China has found microscopic worms in
wooden packaging from the United States and uncovered
substandard U.S. vitamin pills and fish oil for children,
Chinese media said on Friday, in the latest volley of
cross-border accusations.

China has highlighted several quality concerns with U.S.
products in apparent response to complaints in Washington about
the safety of Chinese exports ranging from toys to toothpaste.

The pine wood worms, or nematodes, were found in 13 sets of
packaging in the manufacturing hub of Shenzhen, the China Daily
said.

But apart from the tit-for-tat accusations, China is also
taking measures to clean up standards of its own exports amid
rising fears about the “made-in-China” label.

China’s quality watchdog on Friday introduced what Xinhua
news agency called a landmark recall system for unsafe food
products and toys to improve product safety.

The regulations, following the introduction of recall
system for defective cars in 2005, went into effect on Friday,
the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection,
and Quarantine announced.

They require manufacturers to stop production and sales,
notify vendors and customers, and report to quality control
authorities when product defects are found, and are subject to
fines of up to 50,000 yuan for failure to do so.

Food producers are to set up systems to record information
on food production and sales.

And toy firms, under particular scrutiny after a massive
recall of Chinese-made toys by U.S. giant Mattel, are to halt
production and sales and recall products when defects are
found, even if they meet China’s safety laws.

In a separate report, Xinhua said exports of food products
must be properly labeled by quarantine and inspection
authorities.

“The goal is to effectively curb illegal exports and
protect the rights and interests of the exporters whose goods
are up to standard,” the report said.

Fruit from unregistered orchards packaging plants would
also be barred from export, the state news agency said.

In another scare over imports, substandard vitamin and
mineral pills and children’s fish oil were discovered in the
eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, the China News Service
said.

“The two failed to reach the nutritious levels promised on
their labels,” it said, citing the Zhejiang industrial and
commercial department.

China recently destroyed a cargo of sub-standard frozen
potato slices also shipped from the United States, and the
quarantine bureau earlier this month highlighted a cargo of
contaminated soybeans that arrived in February.

China has sent a notice to the World Health Organization
defending its own food safety standards and said it was willing
to cooperate globally to tackle the problem.

South African researchers said on
Friday they were encouraged by results from two HIV studies
indicating that vaccines might one day be effective in
controlling viral levels and even preventing infections.

Preliminary data from a clinical trial involving 480
uninfected people, half of them in South Africa, found that the
majority of participants experienced a positive immune response
after being given the HVTN 204 vaccine.

A healthy immune system can help ward off HIV infection,
while those with compromised immunity are often more
susceptible to contracting the virus.

“This is really good news. This is an important milestone,
but we still have a long way to go,” Gavin Churchyard, the
study’s principal investigator, said at a briefing sponsored by
the South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative in Johannesburg.

Churchyard, who heads South Africa’s Aurum Institute for
Health Research, added that the vaccine’s side-effects
generally had been mild to moderate for those involved in the
trial.

A separate clinical trial of a DNA vaccine developed by
Finland’s FIT Biotech showed equally promising early results in
a smaller HIV-positive group, most of which was made up of
residents from Soweto, the black township south of
Johannesburg.

Some 5.5 million South Africans, or about 12 percent of the
total population, are infected with HIV, and 1,000 die each day
from AIDS, making the country a frontline for HIV vaccine
research.

Dr. Eftyhia Vardas, the principal investigator for the
Finnish vaccine trial in South Africa, said the vaccine helped
patients maintain low viral loads and steady CD4 cell counts,
both key to keeping HIV from progressing into full-blown AIDS.

The studies provided a bit of blue sky in a field of AIDS
research that has generally been a huge disappointment.
Previous vaccine trials that have reached the critical third
phase, when effectiveness is measured, have all failed.

While some AIDS scientists have turned their attention to
other potential preventative weapons — microbicidal creams and
mass male circumcision for example — others continue to pursue
the vaccine route, though admittedly with lowered expectations.

Churchyard said that vaccines, if successfully developed,
would more likely be of therapeutic rather than preventative
value, taking their place alongside the anti-retrovirals that
have become the cornerstone of current HIV treatment.

