The AMA asked the Justice Dept. to block the acquisition of Sierra Health Services. The deal ends a yearlong break in major health plan consolidations.

With insured patients paying a larger share of their health costs, it's increasingly important for doctors to get that payment as soon as possible. Here's how.

Turnover among male physicians rises, while more female physicians are staying with their group practices.

Higher age, body mass index (BMI) and International Prostatic Symptoms Score (IPSS) have been identified as being significantly associated with sexual dysfunction in a large population of men at high risk of developing prostate cancer.

Furthermore, researchers say, there is evidence of an association between erectile dysfunction and prostatic inflammation in this patient population.

Principal investigator Claus G. Roehrborn, MD, professor and chairman, department of urology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre, Dallas, United States, presented the findings from an analysis of the baseline data from a placebo-controlled, phase 3 Reduction by Dutasteride of Prostate Cancer Events (REDUCE) study here at the 22nd Annual Congress European Association of Urology (EAU).

“The question here was: does inflammation at baseline predict the presence or absence of erectile dysfunction, decreased libido or level of sexual activity?” he said in a poster session on March 22nd.

Eligibility criteria for the REDUCE prostate cancer prevention trial included age 50 to 75 years, serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level between 2.5 ng/mL and 10 ng/mL for those 50 to 60 years of age or between 3.0 ng/mL and 10 ng/mL for those who were older than 60 years. Patients also were required to have had a negative prostate biopsy in the 6 months prior to enrolment.

The main exclusion criteria included a prostate volume greater than 80 mL, and IPSS score of 25 or greater (or 20 or greater if already on alpha-blocker therapy for benign prostatic hyperplasia), concurrent use (or within the previous 12 months) of a 5 alpha-reductase inhibitor, and acute prostatitis or acute bacterial prostatitis within the previous 6 months.

Source : Docguide

The erectile-dysfunction drug Viagra appears to help the exercise capacity of patients with pulmonary fibrosis, say U.S. researchers.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is an incurable disease marked by progressive scarring in the lungs, which often necessitates a lung transplant, but the disease can also cause pulmonary hypertension, which lessens blood flow to the lungs, making breathing — and thus, exercise — more difficult.

But researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles say pulmonary-fibrosis patients taking Pfizer’s Viagra were able to improve their walking function, upping walking distance by at least 20 percent during a standard test to measure lung function.

“Over five million worldwide suffer from this devastating disease, so we are hopeful that this drug may prove an effective therapy for pulmonary fibrosis,” said the study’s principal investigator, David Zisman, medical director of UCLA’s Interstitial Lung Disease Program.

In the pilot study, 14 patients with the disease initially took a standard six-minute walking test, then were given Viagra for three months. The patients then took a second walking test to gauge performance changes.

Researchers noted that 57 percent of the patients improved their walking distance by 20 percent or more, with an average improvement in distance of 161 feet.

Eleven patients completed the study, and two of that group stopped the medication due to side effects.

Source : UPI