Sleeping on back safe for hospitalised newbornsNEW YORK (Reuters Health) — Newborns that sleep on their backs (the supine position) in hospital nurseries seldom if ever spit up and when they do, it does not lead to any significant complications, new research indicates.While the “back to sleep” position is recommended to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, some hospital staff may be reluctant to place newborns on their backs while sleeping out of fear of aspiration, note researchers. But no studies to date have examined how often spitting up occurs in the back sleeping position and whether it has serious consequences, according to Dr. May Anne Tablizo, from the Children’s Hospital Central California in Madera, and colleagues.

To investigate, they had nursing staff record how often spitting up occurred during the first 24 hours of life, the infant’s sleeping position at the time, and the clinical consequences for 3,240 healthy full-term infants in nurseries at two hospitals.

Nearly 97 percent of infants never spit up during sleep, the team reports in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Of the 142 spit-up episodes observed, 130 occurred while the infant was asleep in the supine position. Fifty-five percent of these episodes required no intervention and 37 percent required simple suctioning only. None of the spit-up episodes were associated with any major adverse health effects.

More spit-up episodes might have been seen with other sleeping positions, the authors note, but both hospitals had policies advocating the back sleeping position.Drug may aid motor skills in lead-exposed kidsNEW YORK (Reuters Health) — A common therapy used to remove dangerously high levels of lead from the body may also improve muscle functions involved in balance and movement in children exposed to high levels of lead early in life.Dr. Amit Bhattacharya and colleagues at the University of Cincinnati found in a study of 161 lead-exposed children that those treated with the “lead-scrubbing” drug succimer showed a 19 percent improvement in their ability to perform moving tasks <\m> such as crossing an obstacle or walking <\m> than those who did not receive treatment. Succimer therapy improved static balance.

These results, along with that of earlier research, “suggests that such therapy may result in reduced injuries,” Bhattacharya told Reuters Health.

“Lead exposure is a very serious issue,” the professor of environmental health and lead author of the study added in a statement, “and it’s important to identify early signs of neuromotor (muscle-function) exposure effects <\m> such as impaired postural balance or locomotion <\m> before permanent damage occurs.”Statins linked to lower lung cancer riskNEW YORK (Reuters Health) — Use of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs may reduce the risk of lung cancer by about half, according to findings from a study reported this month.“Our study suggests that statins have a potential role in primary chemoprevention for lung cancer,” state the researchers. “Due to the high prevalence of statin use and grave prognosis of lung cancer, even a modest reduction means a considerable effect on public health.”

There is evidence from animal and test tube studies that statins are capable of blocking the growth of cancer cells, note Dr. Vikas Khurana and colleagues, from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport. The researchers assessed the anti-lung cancer effect of statins by analysing six-year data collected from 483,733 patients enrolled in the Veterans Affairs Health Care System. The study population included 163,662 statin users and 7,280 patients with lung cancer, the report indicates.

Khurana and colleagues found that subjects who used statins for longer than 6 months were 55 percent less likely to develop lung cancer than those who were never exposed to the drugs. The apparent protective effect was noted across age and racial groups and was not dependent on smoking status, alcohol use, or the presence of diabetes.

The researchers call for randomised placebo-controlled trials to verify the findings.E. coli involved in bowel disease studyNEW YORK (Reuters Health) — Findings from a study support a connection between Escherichia coli infection and inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD, which includes ulcerative colitis (inflammation of the colon) and Crohn’s disease (inflammation of the digestive tract).Dr. Denis O. Krause told Reuters Health that “a number of research groups have associated E. coli with IBD, but the exact mode of action is still unclear.”

E. coli from IBD tissue has been shown to produce certain proteins that degrade the junctions between cells in the intestine, which is “something we know happens in IBD,” Krause explained. To further investigate ties between E. coli and IBD, Krause and colleagues at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg examined biopsy tissue specimens from 32 people with IBD, including 13 with Crohn’s disease and 19 with ulcerative colitis, and 15 healthy controls.