China has found microscopic worms in
wooden packaging from the United States and uncovered
substandard U.S. vitamin pills and fish oil for children,
Chinese media said on Friday, in the latest volley of
cross-border accusations.

China has highlighted several quality concerns with U.S.
products in apparent response to complaints in Washington about
the safety of Chinese exports ranging from toys to toothpaste.

The pine wood worms, or nematodes, were found in 13 sets of
packaging in the manufacturing hub of Shenzhen, the China Daily
said.

But apart from the tit-for-tat accusations, China is also
taking measures to clean up standards of its own exports amid
rising fears about the “made-in-China” label.

China’s quality watchdog on Friday introduced what Xinhua
news agency called a landmark recall system for unsafe food
products and toys to improve product safety.

The regulations, following the introduction of recall
system for defective cars in 2005, went into effect on Friday,
the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection,
and Quarantine announced.

They require manufacturers to stop production and sales,
notify vendors and customers, and report to quality control
authorities when product defects are found, and are subject to
fines of up to 50,000 yuan for failure to do so.

Food producers are to set up systems to record information
on food production and sales.

And toy firms, under particular scrutiny after a massive
recall of Chinese-made toys by U.S. giant Mattel, are to halt
production and sales and recall products when defects are
found, even if they meet China’s safety laws.

In a separate report, Xinhua said exports of food products
must be properly labeled by quarantine and inspection
authorities.

“The goal is to effectively curb illegal exports and
protect the rights and interests of the exporters whose goods
are up to standard,” the report said.

Fruit from unregistered orchards packaging plants would
also be barred from export, the state news agency said.

In another scare over imports, substandard vitamin and
mineral pills and children’s fish oil were discovered in the
eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, the China News Service
said.

“The two failed to reach the nutritious levels promised on
their labels,” it said, citing the Zhejiang industrial and
commercial department.

China recently destroyed a cargo of sub-standard frozen
potato slices also shipped from the United States, and the
quarantine bureau earlier this month highlighted a cargo of
contaminated soybeans that arrived in February.

China has sent a notice to the World Health Organisation
defending its own food safety standards and said it was willing
to cooperate globally to tackle the problem.

(HealthDay News) — Strabismus, or crossed eyes, occurs when one eye is turned too far in one direction. Symptoms often are evident at birth, and are usually corrected if treated by about the age of 5 months.

The University of Illinois Eye Center lists these common causes of strabismus:

• Heredity.
• High degree of farsightedness.
• Vision loss in one eye, usually a result of disease.
• Nerve damage to muscles in the eye.

THURSDAY, Aug. 30 (HealthDay News) — There are more people around the world suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) than previously thought, an international team of researchers reports.

Worse yet, those numbers are bound to increase as the world’s population continues to age, claims the study in the Sept. 1 issue of The Lancet.

“COPD is much more common than previous estimates would suggest,” said study author Dr. A. Sonia Buist, chief of the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Oregon Health & Science University. “We did the study, because there is a huge disconnect between the public and the public health perception of the burden of COPD, and the reality.”

COPD is under-diagnosed and under-treated, Buist said.

“COPD is a cumulative response of the lungs to the burden of all that’s breathed in over a lifetime,” she said. “As populations age, the prevalence of COPD and the burden of COPD is going to increase significantly.”

In the study, Buist’s group collected data on 9,425 people aged 40 and over who hailed from 12 different countries.

They found that the overall prevalence of severe COPD was 10.1 percent. Among men, it was 11.8 percent and for women, 8.5 percent. These figures contrast with another recent study that placed the overall burden of COPD at 4.3 percent, Buist noted.

In the United States, the overall prevalence of serious COPD is 10.1 percent, the researchers reported.

The number of people with COPD varied throughout world. Cape Town, South Africa, had the highest prevalence of COPD, with 22.2 percent of men and 16.7 percent of women affected, while Hanover, Germany, had the lowest prevalence, with 8.6 percent of men and 3.7 percent of women with serious COPD.

The difference in COPD between men and women is mostly due to differences in smoking habits, the researchers pointed out.

