Temporal Trends and Outcomes of Acute Myocardial Infarction in Patients With Cancer

Background: Data on outcomes of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) in patients with cancer are scarce. We investigated the nationwide trends in admissions for STEMI, utilization of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), and in-hospital outcomes in patients with the three most common cancer diagnoses (lung, breast, and colon) compared to patients without cancer. Methods: We conducted an administrative database study using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS). All in-patient hospitalizations for STEMI from 2001 to 2011 were identified. Patients with concomitant diagnosis of lung, breast or colon cancer were identified using appropriate International classification of diagnosis (ICD 9-CM) codes. Primary outcome was utilization of PCI and in-hospital mortality in patients with cancer compared to those without cancer. Results: Utilization of PCI was 30.8% (1,191/3,871), 20.2% (4,541/22,480) and 17.3% (1,716/9,944) in patients with breast, lung and colon cancer, respectively. Among patients without any of these cancers, use of PCI was 49.6%. In-hospital mortality was highest in patients with lung cancer (57.1%) and lowest in patients without cancer (25.7%). Conclusions: Patients with cancer have significantly worse in-hospital mortality compared to those without cancer, partly due to a relatively lower rate of PCI utilization in cancer patients with STEMI

Early farmers from across Europe directly descended from Neolithic Aegeans

Farming and sedentism first appeared in southwestern Asia during the early Holocene and later spread to neighboring regions, including Europe, along multiple dispersal routes. Conspicuous uncertainties remain about the relative roles of migration, cultural diffusion, and admixture with local foragers in the early Neolithization of Europe. Here we present paleogenomic data for five Neolithic individuals from northern Greece and northwestern Turkey spanning the time and region of the earliest spread of farming into Europe. We use a novel approach to recalibrate raw reads and call genotypes from ancient DNA and observe striking genetic similarity both among Aegean early farmers and with those from across Europe. Our study demonstrates a direct genetic link between Mediterranean and Central European early farmers and those of Greece and Anatolia, extending the European Neolithic migratory chain all the way back to southwestern Asia

Health, Globalization And Developing Countries

In health care today, scientific and technological frontiers are expanding at unprecedented rates, even as economic and financial pressures shrink profit margins, intensify competition, and constrain the funds available for investment. Therefore, the world today has more economic, and social opportunities for people than 10 or 100 years since globalization has created a new ground somewhat characterized by rapid economic transformation, deregulation of national markets by new trade regimes, amazing transport, electronic communication possibilities and high turnover of foreign investment and capital flow as well as skilled labor. These trends can easily mask great inequalities in developing countries such as importation and spreading of infectious and non-communicable diseases; miniaturization of movement of medical technology; health sector trades management driven by economics without consideration to the social and health aspects and its effects, increasing health inequalities and their economic and social burden creation; multinational companies' cheap labor employment promotion in widening income differentials; and others. As a matter of fact, all these factors are major determinants of ill health. Health authorities of developing countries have to strengthen their regulatory framework in order to ensure that national health systems derive maximum benefit in terms of equity, quality and efficiency, while reducing potential social cost to a minimum generated risky side of globalization.Wo