Schizophrenia, which affects 2 million to 3 million people in the U.S., causes hallucinations, delusions and disorganization. Left untreated, the disease can cause a significant loss in quality of life, including unemployment and estrangement from loved ones. But many people with schizophrenia can control the disorder and live without symptoms for several years if they consistently take prescribed antipsychotic medication, typically a daily pill.

The problem is that many people don

The apparent dearth of research on hepatitis B and C testing in many European countries could be hampering efforts to identify infected individuals, according to results from a comprehensive review of 136 studies.

The systematic review concluded that the current evidence base on hepatitis B and C testing appears to be lacking in many European countries. At present it is informed primarily by published articles and conference abstracts from just 6 out of 53 member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region: Turkey, Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

The results indicate that some high-risk populations have been studied much more than others, but mostly only in a small number of countries. The results also appear to show high median testing uptake levels across Europe. However, since almost all of the studies used methodologies that required or encouraged study participants to undergo testing, high median testing uptake levels are not likely to be representative of the overall testing uptake in most populations.

‘It’s clear from our review that there are crucial gaps in our knowledge on hepatitis B and C testing – we do not yet have enough information to plan effective public health responses in Europe,’ commented Professor Jeffrey Lazarus, Professor of International Health Systems at Copenhagen University, Denmark. ‘Our research team is particularly concerned about the low numbers of published studies looking at migrants, prison inmates and men who have sex with men – all populations that might benefit greatly from targeted hepatitis testing interventions.’

Professor Tom Hemming Karlsen, Scientific Committee Member, European Association for the Study of the Liver, added: ‘Viruses that affect the liver, such as hepatitis B and C, can cause real problems if not identified and treated early. We need to raise awareness of the threat posed by these viruses and actively encourage testing across Europe. This is not only vital to diagnosis and treatment but also to prevention – to stopping the viruses spreading through populations and generations to come.’ News Medical

Inventors at Nottingham Trent University are using smart materials to develop a low-cost steerable medical device to help doctors insert a life-saving breathing tube into a patient

Patients whose colorectal cancer (CRC) is detected during a screening colonoscopy are likely to survive longer than those who wait until they have symptoms before having the test, according to a study.

The study looked at 312 patients in 10 gastroenterology practices in Germany, all aged 55 or older, who were diagnosed with CRC in 2003-2005. Of those, 60 patients were diagnosed during a screening colonoscopy, meaning they had no symptoms and/or only a negative faecal occult blood test (FOBT). The other 252 patients had their cancers detected during a diagnostic colonoscopy,
following a positive FOBT and/or symptoms including abdominal pain, iron deficiency anaemia, weight loss, changes in bowel habits, or rectal bleeding. None of the patients had had a previous colonoscopy, and all received endoscopic follow-up care. The patients were followed for as long as 10 years after diagnosis.

Patients whose cancer was detected during screening colonoscopy lived 20.2 months longer, on average, than those who had the test after noticing symptoms or having a positive FOBT (diagnostic colonoscopy). The latter group tended to have more advanced stage tumors; as expected, those whose cancer was in a more advanced stage had shorter survival times. About 55 percent of the patients with diagnostic colonoscopy, and about 77 percent of the screening
colonoscopy patients, survived beyond the time period of the study.

According to the lead author, Kilian Friedrich, MD,

Patients undergoing colorectal operations who participated in an enhanced recovery program left the hospital  sooner and had significantly lower  hospital costs than patients who had the traditional approach to their care, according to a new study, which also found further postoperative improvements after adding an infection prevention protocol.