Personal Health: News and Notes

Scientists have found a clue that one day may help doctors determine if a heart attack is imminent, in hopes of preventing it.

Most heart attacks happen when fatty deposits in an artery burst open, and a blood clot then forms to seal the break. If the clot is too big, it blocks off blood flow.

"We don't have a way to get at whether an artery's going to crack, the precursor to a heart attack," said Eric Topol, director of California's Scripps Translational Science Institute.

Wednesday, Scripps researchers reported a new lead - by searching people's blood for cells that appear to flake off the lining of a severely diseased artery.

Topol's team measured high levels of those cells, deformed ones, floating in the blood of 50 people who'd just had a heart attack. The research is reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Next, Topol said his team will begin needed studies to learn how early those cells might appear before a heart attack, and if spotting them could allow use of clot-preventing drugs to ward off damage.

- Associated Press

Gastrointestinal infections are killing more and more people in the United States and have become a particular threat to the elderly, according to new data released last week.

Deaths from the infections more than doubled from 1999 to 2007, from 7,000 a year to more than 17,000 a year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Of those who died, 83 percent were over age 65.

Two-thirds of the deaths were caused by a bacterium, Clostridium difficile, which people often contract in hospitals and nursing homes, particularly when they have been taking antibiotics. The bacteria have grown increasingly virulent and resistant to treatment in recent years.

But researchers were surprised to discover that the second leading cause of death from this type of illness was the norovirus. It causes a highly contagious infection, sometimes called "winter vomiting illness," that can spread rapidly on cruise ships and in prisons, dormitories and hospitals.

"I think there is perhaps a misperception that norovirus causes a mild illness," said Aron Hall, an epidemiologist at the disease centers. "But this suggests a major problem that requires some attention."

- New York Times

Male pattern baldness may be caused by a protein in the scalp, according to research that raises the possibility that drugs being tested by Merck & Co. and Actelion Ltd. for other uses might prevent hair loss.

Bald spots had an excessive amount of a protein called prostaglandin D2 or PGD2, according to a study in Science Translational Medicine. Merck's experimental treatment for facial flushing and Actelion's allergy compound, both in late-stage studies, block the protein.

About eight out of 10 white men experience some balding before the age of 70, according to the researchers. Johnson & Johnson's Rogaine and Merck's Propecia slow the loss, and some users see minor hair growth. Men may be able to regrow all their hair if the inhibiting protein is removed, said George Cotsarelis, chairman of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

The study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and other medical groups.

- Bloomberg

Few people want to be wide awake during their colonoscopy exams, but new research suggests too many are getting extra sedation treatment, costing as much as $1 billion yearly in potentially needless services.

Use of anesthesiologists to monitor sedation during colonoscopies and other digestive imaging tests has more than doubled in recent years, and they're used most often for low-risk patients who typically don't need the extra help, the study authors said.

"These services are not harming patients. They're basically giving them a luxury that is not strictly necessary," said the study's lead author, Soeren Mattke, a senior Rand Corp. scientist. That matters at a time when policymakers are trying to rein in rising medical costs, the authors said.

- Associated Press