Minnesota - October 2012 Archives

ROCHESTER, Minn. — October 31, 2012.   Sherine Gabriel, M.D., has been named dean of Mayo Medical School. She succeeds Terrence Cascino, M.D., who served as ...

BOSTON — October 30, 2012.  An oral rinse of the antidepressant doxepin significantly eased pain associated with oral mucositis in patients receiving radiation therapy for ...

SAN FRANCISCO — October 26, 2012.  Mayo Clinic researchers are presenting new findings on the early treatment of child and adolescent attention deficit hyperactivity disorder this week at the American Academy of Childhood and Adolescent Psychiatry annual meeting in San Francisco. They include a method to get better input from parents and teachers of children who are being diagnosed with ADHD for the first time — allowing for more effective treatment upon the first consultation. Researchers also showed how a tool can help clinicians better diagnose and treat children who have both ADHD and oppositional defiance disorder. Journalists: For video and audio of the researcher talking about the study, visit Mayo Clinic News Network. In the first study, Mayo Clinic researchers required parents and teachers of children coming in for their first ADHD consultation, defined by some combination of problems such as difficulty sustaining attention, hyperactivity and impulsive behavior, consultations to complete extensive background forms and analysis. By offering incentives and stressing the importance of being prepared for the first consultation, clinicians were able to boost parent and teacher compliance from 25 to 90 percent at the Mayo Clinic Child and Adolescent ADHD Clinic. As a result, researchers have been able to better recommend treatment and therapy right off the bat. "I'd compare treating a child with ADHD for the first time to consulting with someone who has type II diabetes — we need to measure a diabetic patient's blood sugar level before we can properly treat them," says study lead author Jyoti Bhagia, M.D., a Mayo Clinic psychiatrist. "The same goes for ADHD. The more we know about children in the early stages of treatment, the more quickly we can get them the help they need." In the second study, Mayo Clinic researchers gave 75 patients with ADHD at the Mayo Clinic Child and Adolescent ADHD Clinic a written, subjective evaluation to test for oppositional defiance disorder, a persistent pattern of tantrums, arguing, and angry or disruptive behavior toward authority figures. They found that the test was far better able to pick up whether the child had the disorder than an anecdotal physician diagnosis. Of the 75 patients in the study, 27 percent, or less than a third, were diagnosed with oppositional defiance disorder by their providers. After taking the subjective test, 48 percent tested positive for oppositional defiance disorder. That shows the presence of oppositional defiance disorder with ADHD is underdiagnosed and children may not be receiving the behavioral treatment they need.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — October 25, 2012.  A gene linked to the risk of developing Alzheimer's, heart disease and diabetes becomes less important to quality of ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — The public is invited to enjoy four Rosemary and Meredith Willson Harmony for Mayo Program concerts in November. Performances will be on Mondays from 12:10 to 1 p.m., unless otherwise indicated. The schedule is: Nov. 5: Grammy-nominated folk singer and songwriter John McCutcheon will perform a concert in Barbara Woodward Lips Atrium, subway level, Rochester Methodist Hospital, Charlton Building, 10 Third Ave. NW. McCutcheon's busy schedule includes headlining at international folk festivals, recording his own albums, producing benefit albums in support of community groups and touring other countries on behalf of local initiatives such as literacy and women's health. His own music is steeped in storytelling about place, family and strength. Early in his career, he apprenticed with Appalachian musicians in eastern Kentucky. McCutcheon has also produced documentaries and written books and instructional materials for young musicians. In September, he released "This Land: Woody Guthrie's America," an album he produced in honor of Guthrie's 100th birthday. Nov. 12: The Blackburns will perform an old-time country and bluegrass concert in Hage Atrium, subway level, Siebens Medical Education Building, 100 Second Ave. SW. The Blackburns are a husband and wife duo with Art on guitar, and Teresa on guitar, ukulele and bass. They have been singing duets together for several years and married last year. Teresa learned to sing and play classic country music from her family. In 2002, she formed a band with her mother, brother and daughter called Buggy Whipp. She also co-founded and performs with The Bluegrass Continentals. Art has also founded bluegrass bands, including Monroe Crossing, and has been a fixture in the Minnesota bluegrass community for decades. He's recorded 13 CDs and has been a studio musician on many others. Nov. 19: The Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet will perform an evening concert at 6:30 p.m. in Landow Atrium, subway level, Gonda Building. The quartet, described by The New York Times as "something extraordinary," has been profiled in The Boston Globe and the Chamber Music Magazine for pioneering performances in nontraditional venues. They were the first Artist-in-Residence with Minnesota Public Radio for the 2009–10 season. They won the Concert Artists Guild Competition and the Grand Prix and Mozart Prize at the Bordeaux International String. Quartet Competition in 2005. They have also received critical acclaim for their recordings of Bartók's String Quartets Nos. 2 and 5 and of György Ligeti's String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2. Quartet members include violinists Daniel Chong and Karen Kim, violist Jessica Bodner and cellist Kee-Hyun Kim.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — October 24, 2012.  