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HRT review finds increased risk of blood clots and stroke
Conclusion This updated Cochrane review has found that oral HRT increases risk of stroke and blood clots, and does not appear to reduce overall risk of cardiovascular disease or death during follow-up. More exploratory analyses suggested that HRT might reduce risk of death from heart disease or non-fatal heart attack if it was started within 10 years of menopause, but this finding needs further confirmation. The review was carried out using robust methods and the trials were of good quality. Its findings are in line with the previous version of the review, and also with other reviews. There are some points to note: Thi...
Source: NHS News Feed - March 10, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Medication Source Type: news

HRT increases ovarian cancer risk by small amount
Conclusion This systematic review and meta-analysis showed that ovarian cancer risk was significantly increased in current HRT users, even in those with less than five years of HRT use (the average was three years). In ex-users, risks decreased the longer ago HRT use had stopped, but risks during the first few years after stopping remained significant. Furthermore, about a decade after stopping, long-duration hormone therapy use (average nine years of HRT use), there still seemed to be a small excess risk. The review has a few limitations, however. The main one is that the review was heavily influenced by just two of t...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 13, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Cancer Medication Older people Source Type: news

Have antibiotic changes upped heart infections?
Conclusion This is valuable and timely research, which has looked at trends before and after NICE's 2008 guidance on the prevention of infective endocarditis in people undergoing invasive procedures. This examined: changes in the prescription of antibiotics for the prevention of infective endocarditis changes in the number of cases of infective endocarditis diagnosed NICE's recommendation was based on an examination of the evidence of the effectiveness of antibiotics in preventing infective endocarditis, weighing the benefits and health outcomes (such as reduction in illness and deaths), risks and costs.   The ...
Source: NHS News Feed - November 19, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Medical practice Source Type: news

Can a 'microwave helmet' really detect strokes?
Conclusion This study has shown that haemorrhagic strokes could potentially be distinguished from ischaemic strokes by analysing microwave scattering measurements. While the two types of stroke can already be accurately diagnosed by CT or MRI scans in hospital, the “microwave helmet” development is important because it could potentially be used before someone arrives in hospital. This would avoid any time delay and allow people with ischaemic stroke to receive the anti-clotting medication that they need as soon as possible, potentially reducing the extent of damage the stroke causes. The technique isn’t perfect ye...
Source: NHS News Feed - June 17, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Medical practice Source Type: news

NICE: 'schools should provide morning-after pill'
Conclusion Everyone makes mistakes, but if you find yourself relying on the morning-after pill as a regular method of contraception, you may want to speak to a healthcare professional about what would be the most suitable form of ongoing contraception for you to use. This could include methods that do not involve needing to take a daily pill, such as contraceptive patches, injections or an implant. However, none of these methods will protect you against sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Condoms are cheap, free of side effects and they will protect you against STIs such as chlamydia. For more information about your ...
Source: NHS News Feed - March 26, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: QA articles Pregnancy/child Source Type: news

Stroke risk 'higher at start of warfarin treatment'
Conclusion This study has found that warfarin was associated with an increased risk of ischaemic stroke during the first 30 days of treatment. After 30 days of treatment, warfarin was associated with a decreased risk of stroke. However, this study has a number of limitations that should be considered: All information was from patient records, which means that it wasn't subject to recall bias, but the information may not be complete – we do not know if, for example, people took the medication they were prescribed. There may be other factors (confounders) that explain the association seen. In particular, the ba...
Source: NHS News Feed - December 19, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Medication Source Type: news

Scan could detect those on brink of heart attack
Conclusion This is a valuable study which shows the promise of using PET-CT with radioactively labelled sodium fluoride (NaF) as a way of identifying fatty deposits in the heart arteries that could be at risk of rupturing and causing a heart attack. The results confirmed that the marker used in this study (NaF) was better than the chemical marker normally used in PET-CT scans (FDG). The technique has the principal value of being a non-invasive technique compared with coronary angiography, which is the standard method used to look at blockages in heart arteries. As it does not involve surgical intervention, this could ha...
Source: NHS News Feed - November 11, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Medical practice Source Type: news

Drugs to be offered to women at high risk of breast cancer
The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has today released updated guidelines on the care of women who are at increased risk of breast cancer due to their family history. One of the main changes to the original guidance from 2004 is that NICE now recommends drug treatment with tamoxifen or raloxifene to reduce risk of breast cancer in a specific group of women who are at high risk of breast cancer and have not had the disease. They say that these treatments could help prevent breast cancer in about 488,000 women aged 35 years and older. The updated guideline has also made changes to the recommende...
Source: NHS News Feed - June 25, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Cancer Medical practice QA articles Source Type: news