Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Health Headlines - January 24

Critics Denounce EPA Criteria for Pesticide Tests on Humans

Some members of Congress are harshly critical of how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is establishing the first-ever guidelines for human pesticide testing, the Associated Press reported.

The EPA won't allow intentional pesticide dosing studies of children and pregnant women, according to Susan Hazen, the agency's principal deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances.

Nonetheless, the EPA's rules are being denounced by three California Democrats -- Sen. Barbara Boxer and Reps. Henry Waxman and Hilda Solis -- who have seen the final draft of the EPA criteria, the AP said.

Boxer said the EPA rule still allows tests on pregnant women and children as long as pesticide companies can convince the EPA that they didn't intend to submit the results of those studies when they began them.

"The fact that the EPA allows pesticide testing of any kind on the most vulnerable, including abused and neglected children, is simply astonishing," Boxer said.

Magnetic Method Tracks Organ Rejection

Magnetic tracking of immune cells may eventually prove an effective way of checking for signs of rejection in transplanted organs, concludes a study led by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University.

The scientists found that it was possible to tag immune cells with iron oxide and then use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to track the cells. Accumulation of immune cells in a transplanted organ can indicate whether the body is rejecting it, the Associated Press reported.

The findings appear in the latest issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

For this study, the scientists tagged immune cells called macrophages with iron oxide particles. The immune cells were then injected into mice that had undergone heart transplants three days earlier.

MRI was used to track the immune cells and observe what happened as the mice rejected the new hearts.

UCI Transplant Program Rejected Many Kidneys

Even though 150 people at a time were on a waiting list, the kidney transplant program at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center turned down numerous kidneys over the last five years, the Los Angeles Times reported.

A Times analysis of UCI data also found that many patients on the hospital's waiting list would have had a much better chance of receiving a kidney if they'd gone to other hospitals.

The review showed that between July 2000 and June 2005, the UCI Medical Center accepted only 8.7 percent of the kidneys offered for its patients. That's far lower than the median annual acceptance rate of 25.9 percent to 31.2 percent across the United States over the same period.

During those five years, about 35 patients died while waiting for kidney transplants at UCI. It's not clear how many kidneys were offered for those patients or whether they would have survived if they had received a new kidney, the Times reported.

The problems uncovered by the Times echo troubles that led to the closure of UCI Medical Center's liver transplant program in November 2005.

Lawsuit Alleges Medtronic Gave Illegal Payments to Doctors

U.S. medical device maker Medtronic paid tens of millions of dollars to surgeons in the form of consulting contracts in recent years, and some of these payments were made to gain or keep the doctors' business, a lawsuit filed against the company alleges.

The suit, launched by a former Medtronic employee who turned whistle-blower, accuses the company of giving spine surgeons "excessive enumeration, unlawful perquisites and bribes in other forms for purchasing goods and medical devices," The New York Times reported.

For example, Medtronic allegedly paid a Wisconsin surgeon $400,000 a year for a consulting contract that required him to work just eight days. And a doctor in Virginia reportedly was paid nearly $700,000 in consulting fees for the first nine months of 2005, The Times said.

Internal company documents filed with the lawsuit reveal that Medtronic paid at least $50 million to doctors over about four years, through June or later in 2005, the newspaper said. Such payments are illegal when they're linked to a doctor's use of a particular product. Federal law prohibits payments and other benefits to doctors if the payments are meant to induce doctors to use a company's products.

Doctors named in the lawsuit who were reached for comment said the payments they received from Medtronic were appropriate and fair compensation for the work they did. Medtronic declined direct comment on the accusations.

FDA Panel Recommends Approval of OTC Fat-Blocking Drug

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted 11-3 Monday to recommend approving over-the-counter sales of a nonprescription form of the fat-blocking pill orlistat.

If the full FDA follows the committee's recommendation, the OTC drug could be available within the next few months and would be the first such weight-loss pill to win FDA approval, the Associated Press reported.

Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline said it would instruct people to use the OTC version of orlistat -- marketed as Alli -- for only six months at a time as part of an overall diet and exercise program.

When taken with meals, orlistat blocks absorption of about 25 percent of any fat consumed, and that fat is then passed out of the body in stools. In clinical trials of the drug, about half of the participants suffered gastrointestinal side effects such as fecal incontinence, gas, and oily discharge.

The FDA advisory panel said that, if Alli is approved for sale in the U.S., Glaxo should conduct follow-up studies and rework the label in order to ensure proper use of the drug, the AP reported.

Glaxo's application was opposed by the watchdog group Public Citizen. Group spokesman Dr. Sidney Wolfe called it a, "desperate attempt to revive this barely effective drug by an OTC switch."

Childhood Heart Repairs May Begin to Fail in Adulthood

Many adults who had childhood surgery to repair lethal heart defects are unaware that those repairs may start to fail as they approach middle age, experts warn.

These patients believe they were cured and don't bother to get cardiac checkups. In addition, few cardiologists outside of children's hospitals know how to monitor these kinds of heart conditions, the Associated Press reported.

Open-heart surgery to repair heart defects in babies and young children only became common in the 1970s. Doctors have started to notice a disturbing trend among survivors of those surgeries as they reach adulthood.

Evidence suggests that about 20 years after childhood heart surgery, there's increasing risk for serious problems, including enlarged hearts, irregular heartbeats, heart failure, and even sudden death, the AP reported.

If these problems are detected at an early stage, they are treatable or even preventable. However, many of these patients suffer major heart damage by the time a doctor makes the connection between a repaired heart and an adulthood illness, said Dr. Roberta Williams of the American College of Cardiology.

Food Fact:
Go bananas.


Smart bakers have a bunch of tricks for cutting fat using this versatile fruit. Mash very ripe bananas into a puree, and you can use it to replace half to 3/4 of the fat in your favorite muffin or quick bread recipe. As if that alone wasn't enough of a heart-healthy improvement, bananas are chock full of potassium, which helps regulate blood pressure. Just be aware they're a little high in calories and sugar compared to most other fruits -- a medium-sized banana has about 110 calories, a "super-sized" one may have twice that.

Fitness Tip of the day:
Lobby cardio.


If you're running late on a business trip and can't get to the gym, "hallway laps" can fill the exercise gap. Lace up your sneakers and jog in the halls at times when you won't disturb other guests. Or, take the stairs -- walk to a room on the 15th floor and you won't need to reserve a stair climber in the gym. Even if it's twice as difficult to squeeze in exercise as during a normal workday, on a business trip it's twice as important. A workout on the road boosts your energy, creativity and effectiveness.

FAQ of the day:
Is grilling safe?


Grilling, broiling and barbecuing creates compounds in meat that may increase risk of cancers of the stomach, colon and rectum. Some stem from burning fat, while others are inside highly heated meat. Char-broiled foods are the worst offenders. You can substantially reduce the levels of these potential carcinogens by marinating the meat beforehand, and then cooking it on a cooler part of the grill. If any meat gets charred, scrape it off before serving. This advice also applies to chicken and fish.

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