Anyone who has followed news coverage of a plane crash has probably heard of a black box, an onboard device analyzed for clues into a flight's demise. What if there were a black box for pilots that could determine, in real time, whether they are fit to fly, helping to head off cognitive and physical failures that could take a jet down? Recent issues with the physically demanding F-22 fighter jet show it's time for in-flight pilot monitoring, Mayo Clinic and other aerospace medicine physicians say. VIDEO ALERT: Video of Dr. Steinkraus is available on the Mayo Clinic News Network and on YouTube. Their commentary is published this month in the journal Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine. The authors are part of a panel that met to address whether the tools now used to assess whether a pilot is physically fit to take to the skies are still adequate. They're not, they concluded. That is illustrated to dramatic effect by the Air Force's F-22, grounded after pilots had flight-related medical problems including cognitive abnormalities, the authors wrote. Common aeromedical problems, such as oxygen deprivation, spatial disorientation, fatigue and stress aren't assessed by standard tools, aren't in play during pre-flight physicals and can't be found in autopsies after a crash, they say. For example, as a pilot's oxygen level drops, it can happen subtly, and several planes have been lost after a pilot passed out or otherwise became unable to make the right decisions, says co-author Lawrence Steinkraus, M.D., a Mayo Clinic aerospace medicine physician who served on the panel. If something on board alerted the pilot to that developing hypoxia and directed him or her to take specific actions, it could prevent a crash, he says. Another common problem in fighter jets is gravitational-force-induced loss of consciousness, or G-LOC, Dr. Steinkraus says. There is a period of time before consciousness is lost when the pilot could be warned and told to intervene, or the aircraft could take action, if the right systems were in place, he says. "Our argument is that the human being is the most important, the critical piece in aircraft performance, whether it's a commercial airliner, whether it's a fighter, you're talking about the human being, the brain, the decision maker, being the one who drives it," Dr. Steinkraus says. "If we have something go wrong with that central processing unit, we need to have some sort of backup or warning, and it would be wonderful if we could add that information flow back to the pilot." Dr. Steinkraus is joined in the commentary by Mayo aerospace medicine physician Clayton Cowl, M.D.; Russell Rayman, M.D., of Aerospace Medical PLC in Alexandria, Va.; William Butler, M.D., of the Air Force Research Laboratory Institutional Review Board at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio; Royden Marsh, M.D., of the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine in San Antonio; and William Ercoline, Ph.D., of the Wyle Integrated Science and Engineering Group in San Antonio. A change in philosophy in the aviation community is needed for monitoring to catch on, Dr. Steinkraus says. Fighter pilots and others have resisted the idea as "Big Brotherish" and potentially punitive, and effective systems also have been lacking, he says. However, the F-22 problems have pilots, the military and aerospace medicine experts alike hungry for answers, Dr. Steinkraus says. That, combined with the growth of on-board tracking in some modes of transportation, such as the use of GPS by trucking companies to monitor truck drivers, and advances Mayo Clinic and others are making in the technology, may be turning the tide in favor of it, he says. "Acceptance is a big deal, and the smaller and easier we can make this and the more reliable, the easier it's going to be to get pushed out into the world and people will be willing to do it," Dr. Steinkraus says. "When the first cell phones came out they looked like giant bricks, and now you look at them and everyone's carrying them. It's the same thing with monitoring units." A Mayo Clinic research team went to Mount Everest earlier this year to study how extreme altitude affects humans and the effectiveness of remote monitoring units under those conditions.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — October 22, 2012.  Rib fractures are one of the most common bone breaks in older adults. While there's no direct treatment for ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — October 22, 2012.  Gallstones are common and for most people don't cause problems. But when they result in painful symptoms, gallbladder removal surgery often is recommended, according to the October issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter. The gallbladder is a small, pear-shaped sac tucked under the liver on the right side of the upper abdomen. It's a reservoir for bile, which is produced in the liver. When a person consumes foods containing protein or fat, the gallbladder contracts and empties the bile it contains through bile ducts into the small intestine. If the bile becomes chemically imbalanced, it forms into hardened particles — gallstones. They usually settle harmlessly in the bottom of the gallbladder. About 10 to 15 percent of people in the United States have gallstones, and 75 percent of them don't experience symptoms or require treatment. But sometimes, gallstones block the outlet of the gallbladder. This causes a gallbladder attack, with sudden moderate to severe pain in the upper right abdomen, between the shoulder blades and under the right shoulder. Gallstones usually drop back down into the gallbladder, ending the attack. Or, the stone can slip farther down the bile duct and not dislodge. Additional symptoms might include high fever and chills, yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes, dark-colored urine, and pale colored stools. These symptoms warrant immediate medical attention. In some cases, gallbladder attacks can lead to life-threatening complications. When pain or other symptoms occur, about 70 percent of the time they will reoccur within two years. That's why doctors typically recommend surgery to remove the organ after one or two attacks. The gallbladder is not an essential organ, and new stones usually form if the stones are removed or dissolved with medication.