Medical News of the Obvious

You might already be aware of this week's finding if you've watched baseball in the past decade or so and noticed that Mark McGwire's arms are about the circumference of the average ballplayer's waist in the 70s. But just to be sure, researchers recently compared the BMIs of professional baseball players from 1876 to 2007 to find that, like serving sizes and master bathrooms, they've gotten bigger.

Clear, right? But in taking the next step, drawing conclusions from this study, this article from HealthDay gets about as confused as a science article can be. The study authors are concerned because they correlated the ballplayers' "increased BMIs with an increased risk of death." (We're assuming that's a risk of premature death, since it seems pretty certain that the 1876 team would be dead regardless of their % body fat.)

But a critic of the study argued first that ballplayers' increasing size is not a health risk, and then that the players might be dying early because they're using steroids. Um, we're not scientists, but mightn't there be a relationship (even a causal one, perhaps?) between steroid use and increased BMI?

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posted by Stacey Butterfield at 8:00 AM   2 Comments

Wash your hands or your badge will buzz

Doctors at the University of Florida invented a device that sniffs employees' hands for soap residue to check whether they've washed them enough.

After employees wash their hands, they pass them under the sniffer and their badge activates. When they later approach a patient, a bed-side monitor reads the badge and flashes green if the person has clean hands. If the person didn't wash or too much time has passed since they have, the badge vibrates to remind the employee.

We'd already covered bathing hands with plasma instead of soap. Don't get those near the sniffer.

Labels: handwashing, humor, MRSA, superbugs

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posted by Ryan DuBosar at 9:00 PM   0 Comments

Medical News of the Obvious

You might not have guessed it from how we're beating up on them at the Olympics, but Americans are fatter and lazier than Canadians. At least according to a new study, published by Arthritis Care & Research but conducted at the Toronto Western Research Institute (hmm, do you get the feeling they might be less than totally impartial in this US/Canuck comparison?).

Anyway, the researchers concluded that it's Americans' slothful habits that cause us to develop more arthritis than our northern peers. As you've probably already guessed, the solution to this problem is obvious, too. "Public health initiatives that promote healthy weight and physical activity," recommended a study author, according to HealthDay.

Labels: medical news of the obvious

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posted by Stacey Butterfield at 8:00 AM   0 Comments

Stroke 2010: Wii can do it

Remember all the hype before the Segway was unveiled in the early aughts? It was touted as one of the greatest inventions of mankind, something that would change life as we know it, etc, etc. For the most part, though, this technological wonder has only ended up changing the lives of:

1. Tour groups, whose members now have another way besides duck boats and horses-and-carriages to scream "I'm not from here" without uttering a word

2. Paul Blart, Mall Cop.

The Wii, on the other hand, seems more deserving of the sort of hype the Segway generated. It gets kids off the couch and exercising! It gets their parents exercising, too! And now, according to a pilot study released at the Stroke 2010 conference this week, it may help recovering stroke patients regain motor function.

The study randomized 22 mild-to-moderate stroke inpatients to play either cards and Jenga, or two Wii games: Wii Tennis and Wii Cooking Mama. The tennis game targets gross motor function, and the cooking game targets fine motor function (because it involves cutting potatoes, shredding cheese, etc.)

Games were played eight times for about 60 minutes each over a period of two weeks. Wii subjects played no more than twice a day; sessions were at least five hours apart; the patients were seated; and they had controllers attached to their hands if needed. All subjects had had their strokes within two months of the first session.

The Wii subjects significantly improved in fine motor function; they lowered their time on the Wolf Motor Function Test from 29.5 seconds to 18.9 seconds before and after the study. Their score was also 7.4 seconds faster than that of the non-Wii group, a significant difference.

Better living through virtual reality.

Labels: Stroke 2010, Wii

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 10:03 AM   0 Comments

Stroke 2010: Tips to manage acute ICH

Some quick tips about medically managing patients with acute intracerebral hemorrhage, courtesy of a talk at Stroke 2010 by Craig Anderson, MD, George Institute for International Health in Sydney NSW, Australia:

--avoid excess elevation of variables like blood pressure, glucose levels and body temperature

--maintain hydration; many of these patients present dehydrated

--elevate the head

--abandon intensive insulin therapy

--In terms of lowering blood pressure, going from 220 mm Hg systolic to 140 mm Hg over one hour appears safe, but it's still unknown whether more rapid lowering is better, or if it would be better to achieve a lower systolic level.

Labels: acute ICH, intracerebral hemorrhage, Stroke 2010

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 12:18 PM   0 Comments

Stroke 2010: Quality metrics for neurohospitalists: They're coming

Quality and safety metrics that will specifically affect neurologists/neurohospitalists are coming in the next few years, and neurohospitalists need to be involved in the discussion of what those metrics are, warned S. Andrew Josephson of USCF during a neurohospitalists session at the Stroke 2010 conference yesterday.

He urged the audience to consider the current metric of "time to antibiotics administration for pneumonia," which seems like a reasonable quality metric on the surface. To get compliance rates up, many hospitals give antibiotics to anyone with a little sputum, a cough, a fever, etc., as soon as he/she arrives at the ED. Thus, resistance rates have risen along with administration rates, because people are getting the drugs when they have things like bronchitis, not just pneumonia.

Why did this happen? Because subspecialists like pulmonologists and infectious disease specialists didn't play much of a role in making the quality metrics, Dr. Josephson said. "We neurologists need to be at the table when these quality measures that are soon going to affect our practice are made. Because if we aren't, someone else will make these metrics, and we aren't going to be very happy with the results."

One of the quality measures being considered for the future is delirium, he noted.
"The three biggest risk factors for delirium are old age, preexisting or current neurologic conditions, and former cognitive dysfunction. I mean, that's like everyone I see in the hospital! If delirium becomes a quality measure that I am going to be punished for financially, I'm in big trouble," Dr. Josephson said.

Labels: neurohospitalists, quality measures, quality reporting, Stroke 2010

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 6:52 AM   1 Comments

Medical News of the Obvious

Continuing last week's "All I Need to Know about Medicine, I Learned from TV" theme, we have a new study about television portrayals of seizures, reported by HealthDay. Turns out that, actually, television is not the best way to learn first aid. According to these researchers, sometimes fake doctors fail to provide appropriate medical care! So much for that plan to take the boards based on watching four years of "House," "Grey's Anatomy," "Private Practice" and "ER."

In another follow-up from last week, more news that you probably learned in sex ed class. Men don't like condoms that don't fit, HealthDay tells us. In addition to being uncomfortable and more likely to be removed, ill-fitting protection also increases the risk of malfunction. The good news for TV watchers is that study authors suggested readying the problem with "public health efforts designed to promote the improved fit of condoms." So can we expect a plot line about condom fitting in an upcoming episode of "Grey's"?

Labels: medical news of the obvious

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posted by Stacey Butterfield at 8:00 AM   0 Comments