security lapses on April 23, 2008 at Ayala Center, Makati; etc.

Security lapses at Ayala Center in Makati on April 23, 2008

Security guard, identified as Singcol, at Ayala Avenue entrance to Glorietta, didn't inspect 2 of the compartments in my waist bag. Said compartments were large enough to contain deadly weapons.

Security guard, identified as Saliput, at the second floor entrance to SM building, didn't inspect 2 of the compartments in my waist bag. Said compartments were large enough to contain deadly weapons.

Security guard, identified as Bual, at entrance (near National Book Store) to Park Square 1, didn't inspect 2 of the compartments in my waist bag. Said compartments were large enough to contain deadly weapons.

Security guard, identified as Villar, at street entrance to Glorietta 1, didn't inspect 2 of the compartments in my waist bag. Said compartments were large enough to contain deadly weapons.

Security guard, identified as Villena, at street entrance (near Glorietta) to The Landmark building, didn't inspect 2 of the compartments in my waist bag. Said compartments were large enough to contain deadly weapons.

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SM Department store, at Ayala Center, Makati, sold to me, a pair of shoes which did not bear visible (to unaided eyes) name and address of the manufacturer of said shoes. Said shoes were identified as being locally manufactured.

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http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml08/08251.html
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 21, 2008
Release #08-251

CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772
CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908

CPSC Promotes the Building of Safer Playgrounds to Help Reduce 200,000 Annual Injuries
Agency Releases Updated Public Playground Safety Handbook

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Children and playgrounds go together like chocolate and milk.

Yet a good time on the community or school playground can be ruined by a fall, entrapment, cut or another type of injury.

During National Playground Safety Week (April 21-25), CPSC staff is releasing an update to the popular Handbook for Public Playground Safety (PDF), which contains guidance for childcare personnel, school officials, designers, inspectors, parents
and school groups on building safer playgrounds. Considered by many to be the model handbook of playground safety, the agency’s guidelines for public playgrounds have been incorporated by many municipalities into local and state building codes. The handbook provides specifications for creating safer play zones and avoiding hazards with equipment such as sharp points, entrapments, and entanglements.

The updated Handbook for Public Playground Safety contains new guidelines from CPSC staff for playground equipment for children as young as six months old, track and log rolls for older children, and playground surfacing, as well as suggestions on protecting children from sun exposure on playgrounds.

CPSC offers the following tips to help prevent injuries and other hazards on public and home playgrounds:

The Commission provides these important life-saving tips:

* Always supervise children on play equipment to make sure they are safe.

* Purchase playground equipment that meets the latest safety standards.

* Maintain at least 9 inches of protective surfacing, including shredded/recycled rubber, wood chips, wood mulch (non-CCA treated), sand or pea gravel under and around playground equipment to cushion children from falls.

* Check that protective surfacing extends at least 6 feet in all directions from play equipment. For swings, extend protective surfacing in front and back of the swing, twice the height of the suspending bar.

* Repair sharp points or edges on equipment. Replace missing hardware and close “S” hooks that can cause injuries.

* Never attach ropes, jump ropes, clotheslines, pet leashes or cords of any kind to play equipment due to the strangulation hazard.


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http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_63688.html
Common Chemotherapy Drug Linked to Memory Problems
'Chemo brain' a routine side effect of treatment with drug 5-fluorouracil, study says

URL of this page: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_63688.html (*this news item will not be available after 07/20/2008)


Monday, April 21, 2008

-- Treatment with a single, commonly used chemotherapy drug causes lingering memory problems and other cognitive difficulties, a common and unpleasant side effect called "chemo brain," a new study has found.

Up to 50 percent of women with breast cancer reported having cognitive problems a year after chemotherapy treatment ended, according to one previous study.

Now, researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York and Harvard Medical School say they've discovered how the chemotherapy drug 5-fluorouracil -- or 5-FU -- affects the central nervous system even long after treatment ends. The hope is this discovery will lead to ways to decrease or eliminate the damage so cognitive functioning is preserved.

"What we found is the damage done short-term is much less than the damage that occurs long-term," said Mark Noble, senior author of the study published in the April 22 issue of the Journal of Biology. "After the drug is stopped, the cellular damage gets worse."

For years, experts questioned whether chemo brain was a result of chemotherapy or having cancer itself, said Noble, director of the University of Rochester Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Institute. "Could they be depressed? Was it really organic damage?" he said, listing some of the suggested possible causes.

"What our studies do is demonstrate [that] it is the chemo," he said. And, the damage can occur with treatment with the single drug, not only the "cocktails" of drugs often used to treat cancer.