The increasing prevalence of COPD is partly due to the aging population, where the risk of the disease nearly doubles for every 10 years over the age of 40, and also to smoking.

COPD is a lung disease that progressively damages the lungs, making it hard to breathe. The disease obstructs the small airways in the lungs so it is difficult to get air in and out.

The most common cause of COPD is cigarette smoking. In addition, breathing lung irritants, such as pollution, dust or chemicals, over a long period of time also causes or contributes to the condition.

Since there is no cure for COPD, prevention is the best advice Buist has to offer. This means not smoking, avoiding jobs that expose you to pollution and smoke, or wearing protective gear. “It’s really cleaning up the air you breathe,” she said.

One expert thinks the study highlights a growing public health problem.

“We are beginning to understand that COPD is a major disease burden throughout the world,” said Dr. Norman Edelman, chief medical officer at the American Lung Association. “The study also confirms that it’s not just smoking, but there are other environmental issues involved.”

Edelman noted that smoking and air pollution are important causes of COPD. However, there are other conditions that can contribute, such as uncontrolled asthma. “It’s not just smoking and air pollution but other factors, too,” he said.

Another report in the same journal says that poor airway function shortly after birth is a risk factor for obstructed breathing among young adults. Therefore, preventing COPD may need to start before birth. One of the culprits could be maternal smoking, the researchers suggested.

Lead researcher Dr. Fernando Martinez, director of the Arizona Respiratory Center at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center in Tucson, and his colleagues found that people born with poorer lung function continue having breathing problems up to age 22.

This is “a process that could be impaired in utero by both genetic and environmental factors. Among these factors, maternal smoking during pregnancy has been consistently associated with poor lung function in both infants and older children,” Martinez’s team concluded.

More information

For more on COPD, visit the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

THURSDAY, Aug. 30 (HealthDay News) — People who live in damp, moldy homes may be prone to depression, a new study suggests.

The possible link was uncovered in an analysis of mold and health conditions in several cities in eastern and western Europe. And it could one day lead to the addition of emotional problems to the list of health woes caused by mold, the study authors said.

But, the researchers cautioned, it’s still too soon to tell if exposure to mold is directly related to depression, or whether an already depressed person might simply relinquish control of their surroundings to the degree that mold may develop.

“There is some preliminary evidence which suggests that high levels of exposure to mold may lead to depression,” said study lead author Edmond D. Shenassa, an assistant professor of community health at Brown University School of Medicine.

“But it’s not a certainty,” he stressed. “We have found an association between mold and risk of depression, but we have more work to do to see if this is causal situation.”

The study results are published in the October issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Molds are ubiquitous and toxic microscopic organisms called fungi that come in a variety of species numbering in the tens — or even hundreds — of thousands. Mold spores — spread through air, water or insects — are found year-round both indoors and out, and survive and multiply most readily in warm, damp, shady, and humid conditions, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Typically, routine cleaning with soap, water and bleach can prevent mold from accumulating in the most susceptible areas, such as the seal of a refrigerator door, showers, windows, and air conditioners.

But, a serious mold problem — easily evidenced by either the smell of a musty odor or the sighting of slimy, furry and discolored patches on walls or ceilings — can develop and fester after excessive and continuous water damage.

The U.S. government has not established general guidelines for acceptable levels of residential mold. And no study has conclusively linked mold exposure to mental health problems.

However, the CDC cautions that inhaling living or even dead mold spores can provoke an allergic respiratory reaction among sensitive individuals. Wheezing, shortness of breath, and even lung infections can ensue, as can the onset of a stuffy nose, cough, headaches, and skin, throat, or eye irritations.

Those most at risk include men and women suffering from allergies, asthma, or the immune suppression that accompanies HIV infection, chemotherapy treatment for cancer, and organ transplants.

To explore the possible link between mold and mental health problems, Shenassa and his colleagues reviewed World Health Organization data collected between 2002 and 2003 in eight European cities: Angers, France; Bonn, Germany; Bratislava, Slovakia; Budapest, Hungary; Ferreira do Alentejo, Portugal; Forli, Italy; Geneva, Switzerland; and Vilnius, Lithuania.

