Discount Allegra Fexofenadine Prices

A bacterium normally found in the mouth, skin and intestines might play a role in the still-mysterious cause of colic in babies, a new study says.

Researchers found the bacterium Klebsiella along with gut inflammation in the intestines of all babies in their study who had colic, a condition characterized by uncontrollable crying.

“We believe that the bacterium may be sparking an inflammatory reaction, causing the gut inflammation,” Dr. J. Marc Rhoads, a pediatrics professor at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston and the study’s lead investigator, said in a news release from the school. “Inflammation in the gut of colicky infants closely compared to levels in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.”

He said colic could possibly lead to other gastrointestinal conditions in later life, such as irritable bowel syndrome and celiac disease.

Colic, which causes an otherwise healthy baby to cry and scream often and for long periods without any noticeable reason, has no medically grounded treatment or known cause, although bottle-fed babies seem to get it more often than breast-fed infants, according to background information in the news release. The condition often disappears as suddenly as it presents itself.

“Colic can be a dangerous situation for a baby,” Rhoads said. “The parents’ frustration over the crying can lead to maternal frustration, post-partum depression and even thoughts of harming the baby.” Half of all infanticides are colic-related, he noted.

The study, published online in the Journal of Pediatrics, included 36 babies, both breast- and bottle-fed. About half had colic. The researchers found that babies without colic had more types of bacteria in their intestines, a sign that certain types of bacteria are beneficial to people, Rhoads said.

He said the researchers plan further study, involving adults as well as infants, on Klebsiella and on whether probiotics, a dietary supplement of so-called good bacteria, could control the gut inflammation in colicky babies.

A new study reveals why high blood pressure develops in up to one-third of cancer patients who take drugs to block the formation of blood vessels that feed tumors.

“Anti-angiogenesis drugs like Avastin, Sutent or Nexavar inhibit an important substance called vascular endothelial growth factor [VEGF] that stimulates the creation of new vessels that support malignant growth,” senior study author Dr. Thomas Coffman, a professor of medicine, cell biology and immunology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., said in a school news release. “Our studies in mice show that blocking VEGF causes hypertension because it disrupts an important biological system — the nitric oxide pathway that regulates blood vessel health.”

The researchers used an antibody to block an important VEGF receptor called VEGFR2. After about a week, the mice that received a high dose of the antibody showed a “rapid and sustained” increase in blood pressure.

“The higher doses of anti-angiogenesis drugs that patients need to keep their cancers from growing translate into a significant increase in risk for hypertension and, by extension, for cardiovascular complications,” Coffman said.

The study appears online Aug. 3 in the journal Hypertension.

Cancer patients are living longer, Coffman noted. This means that hypertension and other side effects that might once have seemed less important must now be taken more seriously.

“Long-term hypertension can have serious consequences,” Coffman said.

For many cancer patients taking anti-angiogenesis drugs, hypertension is controlled with traditional blood pressure medications, said Dr. Herbert Hurwitz, a medical oncologist at Duke.

“However, these new findings are important since they point to specific ways to better protect against the risks of long-term hypertension. They also suggest ways to protect patients against other serious but uncommon side effects, like stroke or heart attack,” Hurwitz said in the news release.