MEDICINE

Boston Scientific Corp on Monday said it was suspending all sales of its implantable heart defibrillators after it failed to notify regulators of changes in how it manufactures the devices.

The drug regadenoson is safe and poses fewer side effects than the conventional medication used during a cardiac nuclear stress test of heart transplant patients, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study.

Researchers from the Heart Institute at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah, have devised a better way to determine an individual's risk for problems, such as heart attack and heart failure, according to a new study.

Over half of medical students and junior doctors underestimate the amounts of radiation involved in regularly ordered scans with 25 per cent wrongly accept that magnetic resonance imaging emits radiation.

The widespread and unnecessary ordering of high-radiation CT scans which can trigger cancer has alarmed the Medicare watchdog, after a high increase in the number of health workers and doctors referred to the agency for investigation.

A total of over 90,000 people from Sunshine Coast and Wide Bay health districts have queued up for the vaccine against the human swine flu. Following the government warnings on the second wave of the pandemic, nearly 4000 have attended free weekend vaccination clinics at local schools. Another 87,000 visited their local GP for vaccinations.

The ban on the technology that offers allows parent to have the sex of their children, predetermined using IVF will be open for review by Australia's health watchdog. According to the Herald Sun reports, the National Health and Medical Research Council is ready to launch a review of the ban amid criticism from Australian fertility doctors.

Australian researchers are divided over the recent British studies which states that oral contraceptive pill is good for women. The study published in the British Medical Journal says that women who have been on the pill are less likely to die from any cause, including all cancer and heart disease, compared with those who have never been on it.

The widely believed notion that pregnancy and motherhood can cause women to be absentminded and forgetful, is false, says Professor Helen Christensen and colleagues at the Australian National University, as evident in the findings of the study of 1,241 women from 20 to 24 years of age.

Australian research suggests that smoking cannabis predisposes people to psychosis. The study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry involved 3,800 people born in Brisbane between 1981 and 1984, which were followed to assess psychosis development such as hallucinations up to the age of 21 years old.

Medicare dental scheme is spreading its wings nationwide, with latest figures of claims for pricey crowns and bridges in Victoria, Queensland and South Australia.

(Reuters) - Several drug firms have agreed on a landmark deal to supply up to 200 million doses a year of cut-price pneumococcal vaccines to developing nations, according to the global immunization alliance that is overseeing the deal.

British researchers said their study, which should reassure many millions of women across the world who have taken oral birth control pills, found no link between the drugs and an increased long-term risk of dying sooner.

Total knee replacement surgery improves balance in elderly patients.

Researchers found that among 160 5- to 18-year-olds with asthma seen at their center, the 46 with peanut allergies generally had more hospitalizations for asthma exacerbations than children without the food allergy.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Needle-exchange programs designed to cut injection drug users' risk of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and other infections do seem to reduce needle sharing, but there is only limited evidence that they lower disease transmission, a new research review concludes.

According to Australian government health data, a significant proportion of Australians are getting bigger.

A world expert, professor Graham Colditz, an Australian who has taught Harvard, and is now based at the University of Washington Medical School, warns that Australia could expect a double in the number of cancer cases within 20 years, if poor lifestyle habits are not changed.

Healthcare and industry groups are calling for chronic pain to be accepted as a disease, saying the condition has been misunderstood; similar to depression was, back before it was recognized as a disease.

A recent spread of dengue fever cases has been declared, with three cases originating in the north Queensland town of Tully. Queensland Health medical director Dr Jeffrey Hanna says while the outbreak is small; there is no time to be complacent.

(Reuters) - Only half of patients at high risk of heart disease are given the right targets for cutting their cholesterol and millions may suffer heart attack or stroke due to doctors' poor advice, scientists said on Thursday.