Almost 6,000 men and women in almost 3,000 households were questioned in person about their health, including whether they had been clinically diagnosed as depressed in the prior 12 months. The participants, who ranged in age from 18 to 104, were divided equally between men and women and were chosen by random.

They were asked if they had experienced any of four symptoms of depression in the previous two weeks, such as problems sleeping, low self-esteem, poor appetite, and/or a decreased interest in activities. Those with three or more symptoms were deemed to be depressed.

Residents were also asked to assess their living conditions, while, at the same time, the researchers conducted visual inspections to calculate the levels and location of any dampness and mold in each home.

Finally, each study participant was asked whether or not they felt in control of their home environment, as well as whether they had any of six conditions that can be associated with exposure to mold, including: cold or throat problems; wheezing; asthmatic attacks or other respiratory problems, fatigue; or headaches.

Housing characteristics — such as light, ventilation, size, crowding and heating conditions — were also noted, as were basic demographic information such as employment status. The researchers pointed out that such factors, as well as general health, are sometimes associated with depression.

Shenassa and his colleagues found that 57 percent of all the residents lived in homes that were free of dampness or mold, although the prevalence of mold varied greatly depending on region — ranging from more than 80 percent in Portugal to a little more than 25 percent in Slovakia.

Meanwhile, nine percent of all residents were determined to be depressed. Women, the elderly and the unemployed were most likely to have depressive symptoms, while those living in crowded conditions also appeared to run a higher risk for depression.

But, even after accounting for such key mitigating factors, the researchers connected the dots and found that having mold in the home appeared to be associated with depression.

“Basically, the risk for depression went up about 40 percent among people who lived in moldy homes,” said Shenassa. “And to the extent that there are the same types of mold in Europe as they are in the U.S., the results should also apply to U.S. households.”

“But although we saw that there is more depression among people who live in moldy homes, we don’t know which came first,” Shenassa cautioned. “We think there are multiple pathways to depression So, we need to do more work.”

Kelly A. Reynolds, a research microbiologist with the University of Arizona, described the study as “very interesting” but agreed that further research is needed.

“Knowing that the mold-health effects are long-term and chronic and sometimes cumulative means they [the study authors] might be very far from determining which is the chicken and the egg,” she said. “So, although there’s a lot of speculation, it’s difficult to prove a mental health connection. But what we always tell people is that if you can smell or see mold in your house, there’s really no reason to not get rid of it.”

More information

For more on the health risks of mold, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

FRIDAY, Aug. 31 (HealthDay News) — Parents have two more items to add to their back-to-school checklist: an eye check for their children and a review of their computer workstation for possible causes of eye strain.

One out of two children spends more than four hours a day in front of a computer screen, according to the American Optometric Association (AOA). But, the association addes, only 16 percent of adults worry that their children’s eyes may be affected by such extended computer time.

The association warns that many children may be developing Computer Vision Syndrome due to prolonged computer use.

“Computer use is an increasing source of vision problems, and children may experience many of the same symptoms as adults. Too much time in front of a computer screen can lead to eye discomfort, fatigue, blurred vision and headaches,” optometrist Leonard Press, a vision-learning specialist with the AOA, said in a prepared statement. “However, some unique aspects of how children use computers may make them even more susceptible than adults to these problems.”

According to the association, parents should be aware that an adult computer workstation may not be suited to a child, who may have to look up at a higher angle than an adult. Parents should invest in a chair that can be adjusted for the child’s height. The recommended distance between the monitor and the eye for children is between 18 and 28 inches.

Children may work or play on a computer with a lot of glare for a long period of time without turning down the lights in the room to reduce the glare. Parents can check for sources of glare by sitting in front of the computer. Windows or other light sources should not be directly visible when sitting in front of the monitor. Holding a small mirror flat against the screen can help pinpoint light sources that are reflecting from above or behind.

At the same time, kids’ eyes may lose the ability to focus on other objects because of extended computer time. The association recommends that children take at least a 20-second break for every 20 minutes of computer time.

The association recommends that parents take their children for an annual eye exam and discuss computer use with their eye doctor. According to the College of Optometrists in Vision Development, almost one in four school-age children has vision problems, but only 14 percent of children entering first grade have an eye exam.

