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Medtronic-Supported Clinical Trial Shows ICD Patients Less Likely To Develop Need For Pacing When Device Uses MVP(R) Mode
MVP® (Managed Ventricular Pacing), exclusive programming on Medtronic pacemakers, which is proven to be effective in reducing unnecessary pacing in pacemaker patients, was applied in the MVP Trial of implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) patients. Data from MVP trial, sponsored by Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE: MDT), were presented today as a late breaking clinical trial at Heart Rhythm 2009, the annual scientific sessions of the Heart Rhythm Society.
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Blogs Comment On Tiller's Murder, Supreme Court Nomination
The following summarizes selected women"s health-related blog entries.~ "The Murder of Dr. Tiller, a Foreshadowing," Cristina Page, Birth Control Watch: Page writes, "For those who would like to think" that the "murder in church of Dr. George Tiller ... is an isolated incident, here"s the horrifying news: You are wrong." She continues, "The pattern is clear and frightening." According to Page, there were several murders of abortion providers and even more attempted murders during the administration of former President Clinton, the first president to support abortion rights. However, during the Bush administration, "not only were there no murders, there were no attempted murders," save for a single bombing of an abortion clinic, according to Page. She writes that Tiller"s murder occurred five months into the administration of President Obama, the nation"s second president who supports abortion rights. Page adds, "One can only conclude that like terrorist sleeper cells, these extremists have now been set in motion. Indeed the evidence is already there. The chatter, the threats, the hate-filled rhetoric, are abundant." According to Page, "The pro-choice movement, specifically our abortion providers, are in the greatest danger of violence when we take power." She adds, "The murder of Dr. Tiller suggests that violence against abortion providers may be far more linked to the power, or lack thereof, antiabortion groups have politically than to laws designed to increase penalties against such acts." Page continues that abortion-rights opponents "will put out carefully worded press statements condemning the murder of Dr. Tiller, as became routine for them during the Clinton years." Page concludes, "But unless the rhetoric they choose from now on becomes careful too -- they may be the enablers of murder and terror" (Page, Birth Control Watch, 5/31).~ "Where Will Women Go Now?" Kate Harding, Salon"s "Broadsheet": "If any good can come of the murder of Dr. George Tiller, ... perhaps it"s the opportunity to have a conversation about the reality of termination in the second and third trimesters," Harding writes. She adds, "Anti-choice activists often cast late-term abortions as the murder of a viable baby at the whim of a woman who doesn"t wish to be inconvenienced, carried out by a doctor who looks at her and sees only cartoon dollar signs." According to Harding, "such misinformation and outright lies about procedures that are in fact rare and only performed when medically necessary are what led anti-choice activists to call Tiller "America"s Doctor of Death" and accuse him of running a "murder mill."" The "reality" is that Tiller helped "women in absolutely desperate circumstances, when almost no one else would," Harding writes, adding, "Since the news of Dr. Tiller"s murder broke, personal narratives from people who used his services have been appearing around the Web." Harding talked to Susan Hill, president of the National Women"s Health Foundation, which referred girls and women to his clinic. Hill said, "We always sent the really tragic cases to Tiller." Harding reports that these included "women diagnosed with cancer who needed abortions to qualify for chemotherapy, women who learned late in their pregnancies that their wanted babies had fatal illnesses and rape victims so young they didn"t realize they were pregnant for months." According to Harding, "The trauma of receiving such a diagnosis is only compounded by the difficulty of obtaining a late-term abortion." Harding asked Hill "where women who need late-term abortions can go now," and says that Hill"s "response was bleak." Hill added that she doesn"t know where she will send "those really tragic cases"(Harding, "Broadsheet," Salon, 6/1). ~ "How I (and Other "Pro-Life" Leaders) Contributed to Dr. Tiller"s Murder," Frank Schaeffer, Huffington Post blogs: "My late father and I share the blame (with many others) for the murder of Dr. George Tiller," Schaeffer writes, adding, "Until I got out of the r
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U.S. Recommits To Improving Health, Education In Nigeria
The Guardian examines the recent U.S. commitment to continue support for the development of Nigeria"s health and education sector by Anne Fleuret, Nigeria"s acting mission director of USAID. At the conclusion of two USAID-funded projects in Nigeria, Fleuret said the HIV/AIDS programs were created six years ago "to empower communities." She added, "We envisioned so many things and we have substantially achieved that vision. We have provided support from the community level to the legislative level."
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Link Between Vitamin D And Reduction In Multiple Sclerosis Risk

Could a holiday in the sun reduce the risk of developing multiple sclerosis? In a recent review for F1000 Medicine Reports, Bridget Bagert and Dennis Bourdette highlight recent advances in potential treatments. Multiple sclerosis (MS) results from a failure of the body to recognize itself. The immune system attacks and destroys the sheath that protects nerve fibres, as if it were a foreign body or infection. Vitamin D, which is produced in the skin in response to natural sunlight, is an immune system regulator. This might explain why MS is less common in sunnier countries. Giving MS sufferers vitamin D pills - or encouraging them to spend more time in the sun - might be a cheap and easy treatment. Bagert and Bourdette point out that oral vitamin D therapy is now in phase II clinical trials, to see how well it works and how much would be needed. They say "The arrival of effective oral agents will give MS patients more therapeutic options and will be a major advance in the global effort to alter the natural history of this chronic disease". Dennis Bourdette, Faculty Member for F1000 Medicine, is chairman of the Department of Neurology and director of the Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology Center at Oregon Health and Science University, USA. Bridget A Bagert is a member of the Department of Neurology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, USA The full text of this article is available at http://www.f1000medicine.com/reports/10.3410/m1-34/. Kathleen Wets Faculty of 1000: Biology and Medicine


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