Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
Stair-Climbing Wheelchair Wins FDA Nod
The Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday its approval of a wheelchair that can climb stairs and curbs and maneuver through other uneven surfaces.
The battery-operated chair, called the Independence iBOT 3000, uses a system of sensors, gyroscopes, and motors and can work indoors and outdoors. In announcing the approval, FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan said in a statement that the device was "a breakthrough in wheelchair technology. It can help improve the quality of life of many people who use wheelchairs by enabling them to manage stairs, reach high shelves, and hold eye-level conversations."
The chair can easily be converted from a conventional one with four wheels to one that balances on only two, according to the FDA announcement, enabling users to reach high objects. On stairs, two sets of drive wheels rotate up and over each other, and the chair itself stays level and stable. The user shifts his weight to signal to the chair which way to go, up or down.
The user is always facing down the stairs, according to the FDA statement. It is not recommended for people who weigh more than 250 pounds.
The chair is made by Independence Technology of Warren, N.J., a division of Johnson & Johnson.
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Report: Ted Williams Beheaded, DNA Missing
The body of baseball legend Ted Williams was decapitated at an Arizona cryonics center, his skull was cracked 10 times by accident, and some samples of his DNA are missing, a published report says.
This week's issue of Sports Illustrated also discloses that John Henry Williams, son of the Boston Red Sox slugger, owes the Alcor Life Extension Foundation $111,000. According to the article, some members of the Scottsdale-based center joked about throwing the body away, selling it on eBay, or sending it to the son's home.
The investigation was based on e-mails, recordings, and other records provided by the company's former chief operating officer. SI reports that company officials visited Williams's home in Florida in 2001, a year before he died, but never spoke with him. The magazine says further that the only written authorization came in the form of his signature on an oil-stained piece of paper. Williams's daughter had fought unsuccessfully to have the body returned to Florida.
Williams's head was shaved and drilled with holes, SI reports, and was accidentally cracked 10 times because of changing storage temperatures. Also, the magazine says, eight of the 182 samples of DNA taken from his body are missing without explanation.
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Vaccine Eyed for Montezuma's Revenge
British scientists are working on a vaccine that would prevent traveler's diarrhea in a single dose.
Lab tests by the firm Microscience have shown that a vaccine can protect against E. coli, the bacterium responsible for most cases, according to a BBC report. Traveler's diarrhea is the bane of visitors to Mexico (where it's known in the U.S. as Montezuma's revenge), South Asia, Africa, and the Indian subcontinent, where as many as half of all visitors are stricken.
Such protection exists in liquid form, but people require two doses. Microscience is working on a vaccine that can be taken in pill form, and only once, the BBC reports.
"If this is effective and it can be taken in one dose, it will certainly be looked at with interest," Carolyn Driver, chairwoman of the British Travel Health Association, told the agency.
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Colorado Reports 6th West Nile
Death
An 80-year old woman from Loveland, Colo., is the sixth resident of the state to die of West Nile virus, health officials reported Tuesday.
Officials did not release the woman's name or when she died, the Associated Press reports.
On Sunday, state officials said that a 67-year-old woman from Boulder had died from the mosquito-borne disease the previous Tuesday.
Colorado is the state hardest hit by West Nile this year. As of Tuesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that Colorado has had 195 of the 367 West Nile cases reported in the United States this year.
Along with the six West Nile deaths in Colorado, there have been two deaths in Alabama and two in Texas, the CDC says.
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Brain Scans Reveal Vascular
Dementia
A combination of simple brain scans can help doctors differentiate between vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease, something that could help improve the treatment of people with dementia.
Using magnetic resonance imaging along with magnetic resonance
spectroscopy, researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center were able to correctly identify nine out of 10 patients with vascular dementia, BBC News Online reports.
The study appears in the journal Neurology.
Vascular dementia is caused by poor blood flow to the brain. It's sometimes brought on by stroke. People with vascular dementia are often grouped together with people who have Alzheimer's disease, meaning they don't receive the correct treatment.
There is currently no effective treatment for Alzheimer's, but vascular dementia can be treated.
"Being able to determine that there is a vascular component to a patient's dementia would make a big difference in planning for treatment," researcher
Dr. Norbert Schuff told BBC News Online.
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Women More Prone to Lung Cancer
Even if they don't smoke or smoke less than men, women are more prone than men to develop lung cancer. But women are more likely than men to successfully fight lung cancer, says an American expert attending an international lung cancer conference in Vancouver, Canada.
Dr. Jill Siegfried of the University of Pittsburgh said some studies indicate that women are twice as prone to lung cancer as men, even if the women smoke less.
She said studies also show that women tend to develop lung cancer earlier and often die younger than male smokers, CBC News Online reports.
Estrogen may be a factor and scientists are studying how lung tumor cells respond to estrogen in the laboratory, Siegfried told the conference.
The bit of good news is that women with lung cancer do better than men.
"We still show that women live longer with better quality of life than men. If you're talking about the curable stages of lung cancer where you can beat it, then women have better odds," Siegfried said.