The association also recommends that parents and teachers keep their eyes open for signs of eye strain in children, including eye redness, rubbing their eyes, head turns, complaints of blurriness or eye fatigue, or limited attention to visual tasks. Data provided by the association indicates that nearly half of parents don’t realize that behavioral problems can be a sign of impaired vision.

More information

To learn more about computer vision syndrome, visit the American Optometric Association.

(HealthDay News) — Vasectomy is a surgical procedure in which a man is sterilized. While it is a relatively simple procedure, men considering it should make sure that the option is right for them.

According to Planned Parenthood, vasectomy may not be the best birth control option if you:

• Think you may want to have biological children at some point in the future.
• Are being pressured into having the procedure by a partner, friend or family member.
• Are currently having marital, emotional, sexual, financial or mental health problems.
• You and your partner have not fully discussed or agreed on the procedure.
• Are relying on frozen sperm in case you decide to have children. Frozen sperm do not always retain the ability to fertilize a woman’s egg.

The government should impose “traffic light” labeling to warn consumers about obesity-causing food and drink products if New Zealand companies won’t do it voluntarily, a parliamentary committee said Friday.

After a 10-month inquiry, a majority of lawmakers on Parliament’s health select committee recommended a system of red, yellow and green labels to indicate the levels of fat, salt and sugar in products. The committee also recommended guidelines for food-related advertising.

More than half of New Zealand’s 4 million people are either overweight or obese, including more than 30 percent of children, according to Health Ministry figures.

The red label ? to be used for food such as cakes, pies and chocolates ? would warn that the products should only be consumed occasionally. Yellow-labeled foods such as pizza should be eaten “sometimes,” while green-labeled products such as low-fat yogurt could be eaten daily.

The committee warned that obesity threatened to overwhelm the health system.

“Tackling the obesity epidemic in New Zealand is imperative,” the committee said. “Comprehensive, coordinated action by the government is needed.”

The committee also wants targets set for advertising, marketing and promotion of food and drink, saying there needs to be the threat of regulation if voluntary measures don’t work.

It recommended a ban on television advertising of “energy dense” food before 8:30 p.m. each night ? when younger people are supposed to stop watching.

The Obesity Action Coalition said simply appealing to the food, drink and advertising industries to help fight obesity would not work.

“The time for asking the industry nicely is over,” coalition director Leigh Sturgiss said. “We need a ban on the marketing of unhealthy food and drinks to children.”

Increasing female feticide in India
could spark a demographic crisis where fewer women in society
will result in a rise in sexual violence and child abuse as
well as wife-sharing, the United Nations warned.

Despite laws banning tests to determine the sex of an
unborn child, the killing of female fetuses is common in some
regions of India where a preference for sons runs deep.

As a result, the United Nations says an estimated 2,000
unborn girls are illegally aborted every day in India.

This has led to skewed sex ratios in regions like Punjab,
Haryana, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh as well as the capital,
New Delhi, where a census in 2001 showed there are less than
800 girls for every 1,000 boys.

“The 2001 census was a wake-up call for all of us and much
public awareness have been created on female feticide since
then,” Ena Singh, assistant representative for the United
Nations Population Fund in India told Reuters.

“But initial figures show sex ratios are still declining as
female feticide is becoming more widespread across the country
and it is likely to be worse in the next census in 2011.”

In most parts of India, sons are viewed as breadwinners who
will look after their parents and carry on the family name, but
daughters are viewed as financial liabilities for whom they
will have to pay substantial dowries to get married off.

DEMOGRAPHIC CRISIS?

Activists say female feticide is rising because of the
availability of technologies like ultrasonography and
amniocentesis to determine the gender of fetuses at the request
of the parents.

If the fetus is found to be a girl, it is aborted.

As a result, the government says around 10 million girls
have been killed by their parents — either before or
immediately after birth — over the past 20 years.

Experts warn that fewer women will spark a demographic
crisis in many parts of country.

“There already is this phenomenon all over the country
where there is a lot of sexual violence and abuse against women
and children across the country,” said Ranjana Kumari, director
of the Centre for Social Research, a New Delhi based
think-tank.

