Health Highlights: Aug. 30, 2007

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Use of Angioplasty to Clear Blocked Arteries Soars

Use of angioplasty to open blocked arteries nearly doubled between 1993 and 2005, to 800,000 procedures each year from 418,000, the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality said Thursday.

By contrast, more invasive heart bypass surgeries declined from 344,000 a year to 278,000 over the span, the agency said. Angioplasty is now used nearly three times more often than bypass surgery.

Angioplasty involves inflation of a balloon at the end of a catheter to open a blocked vessel and restore proper blood flow to the heart.

The AHRQ said its analysis also found that while the average hospital stay for angioplasty fell to 2.7 days in 2005 from 4.6 days, hospital charges for angioplasty rose to $48,000 (adjusted for inflation) from $31,300.

With 1.1 million hospitalizations in 2005, coronary artery disease was the third most common reason for a hospital stay, behind childbirth and pneumonia. It was the second leading reason for men, and the seventh for women, the agency said.

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Workers Sickened at Poultry Vaccine Plant

As many as 21 employees of a Maine plant that produces a vaccine for poultry were sickened by salmonella exposure last year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

Although tests confirmed salmonella exposure in only five of the workers, as many as 21 showed symptoms of infection with the bacteria. Exposure was traced to an accidental spill in November of a contaminated liquid, the agency said in its Aug. 31 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The Lohmann Animal Health International plant maintained cultures of four strains of salmonella for use in poultry vaccines, the Associated Press reported. The worker who discovered the spill in a restricted area tried to clean it up with a bleach solution and commercial disinfectant. But the worker then threw away materials and sterilized the mop in more frequently used areas, the wire service said.

It''s believed that some of the workers became sick from being in the room where the materials were disposed of, and others became ill from subsequent person-to-person contact, the CDC said.

None of the workers -- who had common symptoms of salmonella infection including diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain, and vomiting -- required hospitalization, the agency said.

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Type 2 Diabetes May Be Linked to Brain Cell Disorder

Defects in brain neurons'' ability to respond to glucose (blood sugar) may play a role in the onset of type 2 diabetes, according to a new study published in the journal Nature.

In this form of the disease, the body''s cells fail to adequately regulate the amount of blood glucose. Previous research had suggested that this stems from two simultaneous problems: the improper function of pancreatic beta cells, and the inability of insulin to act on targeted areas of the body, including the liver, fat and muscles.

The new study identifies a third factor that could contribute to the disease: neurons in the brain that aren''t properly stimulated by glucose. The study was led by researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Oregon Health and Science University, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

"For many years, we''ve known that subpopulations of neurons in the brain become ''excited'' by glucose," Dr. Bradford Lowell, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said in a statement. "But we haven''t understood exactly how or why this is significant. With this study we show that these neurons sense increases in glucose and then initiate responses aimed at returning blood-glucose levels to normal. This is the first demonstration that glucose-sensing by neurons plays an important role in responding to rising blood glucose levels."

The findings, Lowell said, could lead to new treatments for type 2 diabetes.

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Toys ''R'' Us Coloring Cases Recalled for Lead Hazard

About 27,000 "Imaginarium" wood coloring cases made in China and sold at Toys "R" Us stores are being recalled because the ink on the outer packing of the wood contains lead, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday. Some of the black watercolor paint included in the kit also contains excessive amounts of lead, the CPSC said. No injuries have been reported.