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — October 22, 2012.  Imagine reprogramming skin and blood cells to heal an injured organ. Or, consider the potential benefits of all patients ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — October 19, 2012.  Statins, a cholesterol lowering drug, may lower the risk of esophageal cancer, especially in patients with Barrett's esophagus, Mayo Clinic researchers report in a study being presented at the American College of Gastroenterology annual meeting. There are two main types of esophageal cancer: squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma. Barrett's esophagus, a complication of gastroesophageal reflux disease, raises the risk of adenocarcinoma, the more common type of esophageal cancer. Barrett's esophagus is a precancerous condition in which the lining of the esophagus, the tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach, is damaged by stomach acid. MULTIMEDIA ALERT: A video interview with Dr. Singh is available for journalists to download on the Mayo Clinic News Network. Although still uncommon, adenocarcinoma is on the rise in the United States. About 16,000 people are diagnosed with esophageal cancer annually, of which more than 60 percent are adenocarcinomas. Only 1 in 5 patients with this cancer will still be alive five years after diagnosis. "Unfortunately, survival rates for this cancer are low, so prevention is critical," says Siddharth Singh, M.B.B.S., a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and study author. "So these results are supporting and encouraging, but more research is needed before we recommend that patients at risk of esophageal cancer take statins." The Mayo study combined data from 13 studies that included over 1.1 million patients, of which 9,285 had esophageal cancer. The analysis found statins lowered cancer risk by nearly one-third; the longer a patient was on statins, the greater the protective effect. Researchers also looked at aspirin's effect on reducing the risk of esophageal cancer. When researchers looked specifically at Barrett's esophagus, patients taking a statin and aspirin reduced their risk of esophageal cancer by 72 percent. The results, researchers say, support a protective association between statin use and esophageal cancer. Given the high mortality rates of the cancer, researchers say these results support randomized trials to evaluate statins in patients who are at high risk of developing esophageal cancer.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — October 17, 2012.  Mayo Clinic, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the Salud Mesoamérica 2015 Initiative (SM2015) announced today a new collaboration to improve obstetric and neonatal care in Latin America, beginning in Honduras. The agreement was announced in Lima, Peru, at the international conference "Power: Women as Drivers of Growth and Social Inclusion," co-sponsored by the IDB, U.S. State Department and Peruvian Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion. Mayo Clinic will provide medical training to local specialists in two hospitals in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, using innovative educational techniques and simulation to strengthen clinicians' obstetric and neonatal expertise. The program will follow a concept known as PRIMER, for Procedural Repetition Involving Montessori-type Experience and Rehearsal, a train-the-trainer effort using simulation. The IDB and SM2015 will provide guidance and resources to develop the program, whose simulation-based training method may be applied to other medical disciplines, to other communities and eventually to other Latin American countries. "We are very excited about collaborating with the IDB and the SM2015 in expanding Mayo Clinic's long-standing commitment to the region and to global health," says Patricia Simmons, M.D., medical director of Mayo Clinic's global humanitarian program, Mayo Clinic Abroad. "It is our strong belief that the IDB's deep roots, commitment, relationships, and distribution network in the region, combined with Mayo Clinic's clinical expertise and educational resources will have a significant impact on obstetrical and neonatal care in Latin America. A building block to empowering women is to keep them healthy, and we are proud to be working on such an integral part of that empowerment."

ROCHESTER, Minn. — October 17, 2012.  The Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media today introduced Bringing the Social Media Revolution to Health Care, a new book aimed at helping health care professionals join consumers in employing social media tools to promote health, fight disease and improve health care. MULTIMEDIA ALERT: For video of the authors talking about the book, visit Mayo Clinic News Network. The announcement came this morning during the opening keynote of the 4th Annual Health Care Social Media Summit at Mayo Clinic, produced by Ragan Communications. Mayo Clinic has been a pioneer in applying "new media" in health care, beginning with podcasting in 2005 and then moving into other social media platforms — such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and blogs — to make its physicians' expertise available broadly and to enable patients to share their stories. Building on that leadership, Mayo Clinic created its Center for Social Media in 2010. In the foreword to "Bringing the Social Media Revolution to Health Care," Mayo Clinic President and CEO John Noseworthy, M.D., explains the rationale for both the center and the book. "As stewards of the Mayo Clinic legacy and early adopters of modern social networking tools, we see an opportunity and feel a responsibility to help the broader health care system harness social tools safely and effectively," he says. "Bringing the Social Media Revolution to Health Care" features essays by 30 industry thought leaders, making the case for social media in health care and offering inspiration and encouragement to both newcomers and experienced users of social media. Contributors are members of the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media advisory board and Mayo's Social Media Health Network.