“But when there are less women in the population and more
men of the same age group, there is certainly going to be much
more demand for women for marriage, for sex and this pressure
will certainly increase violence against women.”

Experts say practices such as polyandry — where several
men, often brothers, share the same wife are already emerging
in areas where there are fewer women.

Brides are also now being sold and trafficked by their
parents to areas like Haryana and Punjab where bachelors are
being forced to look beyond their own culture, caste and social
grouping to find a wife.

Activists say these women have to adapt to an alien culture
with a different language, diet, and social norms and are often
treated as second-class citizens by the community who view
their value based on their ability to produce male off-spring.

“There is this myth that fewer women will give them better
status in society but this is a fallacy,” said activist Sabu
George.

“Women in India are already being treated as commodities to
be bought and sold and their plight will worsen as sex ratios
continue to decline.”

The number of cases of measles in Britain is increasing, health authorities said Thursday, as they urged parents to have their children vaccinated against the disease.

According to the Health Protection Agency, there have been 480 confirmed cases of measles in the United Kingdom so far this year.

That compares with a provisional total of 756 cases last year, the highest number recorded since current monitoring began in 1995. “The number of cases is increasing at a higher rate than usual for this time of year,” the Health Protection Agency said.

The increase over recent years sets Britain apart from other developed countries, and there have even been cases where the disease has spread from Britain to other countries.

Last year, three cases in the United States were linked to Britain ? more than most other countries, including Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Vaccination rates using the measles, mumps and rubella shot dropped sharply after claims made in 1998 that the vaccine was linked to autism ? claims that all credible medical evidence has refuted.

Measles is one of the most infectious diseases, and unless approximately 95 percent of a population is vaccinated, outbreaks are likely. The disease can easily spread across borders. In recent years, Britain’s vaccination rate has hovered around 85 percent.

“Over the summer holidays, we have seen more cases of measles being reported than we would normally expect,” said Dr. Mary Ramsay, a consultant epidemiologist with the Health Protection Agency.

“Now is the time parents will be buying their children a new school uniform to prepare for the school year ahead, but being prepared to avoid infection is even more important,” Ramsay said. Parents should think about adding the MMR vaccine to their back to school to-do list.”

U.S. cancer doctors on Thursday plan
to ratchet up pressure on the federal Medicare agency to
reverse new limits on use of anemia drugs made by Amgen Inc.
and Johnson & Johnson.

An official with the American Society of Clinical Oncology,
a powerful lobby of cancer doctors, said they will formally ask
that the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid re-open a final
rule issued last month tightening usage and dosing for the
drugs.

The erythropoiesis-stimulating agents are sold by Amgen
Inc. as Epogen and Aranesp, and by Johnson & Johnson as
Procrit, and are also known as EPO drugs.

“The proposal is unworkable and there is no evidence to
support it at all,” said Joseph Bailes, chair of the government
relations panel at the American Society of Clinical Oncologists
and a medical oncologist practicing in Houston.

Medicare issued the limits following months of heightened
scrutiny of the drugs after they were linked to a higher heart
attack and stroke risk when used at high doses. The drugs are
the biggest single drug cost for Medicare — Amgen earned $4
billion from its Aranesp alone last year.

But the cancer doctors group says the Medicare limits go
too far.

The new limits are based on limited evidence on when to
start the drugs, which are used to boost levels of
oxygen-carrying hemoglobin in the blood during chemotherapy,
according to the group.

The doctors also say the new rules are inconsistent with
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved label. For
example, the rule allows only one dose increase of 25 percent,
when studies show it can take up to 100 percent dose increase
to achieve the intended hemoglobin levels, Bailes said.

(HealthDay News) — Wandering — moving about without a definite purpose in mind — is a common trait of a person with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. This can be dangerous for the patient, and be a source of great stress for worried caregivers and loved ones.

