Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Women may be missing out on outpatient hospital care in northern India

Women account for only a little over one third of appointments at a major hospital in India's capital, New Delhi, highlighting extensive gender discrimination in access to healthcare services, researchers say. Looking at outpatient visits to a large hospital in the capital, the analysis found that about half of the women who ought to have received care were "missing." Women under age 30 and over age 60 were the most conspicuously absent, relative to their actual population numbers, the study team reports in BMJ Open.

Oklahoma hospital used dirty gastroscopes on almost 1,000 patients; no infections reported

An unnamed hospital in Oklahoma used contaminated gastroscopes in procedures performed on nearly a thousand patients in recent months, device maker Pentax Medical told U.S. regulators last month, putting the patients at risk of exposure to bacteria that can cause infections. In a July 22 report https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfMAUDE/detail.cfm?mdrfoi__id=8811666&pc=FDS that only recently became public and was reviewed by Reuters, Pentax told the Food and Drug Administration that a hospital used up to four gastroscopes contaminated with bacteria in 998 procedures performed sometime last year through June 2019, when the problem was discovered. Pentax, a unit of Tokyo-based Hoya Corp, said it was not aware of any patient infections thus far.

Early after routine heart procedures, other operations become riskier

(Reuters Health) - Patients who have so-called percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures to restore blood flow to the heart may be more likely to have complications with non-cardiac surgery than other people, a U.S. study suggests. PCI is commonly performed for ischemic heart disease, or heart problems caused by narrowed arteries, and for so-called acute coronary syndrome, which is typically caused by clots or plaque in the arteries. During PCI procedures, doctors thread a thin catheter through the artery to place a tiny mesh cage known as a stent at the site of blockage to prop open the vessel and restore blood flow to the heart.

Patent court to review Alexion's Soliris patents on Amgen challenge

The U.S. patent office will review patents on Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc's blood disorder treatment Soliris, after Amgen Inc challenged them, court filings showed on Friday. The move deals a blow to Alexion's efforts to ward off competition for its top-selling drug, which accounted for nearly 82% of the drugmaker's total revenue in the latest quarter.

CDC, FDA report 215 cases of respiratory illness possibly tied to vaping

(Reuters) - U.S. public health officials on Friday reported a rise in the number of cases of respiratory illness possibly related to the use of e-cigarettes from across 25 states. The number of cases rose to 215 as of Aug. 27, from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) last update of 193 cases last week.

Higher education doesn't protect equally against secondhand smoke

Higher levels of education promote health by helping people avoid many environmental health risks, but this benefit may not extend equally to all races and ethnicities when it comes to secondhand smoke, a U.S. study suggests Overall, higher educational attainment was associated with lower odds of secondhand smoke exposure at work, but the protective effect was smaller for black and Hispanic people, in particular, compared with whites, researchers report in the Journal of Medical Research and Innovation.

Extreme hypertension in pregnancy tied to kidney disease

(Reuters Health) - Women who develop preeclampsia, a form of dangerously high blood pressure during pregnancy, are 5 times more likely to develop end-stage kidney disease later in life than women who have normal blood pressure during pregnancy, a Swedish study suggests. Preeclampsia has long been linked to an increased risk of events like heart attacks and strokes years later, and some previous research also suggest that this form of high blood pressure might also be one reason why women are more likely to develop advanced kidney disease than men.