Health Highlights: March 29, 2008

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments,
compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Balloon Angiography OK for Some Medical
Centers Without Coronary Surgical Backup: Study

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) -- more commonly known as
balloon angioplasty -- doesn%26#39;t need to be performed only in hospitals with
coronary surgical backup, a new study has found.

A report presented Saturday at a joint cardiology meeting in Boston,
sponsored by the American College of Cardiology (ACC), found that medical
centers with "well-organized, highly skilled" PCI programs can safely and
effectively perform the angioplasty.

Researchers compared 9,029 patients who had angioplasty at 61 centers
without cardiac backup surgery to 299,132 patients at 404 centers with a
cardiac surgery program from January 2004 through March 2006. And they
found there was no statistical difference in mortality.

According to a news release from the Society for Cardiovascular
Angiography and Interventions, the findings should not be interpreted as
an endorsement of "boutique angioplasty." Lead investigator Dr. Michael
A. Kutcher, of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., said, "These
medical centers are doing angioplasty for the right reasons: to improve
outcomes for heart attack patients and to better serve patients in remote
geographic areas."

The findings represent the largest clinical study ever to compare PCI
programs that have on-site cardiac surgery to PCI programs that transfer
patients to a surgical hospital in case of emergency, according to the
SCAI news release.

PCI involves threading a slender balloon-tipped tube from an artery in
the groin to the clogged place in the coronary artery. By inflating the
balloon, the vessel-clogging plaque is compressed, allowing better blood
flow.

-----

FDA Seeks $2.2 Million Penalty from Hearing
Aid Maker

Hearing aid maker Advanced Bionics LLC is being penalized $2.2 million
by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for alleged violations including
failing to adhere to manufacturing standards and for failing to notify the
agency that it had changed suppliers, the FDA said Friday.

The Sylmar, Calif., company makes a device called the HiRes90k
Implantable Cochlear Stimulator. The device is surgically implanted behind
the ear to treat profound hearing loss in both adults and children.

The agency%26#39;s legal complaint alleges that the company exposed device
users to unnecessary health risks by failing to follow standard
manufacturing procedures and by distributing devices that contained a
component provided by an unapproved vendor.

The complaint says Advanced Bionics shipped hearing aids in violation
of the law between January 2005 and July 2006. At least some of the
alleged violations occurred after a 2001 inspection, which had found
similar failures that the company had promised to correct, the agency
said.

-----

Brain Changes Affect Teen
Behavior

Natural changes in adolescents%26#39; brains affect their cognition, emotion
and behavior, say U.S. National Institute of Mental Health researchers,
who used MRI to examine the brains of volunteers.

The researchers found that brain gray matter increases in volume until
the early teens, then decreases until old age. The findings appear in the
April issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.

"Adolescence is a time of substantial neurobiological and behavioral
change, but the teen brain is not a broken or defective adult brain,"
wrote researcher Dr. Jay N. Giedd.

The findings come from the NIMH Longitudinal Brain Imaging Project,
which began in 1989.

-----

New Test Recommended to Determine
Cardiovascular Disease Risk

The way doctors treat patients at risk for cardiovascular disease may
change after Friday%26#39;s release of new guidelines from the American Diabetes
Association and the American College of Cardiology.

The guidelines say an additional test should be added to the standard
cholesterol test used to determine cardiovascular disease risk. The
guidelines endorse the use of advanced lipoprotein testing by nuclear
magnetic resonance (NMR) as a more accurate method to determine risk and
to check whether LDL ("bad") cholesterol-lowering therapies are having an
effect in patients.

NMR lipoprotein testing measures the number of LDL particles, which
carry cholesterol through the body, rather than cholesterol levels alone.
Studies have shown that it%26#39;s the number of lipoprotein particles present
in the blood, not the amount of cholesterol carried by these particles,
that form blockages inside arteries.

-----

Stroke Hospitalizations Higher Among U.S.
Blacks

Black Americans and people living in the Southeast have the highest
rates of stroke hospitalizations among Medicare beneficiaries in the
United States, says a report released Friday by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services.

The report -- Atlas of Stroke Hospitalizations Among Medicare
Beneficiaries -- also found that a large number of beneficiaries live in
counties where there is no access to care, or inadequate choices for
emergency care when they suffer a stroke.

About 21 percent of counties had no hospital, 31 percent had a hospital
without an emergency department, and 77 percent had a hospital with no
neurology services.

The atlas provides county-level maps of stroke hospitalizations for
blacks, whites and Hispanics. It showed the that stroke hospitalization
rate for blacks is 27 percent higher than for the U.S. population in
general, 30 percent higher than for whites, and 36 percent higher than for
Hispanics.

"The atlas highlights that where you live can determine how you live,
regarding your ability to take part in activities that reduce your risk of
stroke," study lead author Michele Casper, an epidemiologist at the CDC%26#39;s
Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, said in a prepared
statement.

"Examples of community conditions that can influence a person%26#39;s risk
for stroke include the availability of affordable healthy food, safe
options for physical activity, access to high quality health care, and
anti-smoking legislation and polices," Casper said.

-----

FDA Issues Warning About %26#39;Total Body Formula%26#39;
and %26#39;Total Body Mega Formula%26#39; Supplements

Consumers should not buy or consume the Tropical Orange and Peach
Nectar flavors of "Total Body Formula" or the Orange/Tangerine flavor of
"Total Body Mega Formula" because these liquid dietary supplements may
cause problems including significant hair loss, muscle cramps, diarrhea,
joint pain and fatigue, says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The products have been recalled by the distributor, Total Body
Essential Nutrition of Atlanta, and the FDA is analyzing samples of the
products to identify the cause of the problems. It%26#39;s suspected the
products contain excessive amounts of selenium, which can cause the
symptoms shown by some consumers. Only small amounts of selenium -- a
trace mineral -- are needed for good health.

The FDA received reports from the Florida Department of Health about 23
people who suffered serious reactions seven to 10 days after using these
products. The FDA is also investigating reports of similar cases in
Tennessee.

Consumers with these products should stop using them and throw them
away. Anyone who has had adverse reactions after taking the products
should consult a health care professional, the FDA said.

For more information, call the FDA%26#39;s Food Safety Hotline at
1-888-SAFEFOOD.