Here are suggestions for what to do when Alzheimer’s patients wander, courtesy of the Alzheimer’s Association:

• Enroll your loved one in a nationwide identification program specifically for dementia-related wandering, which can help them return home safe.
• Keep contact information at hand for neighbors and local emergency services personnel, and keep them informed about the patient’s condition.
• Install deadbolt or slide-bolt locks on all exterior doors. But never attempt to lock an Alzheimer’s patient indoors without supervision.
• Limit access to dangerous areas, both inside and near the home.
• Keep in mind that Alzheimer’s patients may wander in virtually any form of transportation, including bus or taxi.

THURSDAY, Aug. 30 (HealthDay News) — A technique that delivers local anesthetic directly to the surgical wound of colorectal cancer surgery patients helps control postoperative pain and shortens recovery time, a French study says.

The anesthetic is delivered through a special multi-holed catheter that’s installed toward the end of the surgery.

The study of 42 patients found that those who received “continuous wound infusion” with the local anesthetic ropivacaine for 48 hours after surgery had significantly lower pain scores and required less morphine to control pain than patients who received a placebo.

The patients in the ropivacaine group also had better quality of sleep during the first two nights after surgery, and their bowel function returned to normal an average of one day earlier than those in the placebo group. Patients cannot leave hospital before resumption of normal bowel function.

The average hospital stay for patients in the ropivacaine group was five days, compared to more than six days for patients in the placebo group.

“This method offers a new way to efficiently and simply manage pain after major abdominal surgery,” study author Dr. Marc Beaussier, of St.-Antoine University Hospital, Paris, said in a prepared statement.

“This technique is simple, efficient and safe,” Beaussier said. “It does not need specific supervision and could be proposed to almost all patients.”

The study was published in the September issue of Anesthesiology.

More information

The American Cancer Society has more about cancer.org/docroot/cri/content/cri_2_4_1x_what_is_colon_a nd_rectum_cancer.asp?sitearea=cri” target=”_new”>colorectal cancer.

THURSDAY, Aug. 30 (HealthDay News) — A Web-based do-it-yourself study has found evidence for a possible genetic basis for absolute pitch, the rare ability to identify the pitch of a musical note without other notes as reference, researchers report.

“We asked, ‘What is the chance that a sibling of a person with absolute pitch also has absolute pitch?’, ” said study lead author Jane Gitschier, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. “Both in our study and others, there appears to be an eight- to 14-fold increase in the likelihood. Our goal is to get at what the genes are.”

To reach that goal, Gitschier and her colleagues are asking participants who demonstrate what musicians prefer to call absolute pitch — rather than perfect pitch — to send in samples of their DNA to aid in the search for the purported genes.

Most people have so-called “relative pitch” and are able to identify a pitch when it is surrounded by pitches at nearby levels. Among musicians, Mozart was said to have had perfect pitch, allowing him to copy the works of other composers in his childhood years.

The new study, published in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, covers data from 2,213 people who went to the Web site of the University of California Genetics of Absolute Pitch Study. They were asked to identify both pure tones from a synthesizer and piano tones, and also to complete an accompanying survey. Of those who filled all the requirements, 981 were found to have perfect pitch, Gitschier said.

One expected finding from the study is that pitch perception changes with age, as older people err in the “sharp” direction, she said.

“We also discovered that in the subjects who entered the study, absolute pitch appears to be an all-or-none phenomenon,” Gitschier said. “People are either really good at it or not good at all.”

But the study’s design hits a sour note with Diana Deutsch, a professor of psychology at the University of California, San Diego, who has done extensive research on perfect pitch. Her basic criticism is the lack of controls built into the study.

“There were no controls for dishonesty. A person who did the study could be sitting by a synthesizer,” Deutsch said.

Also, “they [the researchers] didn’t control for language,” she said. “My articles have shown that language is important, particularly tonal languages such as Mandarin. Japanese also relies on pitch to alter meaning, as do certain dialects of Korean.”

The genetic link is also suspect in Deutsch’s eyes. “People who have a strong family background in music are more likely to acquire perfect pitch,” she said. “Certainly, the matter of family background is important.”

Whatever its cause, perfect pitch fascinates many people. Gitschier said, adding that she has been inundated with inquiries about the study.

More information

The study is continuing, and you can participate by going to the Web site of the University of California, San Francisco.