In a previous study, Nobel and his colleagues demonstrated that three common chemotherapy drugs were more toxic to healthy brain cells than to the cancer cells they were meant to treat. These studies were among the first to establish a biological basis for chemo brain. But the research didn't explain why the cognitive ill effects persist in some patients.

For the new study, Noble and his colleagues exposed cell lines in a laboratory and in mice to doses of 5-FU, and then evaluated the drug's effects. The drug is used to treat malignancies of the breast, ovaries, stomach, colon and other sites.

The researchers found that 5-FU damaged specific kinds of cells in the central nervous system -- immature cells known as progenitor cells, which later differentiate into specialized cells.

Also damaged were cells called oligodendrocytes, which help produce myelin, the fatty substance that coats nerve cells and facilitates communication between cells.

"The damage at eight weeks was considerably greater than one day after treatment," Noble said. "Damage at six months was even greater than at six weeks."

The finding "means that there is a real physiological basis for the symptoms of 'chemobrain,'" said Dr. Christina A. Meyers, chief of the department of neuro-oncology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston, who wrote an accompanying comment. "Until we know enough to develop targeted treatments for it, there is still lots to do about it [and better to have it than the alternative]." Among the remedies are relaxation training to focus attention, exercise, cognitive rehabilitation and medicine such as anti-inflammatory agents, she said.

Another cancer expert praised the study.

"This is a very good animal model," said Dr. Patricia Ganz, director of cancer prevention and control at the University of California, Los Angeles Jonsson Cancer Center.

But she added a caveat: "This does not mean that everybody receiving this drug will have damage to their brain," she said. And, she added, this is the effect of just one chemotherapy drug, 5-FU. Today, 5FU is "rarely used in breast cancer treatment," she said.

Noble hopes to focus next on why the damage continues. Eventually, his research may lead to a treatment that can be given to decrease or eliminate the harm to healthy cells, he said.



Related MedlinePlus Pages:

* Breast Cancer - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/breastcancer.html
* Cancer Chemotherapy - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/cancerchemotherapy.html
* Memory - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/memory.html

Date last updated: 22 April 2008

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http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2008/NEW01820.html
FDA News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 21, 2008


Media Inquiries:
Karen Riley, 301-827-6244
Consumer Inquiries:
888-INFO-FDA

FDA Approves First Compact Heart Assist Device

Heart assist devices are surgically implanted mechanical pumps that help the heart's ventricle do its work of pumping blood to the rest of the body. Previous models were too large to be placed in the upper abdomen of some women and small-sized men. But the Thoratec HeartMate II Left Ventricular Assist System employs a first-of-a-kind design. Instead of the standard pulsatile pump that simulates the action of the heart, the device uses a continuous flow pump that constantly moves blood with a single moving part, a spinning rotor. This allows the device to be slimmed down to a mere three inches in length and a weight of approximately one pound.

"The HeartMate II is an important advance in mechanical heart technology,” said Daniel Schultz, M.D., director of FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health. "Until now, some heart transplant candidates have been underserved due to the large size of previously approved heart assist devices."

An electrical cable that powers the blood pump passes through the patient's skin to an external controller that the patient wears on his or her waist. The controller is powered either by batteries or connected to an electrical power outlet. Blood flow is set through the pump based on the patient's need, and the controller monitors pump performance, sounding alarms if it detects dangerous conditions or a possible malfunction. The system can operate on two external batteries, allowing the patient to move freely for up to three hours.

In a clinical study of 126 patients at 26 transplant centers, 57 percent of patients with the HeartMate II survived to heart transplant, which is comparable to the survival of patients treated with currently approved heart assist devices.

The product's manufacturer, Thoratec Corporation of Pleasanton, Calif., is required to conduct a post-approval study to further evaluate the HeartMate II's performance during commercialization.

#

RSS Feed for FDA News Releases [what is RSS?]

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http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_63681.html
Heart Disease Risks Hit Boys in Teens
Girls protected by hormones during adolescence, study suggests

URL of this page: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_63681.html (*this news item will not be available after 07/20/2008)


Monday, April 21, 2008

-- The first signs that men are at higher risk of heart disease than women appear during the adolescent years, according a new study that tracked boys and girls through their teens.

"This is not what we would have predicted," said Dr. Antoinette Moran, chief of pediatric endocrinology and diabetes at the University of Minnesota Children's Hospital, and lead author of the report in the April 22 issue of Circulation. "Because boys lose fat and gain muscle in adolescence, while girls add body fat."

At the start, 11-year-old boys and girls were similar in body composition, blood pressure and blood levels of lipids (fats). As expected, the percentage of body fat decreased in the boys and increased in the girls over the adolescent years.

