical training. The study, which followed 430 trainees, showed that just 13 per cent of their time was spent on training - a worsening trend blamed in many case on the impact of the European Working Time Directive.

Demand For Safety Test On Gender Bending Chemical

Professor David Melzer, an Exeter University academic, has claimed that a ‘gender bending' chemical used in food containers, baby bottles and baked bean tins should be put through the same rigorous safety trials as new drugs. He has called for an urgent review into the safety of bisphenol A (BPA) - a man-made chemical linked to heart disease, breast cancer and birth defects. Experts estimate that BPA is detectable in more than 90 per cent of people. Earlier this year, Denmark banned the chemical in food and drink containers for the under-threes. A study by Professor Melzer, an epidemiologist, found changes in sex hormones associated with exposure to BPA in men.

Clot-Busting Magnets Prevent Heart Attacks

Magnetic nanoparticles - pieces of metal so mall they can barely be seen with the human eye - are being covered in a layer of clot-busting medicine to prevent heart attacks. At the moment, injected drugs can get carried around in the bloodstream and may miss the clot completely. But the new magnet therapy ensures drug-coated particles are rapidly drawn towards a stent, where they break up the clot.

Fear Over Diabetes Pill

The British Medical Journal has called for the immediate withdrawal of diabetes drug, Avandia, saying that it should never have been licensed. An investigation found that the Commission on Human Medicines advised the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in July to withdraw the drugs, as the risks outweighed the benefits.

Brushing Teeth Can Help To Prolong Life

Failing to clean teeth properly leaves people at higher risk of heart attacks, a study found. Professor Howard Jenkinson, of Bristol University's department of oral and dental science, said poor dental hygiene could lead to bleeding gums, providing bacteria with an escape route into the bloodstream, where they could initiate blood clots leading to heart disease.

Bogus Food-Allergy Tests

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is giving GPs more advice on now to respond to suspected food allergies in young people to speed up diagnosis of genuine cases. The draft advice from NICE suggests that GPs should be alert to the possibility of food allergy when other members of a child's family have allergies, a child has other allergies like eczema, has gastrointestinal problems, shows signs of malnutrition or is not responding to treatment for some conditions.

Pharmacists In Care Homes Can Cut Drug Errors

Medication errors in care homes could be reduced by more than 90 per cent if pharmacists were responsible for the task, a pilot study claims. Nick Barber of London University led the study, which found that on any day seven out of 10 patients suffered at least one medication error, an ‘unacceptably high' rate. The study said that a pharmacist should run the whole system.

Bird Flu Outbreak Will Be Next Killer

A US virus expert has warned that the next big outbreak will be a human form of bird flu. Dr Robert Webster urged health authorities to stay vigilant despite the swine flu pandemic proving less lethal than expected. A mutated form of bird flu could spark the next global epidemic, he warned.

Men More Likely To Be Forgetful In Old Age

A study published in the journal, Neurology, based on a survey of people in their 70s and 80s shoed that mild cognitive impairment (MCI) such as increasing forgetfulness was 50 per cent higher in men than women. MCI implies a degree of mental decline that goes beyond that which can be explained by normal ageing. Lead researcher, Dr Ronald Peterson, said if the results were confirmed in other studies, it might suggest factors related to gender played a role in the disease. For example, men might experience cognitive decline earlier in life but more gradually, whereas women might transitions from normal memory directly to dementia at a later stage but more quickly.

Study Shows ME/CFS ‘Virus Link' Found In Children

A study on children has found further evidence that ME, or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), could be caused by a virus.

Scientists at the University of Dundee study found abnormalities in the white blood cells of children with ME/CFS, suggesting they had been fighting off infection.

About 150,000 people in the UK have ME/CFS, 15,000 of whom are children. The condition is characterised by physical and mental exhaustion following normal activities. Symptoms include muscle pain, sore throat, tender lymph nodes, multi-joint pain and headaches.

In the study, funded by ME Research UK and The Young ME Sufferers (Tymes) Trust, 25 children aged between seven and 14 with ME/CFS were assessed, along with 23 children of a similar age in a control group.

The report, published in the Archives of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, said abnormalities were found in the blood of all the children with ME/CFS. The results were similar to those previously identified in adults with the condition.

Samples taken from youngsters with ME/CFS contained higher than normal levels of free radicals - molecules that can damage cells, tissues and organs. A much greater number of neutrophils, the most common type of white blood cells, were also found to be at the end of their lifecycle. The report said the high turnover of neutrophils indicated the body's need to fight infection.

There is continuing debate among scientists over whether ME/CFS is caused by a virus. Several studies in adults have found evidence of a virus in people with the condition, but so far research has not proved conclusive. Some doctors have said that the idea that different types of chronic fatigue were caused by a single virus was not plausible.

Professor Jill Belch, an expert in vascular medicine in Ninewells hospital in Dundee, who led the latest project, said that what they had found were blood changes that suggested chronic inflammation. She went on to say that this was important because it was showing an abnormality that might be treatable, but also because some people suggested ME was a disease of the mind and in the research project that were showing that it was a disease of the body.

Gene Variations May Have Breast Cancer Role

Researchers say they have identified a series of gene variations, which, together, may play a role in the development of common breast cancer.

A study of women in Finland and Sweden found 121 variations in their DNA. The Singapore team thinks these are linked to oestrogen production, known to play a role in a breast cancer type, which afflicts post-menopausal women. The researchers say the findings might be used to identify women who might from benefit from oestrogen-lowering drugs.

The researchers examined the genetic make-up of thousands of women with and without breast cancer in Sweden and Finland. They found 121 tiny variations in 15 different genes, which they said appeared to be linked to a woman's risk of developing what is known is oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer. The variations were in a section of the DNA close to a gene responsible for producing oestrogen and the suggestion was that the variations might play a collective role in the production of the female sex hormone.

The individual impact of each variation was minimal, but if a woman was dealt a combination of these variations, said scientists, the higher her exposure to the hormone would be and the higher the risk of cancer.

Dr Edison Liu of the Genome Institute in Singapore, who led the study, said that, while the results required further validation, the sample was large and the outcomes were significant. Researchers also detected the same genetic variations in women with cancer of the uterus, where oestrogen exposure is also considered key.

Neil Barrie, from Cancer Research UK, said that this research brought us a step closer to understanding the many subtle genetic changes that interacted to affect individual women's risk of these diseases. Studying these changes should help to identify women most at risk so they could be offered tailored advice, screening and treatments in the future.