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Health Information Technology And Health Care Reform Must Be Well-Aligned To Improve Health And Lower Costs
Dramatic improvements in health and reductions in cost growth are achievable if efforts to boost health information technology (IT) are aligned with broader health care reform, a group of three influential non-profit organizations said today.

Gastrointestinal Endoscopy June Issue Study Highlights
Polyp detection rates at screening colonoscopy; EUS-based criteria for the diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis
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Test For Strep Bacteria In Pregnant Women Misses More Cases Than Expected, Study Shows
A federal recommendation that all pregnant women undergo testing for Group B strep bacteria has helped increase the number of screenings but also has produced a high level of false negatives, according to a study published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the AP/Newark Star-Ledger reports. Group B strep is a common bacteria in the intestines or lower genital tract. Although it poses no harm to most adults, during delivery it can be spread to infants, who can develop blood infections, pneumonia, meningitis, mental retardation, hearing and vision loss, or death. Problems occur in fewer than one in 3,000 births, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2002 issued a recommendation that all pregnant women be tested because of the potential for serious complications. The study is the first research to examine the screening program. The researchers examined data on Group B strep cases in 10 states, finding that 250 infants out of nearly 7,700 were born with the infection. They compared the results with a similar study that was conducted before the CDC recommendations were in place, finding that the screening rate rose from 48% to 85% of pregnant women. The study also found that infant infections from Group B strep declined by 27%.Researchers predicted there would be between 44 and 86 false negatives in full-term infants, based on data from previous studies. However, their results showed about 60% of infected infants -- 116 cases -- were born to women who had tested negative for Group B strep. Researchers noted that the timing of a Group B test might play a role because the infection can come quickly, and tests could have been performed before the bacteria appeared. CDC recommends that pregnant women be screened between 35 and 37 weeks" gestation. CDC researcher Stephanie Schrag, who co-authored the study, said, "Maybe it was a true negative test, and the mother later became colonized" with the bacteria before delivery (Stobbe, AP/Newark Star-Ledger, 6/17).
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New Method For Detecting Nitroxyl Will Boost Cardiac Drug Research

Wake Forest University scientists have developed a new research tool in the pursuit of heart medications based on the compound nitroxyl by identifying unique chemical markers for its presence in biological systems. Nitroxyl, a cousin to the blood-vessel relaxing compound nitric oxide, has been shown in studies to strengthen canine heart beats, but research into its potential benefits for humans has been slowed by a lack of specific detection methods. "I think this is a very powerful tool to help in the development of new drugs for congestive heart failure," said S. Bruce King, a professor of chemistry at Wake Forest who leads the team that conducted the research. Researchers can generate nitroxyl from precursor chemicals under controlled conditions, but studying the molecule"s activity in cells is difficult because its constituent elements-nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen-react so readily with other molecules. King"s research team used compounds that are not present in normal cell biology to produce a reaction that yields the identifying chemical markers. King has been investigating nitrogen oxide compounds at Wake Forest since 1995. While scientists have established that the human body naturally produces nitric oxide, natural production of nitroxyl is suspected but has not been demonstrated. King said the new chemical markers could help answer that question, as well. The research is described in an article, "Reductive Phosphine-Mediated Ligation of Nitroxyl (HNO)," published online in the American Chemical Society"s journal Organic Letters. King co-authored the paper with Wake Forest graduate chemistry students Julie Reisz and Erika Klorig, and chemistry department staff member Marcus Wright, an instrumentation manager. King"s research team has received support from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the American Heart Association and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. Wake Forest University


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