Yet the study of the 507 Minneapolis school children found that between the ages of 11 and 19, levels of triglycerides, a type of blood fat associated with cardiovascular disease, increased in the boys and dropped in the girls. Levels of HDL cholesterol, the "good" kind that helps keep arteries clear, went down in boys but rose in girls.

Blood pressure increased in both, but significantly more in boys. And insulin resistance, a marker of cardiovascular risk, which was lower in boys at age 11, rose until the 19-year-old men were more resistant than the women.

But excess weight is of major importance in both sexes, Moran said. "Being overweight or obese can cancel out these relationships and cause increased cardiovascular risk for males and females," she said. "Any protection that the young women had was wiped out by obesity."

A recent study found that more than a third of children and adolescents in the United States are overweight or obese.

The study points toward the importance of hormonal factors in cardiovascular disease risk, Moran explained. "We knew that women had extra protection from cardiovascular disease, and we knew it disappeared after menopause," she said. "This adds further weight to the role of hormones by looking at the other end of the age spectrum."

One possible lesson of the study is that it is never too early to start protective measures against heart disease, said Dr. Stephen R. Daniels, chairman of the department of pediatrics at the University of Colorado.

"Studies have used autopsies of young people who died in accidents to show that by the late teens, the kind of lesions we know cause heart attacks and strokes are in the process of developing," Daniels said. "So, in some ways, our best opportunity to prevent heart disease is to look at children and adolescents and start the preventive process early."

Fighting obesity in the years before adulthood is essential, he said. "Some changes that occur may be due to what is built into the difference between the sexes," he said. "But if you add overweight and obesity, you can increase risk through that mechanism."

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http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_63687.html
Mammograms Still a Good Idea for Elderly Women
Study finds it reduces risk of being diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer
Printer-friendly version Printer-friendly version



By Robert Preidt

Monday, April 21, 2008

HealthDay news imageMONDAY, April 21 (HealthDay News) -- In women aged 80 and older, regular mammograms reduce the risk of being diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer, but only about 20 percent of U.S. women in this age group have regular screenings, a new study shows.

The study is published online April 21 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Women aged 80 and older account for an estimated 17 percent of breast cancer cases in the United States.

"This study suggests that mammography benefits may have no age limit and that women should consider being screened on a regular basis, even into their 80s and possibly 90s, depending on their current health status," study author Dr. Brian D. Badgwell, a surgical oncology fellow at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, said in a prepared statement.

"Mammography has been shown to be an excellent means of detecting breast cancer early, when it is more likely to be cured. We found that when breast cancer was diagnosed, it was more likely to be found at an early stage when a woman had at least three mammograms in the five-year period before diagnosis," Badgwell said.

Doctors and older female patients should discuss the benefits of mammography, he recommended.

For this study, Badgwell and colleagues analyzed five years (1996 to 2002) of mammography use among 12,358 women aged 80 and older before they were diagnosed with breast cancer. The data came from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) national cancer registry.

Women who didn't have a mammography during this time were labeled nonusers (49 percent), those who had one to two mammograms were irregulars users (29 percent), and those who had three or more mammograms were regular users (22 percent).

The researchers found that 68 percent of regular users were diagnosed with stage I (early) breast cancer, compared with 56 percent of irregular users and 33 percent of nonusers. Only 32 percent of regular users were diagnosed with stage II-IV cancers, compared with 44 percent of irregular users and 67 percent of nonusers.

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http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/newsbydate.html
NLM NIH Medline Plus newsbydate April 21 2008
April 2008 * Monday, April 21



# Headaches Linked to Painful Skin Sensations (Reuters Health)
# Heart Disease Risks Hit Boys in Teens (HealthDay)
# Heart Surgery Results Good in Low-Volume Hospitals (Reuters Health)
# Mammograms Still a Good Idea for Elderly Women (HealthDay)
# Many Cancer Survivors Are Overweight and Sedentary (HealthDay)
# Melanomas on Scalp and Neck More Deadly (HealthDay)
# Mouse Studies Identify Gene That May Influence Metastasis Risk in Breast CancerFrom the National Institutes of Health (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Cancer Institute)
# New Atrial Fibrillation Surgery Improves Results (HealthDay)
# Off-Hours Heart Patients Less Likely to Get Angioplasty (HealthDay)
# Review Urges Aggressive MRSA Screening for Health Workers (HealthDay)
# Saliva Test May Speed Heart Attack Diagnosis (Reuters Health)
# Self-Scheduling Reduces Night Shift Health Effects (Reuters Health)
# Seniors No Strangers to Happiness (HealthDay)
# Sharing Bed with Wife Helps Men's Sleep Apnea Rx (Reuters Health)
# Treatment Bias Can Skew Results of Observational Studies (HealthDay)

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web site with useful information


Wikipedia web site



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