Showing posts with label Reuters Health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reuters Health. Show all posts

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Spinal steroid shots may have little effect on sciatica | Reduction

Spinal steroid shots may have little effect on sciatica

Vladimir Efimkin
Vladimir Efimkin by rcrhee
License (according to Flickr): Attribution-ShareAlike License
Excerpt:

In spite of the growing appeal of steroid injections to deal with various kinds of back pain in recent years, a new testimonial of previous research discovers the shots do little to minimize sciatica, an usual condition that triggers leg and back pain. Assessing results from nearly two dozen medical trials on hundreds of clients, Australian researchers discovered that epidural injections (into the spine ) of corticosteroids had no long - or short-term result on sciatica back pain, and such a small short-term result on leg pain it would make no distinction to the client. "I think it's pretty clear that this treatment is not good to do," said Chris Maher, of The George Institute for Global Health in Sydney, Australia, who dealt with the study.

People:

Chris Maher

Overall Sentiment: 0.178436

Relevance: 0.659532

SentimentQuote
-0.110533"I think it's pretty clear that this treatment is not good to do," said Chris Maher, ...
0"We really think the question is closed," said Maher.
0"We really think the question is closed," said Maher. "So in terms of our research agenda, we're moving on to other treatments for sciatica."
-0.0111139"If this was a treatment that worked, then you'd have to weigh the benefits and the harm," Maher said, ...
0"It's been around for decades and it will take a while to stop," he said. ...
Sentiment Stats:
  • Number of Quotes: 5
  • Aggregate Sentiment: -0.1216469
  • Mean: -0.02432938
  • Standard Deviation: 1.4142135623731
Disambiguation: References:

Dr. Kirkham B. Wood

Overall Sentiment: -0.277439

Relevance: 0.194272

SentimentQuote
0"In general, I think we've learned over the years that the epidural injections are turning out to be less and less successful… but there are times when they should be considered," said Dr. Kirkham B. Wood, ...
-0.485893"I think the pendulum is certainly swinging away from their broad use," he said. ...
Sentiment Stats:
  • Number of Quotes: 2
  • Aggregate Sentiment: -0.485893
  • Mean: -0.2429465
  • Standard Deviation: 1.7320508075689

Key:

  • Aggregate Sentiment is meant to be an indicator of an individual's overall sentiment.
  • The Mean is meant to be an indicator of an individual's average comment sentiment.
  • The Standard Deviation, when there are enough quotes, will indicate an individual's consistency of sentiment (i.e. a Standard Deviation of 0 would mean they were very consistent in their sentiment and 1 would mean they were very inconsistent).

Note that quote stats are likely to be meaningless beyond the aggregate score due to the tiny sample size. However, they are always provided just in case you find something useful there.

Additional Info:

HealthCondition: sciatica

Overall Sentiment: 0.0348402

Relevance: 0.836842

Disambiguation: DiseaseOrMedicalCondition | Symptom | DiseaseReferences:
Meta

Saturday, January 19, 2013

HPV tied to throat cancers, study finds | Redux

HPV tied to throat cancers, study finds

Cancer Art
Cancer Art by Keoni Cabral
License (according to Flickr): Attribution License
Excerpt:

A sexually transmitted infection usually thought of in connection to cervical cancer is also tied to a five times greater risk of cancer of the vocal chords or voice box, a new report suggests. Combining the results of 55 studies from the past two decades, Chinese researchers found 28 percent of people with laryngeal cancers had cancerous tissue that tested positive for human papillomavirus (HPV). But that rate varied widely by study, from no throat cancer patients with HPV to 79 percent with the infection. "We're finding that HPV appears to be linked to a number of squamous cell carcinomas of the head, neck and throat," said Dr. William Mendenhall, a radiation oncologist from the University of Florida in Gainesville who didn't participate in the analysis. However, he told Reuters Health, "I think the risk of HPV on laryngeal cancer is probably relatively low.

People:

Dr. William Mendenhall

Overall Sentiment: -0.0232372

Relevance: 0.367424

SentimentQuote
0"We're finding that HPV appears to be linked to a number of squamous cell carcinomas of the head, neck and throat," said Dr. William Mendenhall, ...
-0.288985he added, "the exposure is probably decades earlier. Someone who develops a base of tongue cancer when they're 50, they probably were exposed to the virus years before, in their teens or 20s."
0Mendenhall said extending HPV vaccination to boys and young men, as the CDC has recommended, "will hopefully reduce at least some of these HPV-related cancers."
Sentiment Stats:
  • Number of Quotes: 3
  • Aggregate Sentiment: -0.288985
  • Mean: -0.096328333333333
  • Standard Deviation: 1

Dr. Xiangwei Li

Overall Sentiment: 0

Relevance: 0.205308

Key:

  • Aggregate Sentiment is meant to be an indicator of an individual's overall sentiment.
  • The Mean is meant to be an indicator of an individual's average comment sentiment.
  • The Standard Deviation, when there are enough quotes, will indicate an individual's consistency of sentiment (i.e. a Standard Deviation of 0 would mean they were very consistent in their sentiment and 1 would mean they were very inconsistent).

Note that quote stats are likely to be meaningless beyond the aggregate score due to the tiny sample size. However, they are always provided just in case you find something useful there.

Additional Info:

Organization: American Cancer Society

Overall Sentiment: -0.142363

Relevance: 0.37044

FieldTerminology: HPV

Overall Sentiment: -0.0877592

Relevance: 0.903733

HealthCondition: cervical cancer

Overall Sentiment: -0.0754187

Relevance: 0.825182

Disambiguation: DiseaseOrMedicalCondition | CauseOfDeath | DiseaseCause | Symptom | DiseaseReferences:

HealthCondition: laryngeal cancers

Overall Sentiment: -0.188593

Relevance: 0.500424

HealthCondition: neck cancers

Overall Sentiment: 0.0536936

Relevance: 0.402298

HealthCondition: tongue cancer

Overall Sentiment: -0.092224

Relevance: 0.384344

Disambiguation: DiseaseOrMedicalCondition | CauseOfDeath | DiseaseReferences:

HealthCondition: cancer

Overall Sentiment: 0.0914346

Relevance: 0.378403

Disambiguation: FieldOfStudy | DiseaseOrMedicalCondition | CauseOfDeath | DiseaseCause | MedicalSpecialty | RiskFactor | DiseaseReferences:
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