News and Media

Source: BBC
July 2006

Patients who take the antipsychotic drug clozapine risk a group of health conditions called metabolic syndrome, researchers warn. Metabolic syndrome’s cluster of obesity, high blood glucose level, high blood pressure and high cholesterol level can lead to heart disease, stroke and diabetes. The authors of the study “Prevalence of the Metabolic Syndrome among Patients Receiving Clozapine” published in the 163 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry recommend that doctors check for metabolic syndrome in patients taking this antipsychotic.

To read the full text, follow this link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5134154.stm

Source: Armenian Medical Network
July 2006

Humidity is a key factor affecting death rates for people over 70 years old, study shows.
High humidity can increase the risk of a heart attack in the elderly even in relatively mild climates, according to the study “Climate Impacts on Myocardial infarction deaths in the Athens Territory: the CLIMATE” recently published in The Heart Journal (Heart 2006;92:1747-1751).

Scientists studied deaths by heart attack in Athens, Greece in 2001 and found that humidity was one of the most important factors influencing average monthly death rates from heart attacks for people over 70. “It was linearly associated with heart attack deaths,” said Dr Georgios Giannopoulos of the University of Athens. “It means that higher humidity values were related to higher death rates,” he told Reuters.

To read the full text, follow this link: http://www.health.am/cardio/more/humidity-raises-heart-attack/