Minerva

It's more than 10 years since the first transplantation of cord blood from an unrelated donor for leukemia. But does this work in children? The answer is “maybe.” A study in Blood(2003;102: 4290-7) reviewed the outcome of 95 children with acute myeloid leukaemia after cord blood transplantation. The naive immune system of cord blood seems to reduce the risk of graft versus host disease substantially, and the authors also report a two year leukaemia-free survival for half of patients who underwent transplantation in second remission.

People with high blood pressure are warned to check with their doctor before using a jacuzzi or hot tub, although there's little evidence for such warnings. When 21 patients with stable, treated hypertension were immersed in a hot tub for 10 minutes their blood pressure lowered, but no more than in normotensive controls. Blood pressure returned towards baseline within 10 minutes after they got out of the tub. Heart rates rose in botboth groups (CMAJ 2003;169: 1265-8

The religious orders study is a longitudinal observation of Alzheimer's disease in older members of the Catholic clergy. In 141 autopsies of people without focal neurological disease, 57 probably had Alzheimer's disease. A complex statistical analysis suggests an association between “distress-proneness” …