Vanderbilt survey available

            WASHINGTON - Monday Morning in Washington, DC noted Vanderbilt University has, for families of young children with Autism, a Quality of Life survey. You can participate in it to evaluate quality of life in families with young children with Autism spectrum disorders ( ASD ). If you have a child under six years who has been diagnosed with an ASD , consider participating. That would help investigators identify the unique needs of families with young children with Autism. The survey will take about 20 minutes and you’ll have the option to complete more surveys in the same study. The other surveys will take about 40 minutes. The survey is at www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=367163863838.

            ATLANTA - HealthDay News noted eight of 10 Am ericans 65 or older have heart disease, diabetes, or some other chronic illness, a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report shows. The State of Aging and Health in America 2007 has up-to-date data on 15 key health indicators for older adults. The number of Americans 65 and older is seen at 71 million by 2030, about 20% of the population; by that time, U.S. healthcare spending is figured to rise 25% due to an aging population, CDC states. The good news is that, at the national level, we’re meeting some of the government's Healthy People 2010 targets: national goals are being met in mammograms, colorectal cancer screening, cholesterol testing, and reduction in the number of smokers. However, no state has met the target for physical activity, eating fruits and vegetables daily, and flu and pneumonia vaccines, and only three - Colorado, Hawaii, and New Mexico - have met the target for lowering obesity.

            WASHINGTON - Monday Morning in Washington, D.C. noted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for a Competitive Workforce (ICW) will hold its Education and Workforce Summit at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington on Sept. 24-26 (www.uschamber.com/icw/strategies/icwsummit.htm). More than 400 leaders in business, education, and workforce development will discuss issues vital to U.S. competitiveness. Visit the Web site for agenda and registration.

            NEW YORK -  Dr. Gwen Cohen-Brown, assistant professor of dental hygiene at New York City College of Technology, hopes to educate students and New York area hygienists, physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and hospital HIV/AIDS counselors to do periodontal evaluations and oral cancer/vital sign checks routinely on how to know clinical signs of such systemic diseases as HIV/AIDS. "Dental health providers can be the first line of care [on] oral health," she says. “The mouth is the portal to the body and a reflection of general health. Health providers need to recognize things like a yeast infection that doesn’t go away or specific tumors and be able to bring up such subjects with our patients.” The American Dental Association says only about 7% of dentists offer the mouth and neck exams they should. "While HIV/AIDS is no longer in the news as much, it is still an epidemic that needs to be contained, and education is key," she said.

            WASHINGTON - Monday Morning in Washington, D.C. noted Boston University seeks applicants for a two-year academic family medicine fellowship focused on developmental disabilities. It involves master’s degree in epidemiology and biostatistics or in health services research from the Dept. of Public Health and includes clinical experience in providing health supports to people with intellectual and physical disabilities. The application, stipend, and deadlines can be obtained from (Mary.Cerreto@bmc.org).

            BROOKLYN, NY - Reuters reported researchers found a hormone made in response to stress that normally calms adults and younger children increases anxiety in adolescents. They focused experiments on female mice and the hormone THP that showed this paradoxical effect, and described the brain mechanism that explains it. If, as scientists suspect, the same happens in people, the phenomenon may help account for mood swings and anxiety exhibited by many adolescents, they said. "Teenagers don't go around crazy all the time," lead researcher Sheryl Smith, a professor of physiology and pharmacology at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, said. "It really is a mood swing where things seem fine and calm, and the next thing is someone's crying or angry," she added. The emotional swings aren’t always benign, Smith's team reported in the journal Nature Neuroscience. "Responses to stressful events are amplified, and anxiety and panic disorder first emerge at this time, being twice as likely to occur in girls as in boys," they wrote. "In addition, suicide risk increases in adolescence, despite the use of adult-based medical strategies."

            GAINESVILLE , FL - University of Florida scientists used gene therapy to restore sight in mice with a form of hereditary blindness, a finding related to many common eye diseases. Online at Nature Medicine, scientists tell how they used a harmless virus to deliver corrective genes to mice with a genetic fault. The result shows it’s possible to target and rescue cone cells - the most vital for sharpness and color vision. “Cone vision defines whether someone is blind,” said Dr. William Hauswirth, Rybaczki-Bullard professor of ophthalmic molecular genetics in the College of Medicine and a member of the UF Genetics Institute. “If you can deliver usefully a gene to cone cells, there are implications for all blinding diseases, not just inherited ones. Even in two very common types of blindness, age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, if you can target cones you might be able to rescue that vision.”

            TOKYO - MedPage Today noted obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients have a high rate of silent brain infarctions (SBI) that can be seen by magnetic resonance imaging, scientists found. Patients have higher biochemical markers tied to cerebrovascular disease, said Dr. Kenji Minoguchi, of Showa University School of Medicine. Treatment with nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) over three months cut the level of disease markers and may lower the risk of disease, Dr. Minoguchi and colleagues wrote in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. For unexplained reasons, the SBI had no obvious clinical consequences. Scientists tested 50 men with newly-diagnosed OSA and 15 obese men with no sleep disorder to serve as controls. None had other co-morbidities. The men were given a whole-brain MRI scan, with a SBI defined as a lesion of at least 3mm. The study found 16% of the men with OSA had evidence of silent brain infarction versus 6.7% of the controls, a significant difference. Prevalence was higher (25%) among men with severe or moderate apnea versus those with mild disease (7.7%) or the controls. Both differences were significant.

            OMAHA , NE - A study sheds more light on how erectile dysfunction (ED) interacts with diabetes and is a step in uncovering the link for the two disorders. It may lead to improved efficacy in treatments. Lack of Central Nitric Oxide Triggers Erectile Dysfunction in Diabetes was done by Hong Zheng, William Mayhan, and Kaushik Patel, of the Dept. of Cellular and Integrative Physiology; and Keshore Bidasee, of the Dept. of Pharmacology, University of Nebraska Medical Center. The results were in the American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, a peer-reviewed publication from the American Physiological Society. Sexual dysfunction is a well-recognized consequence of diabetes mellitus in men. Researchers conclude ED in diabetes is due to a selective defect, a loss in a synthetic enzyme within neurons. Restoring this synthetic enzyme may have a significant therapeutic value for diabetic patients with ED.

            TORINO , ITALY - Caregivers of ALS patients, most often spouses, are likely to become depressed and feel burdened. That’s untrue for those they care for, states a study in Neurology. “Since there’s evidence a caregiver’s mental status greatly influences ALS patients, these findings show a family caregiver’s physical and psychological condition shouldn’t be overlooked when planning ALS care,” said author Dr. Adriano Chio, of the University of Torino and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. Researchers interviewed 31 ALS patient-caregiver couples at the start and end of the study. Couples were tested for depression and quality of life. Scientists examined a caregiver’s feeling of burden, and a patient’s self-perceived burden. The study found a significant rise in burden and depression among caregivers over the nine months; depression, quality of life, and self-perceived burden remained virtually unchanged among people with ALS . Mild to moderate depression among caregivers went from 9.7% to 19.3%. Feeling burdened rose 11% among caregivers; the most common complaint: not enough time for oneself. Quality of life scores dipped for caregivers.