Study: Female doctors talk to patients more

CHICAGO -- Female primary-care doctors spend more time with their patients than male doctors and engage in more patient-oriented, emotion-focused talk during office visits, a study found.

The results suggest that gender differences noted in conversational styles also occur in the medical arena, researchers said in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.

Whether the differences have any effect on patient health is not known, but the results suggest that female doctors may offer "a relatively more health-promoting therapeutic milieu," health policy specialist Debra Roter of Johns Hopkins University and colleagues reported.

They reviewed and pooled results from 26 studies involving an average of more than 3,000 doctors and doctors-in-training. Included were internists, family and general practice doctors, pediatricians, obstetrician/gynecologists and medical residents.

On average, women doctors spent 23 minutes with patients, compared with 21 minutes for men. They also spent more time talking about health-related issues, engaging in positive, emotionally supportive talk and involving patients in their care.

Stem cells show promise in leg circulation

LONDON -- Injecting patients' own stem cells into their leg muscles could create new blood vessels, eliminating pain from bad circulation and helping to prevent gangrene or amputations, new research indicates.

The study, described this month in the Lancet medical journal, is the first demonstration that implanting stem cells into humans can result in new blood vessel networks, a process called angiogenesis.

Experts say the findings offer hope to millions of people worldwide who suffer pain in their limbs because of clogged arteries but can't have an operation.

Controlling blood vessel growth is an emerging field of medicine. In the case of cancer, which spreads by sprouting its own blood vessel network, scientists are testing drugs to thwart angiogenesis.

However, when parts of the body are starved of oxygen because blood vessels supplying them are blocked, doctors want to boost blood vessel growth.

Zoloft called safe for heart attack patients

CHICAGO -- The popular antidepressant Zoloft appears to be safe and effective for heart attack patients, a company-sponsored study suggests.

Researchers found that Zoloft caused no more chest pain, heart rate abnormalities or irregular heartbeats than dummy pills. Zoloft patients even appeared to have fewer life-threatening events such as heart attacks, heart failure and strokes, though those results were not statistically significant.

The drug, as expected, also reduced depression. Researchers said its effects in heart attack survivors had not been demonstrated previously.

Zoloft maker Pfizer Inc. helped fund the study, and a Pfizer employee was involved in the study design and analysis. The results appear in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.

FDA: Two Chinese diet pills are dangerous

WASHINGTON -- Americans should avoid two Chinese diet pills because they may contain a drug banned for causing dangerous side effects, the Food and Drug Administration warned Tuesday.

The Chinese products are among several linked to hundreds of illnesses and several deaths in Asian countries this summer, but FDA officials said they had information on only the two in the United States. If others come to their attention the warning will be extended, said spokesman Brad Stone.

The pills are called Chasu Jianfei Diet Capsules and Chasu Gempi, and typically are sold in small markets as alternatives to Western medicine, the FDA said.

The pills apparently contain fenfluramine, a prescription diet medicine banned in the United States in 1997 after it was linked to a dangerous heart problem.

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