Ex-’Price is Right’ model gets $8.5M in damages

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The producers of “The Price is Right” owe a former model on the show more than $ 7.7 million in punitive damages for discriminating against her after a pregnancy, a jury determined Wednesday.

The judgment came one day after the panel determined the game show’s producers discriminated against Brandi Cochran. They awarded her nearly $ 777,000 in actual damages.

Cochran, 41, said she was rejected when she tried to return to work in early 2010 after taking maternity leave. The jury agreed and determined that FremantleMedia North America and The Price is Right Productions owed her more than $ 8.5 million in all.

“I’m humbled. I’m shocked,” Cochran said after the jury announced its verdict. “I’m happy that justice was served today not only for women in the entertainment industry, but women in the workplace.”

FremantleMedia said it was standing by its previous statement, which said it expected to be “fully vindicated” after an appeal.

“We believe the verdict in this case was the result of a flawed process in which the court, among other things, refused to allow the jury to hear and consider that 40 percent of our models have been pregnant,” and further “important” evidence, FremantleMedia said.

In their defense, producers said they were satisfied with the five models working on the show at the time Cochran sought to return.

Several other former models have sued the series and its longtime host, Bob Barker, who retired in 2007.

Most of the cases involving “Barker’s Beauties” — the nickname given the gown-wearing women who presented prizes to contestants — ended with out-of-court settlements.

Comedian-actor Drew Carey followed Barker as the show’s host.

___

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP .

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Do drunks have to go to the ER?

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – With the help of a checklist, ambulance workers may be able to safely reroute drunk patients to detoxification centers instead of emergency rooms, according to a new study.

Researchers in Colorado found no serious medical problems were reported after 138 people were sent to a detox center to sleep it off, instead of to an ER.

In 2004, according to the researchers, it’s estimated that 0.6 percent of all U.S. ER visits were made by people without any problems other than being drunk. Those visits ended up costing about $ 900 million.

“Part of the issue has been – as it is in many busy ER departments – there’s a lot of chronic alcoholics that are brought in by ambulance, police or just come in. Often they are brought in because they have not committed a crime or there is limited space in our detoxification center. So the majority were brought to the ER department,” said Dr. David Ross, the study’s lead author from Penrose-St. Francis Health Services in Colorado Springs.

Ross said the ambulance company where he serves as medical director created the checklist with the help of the local detox center, which provided limited medical care by a nurse, and the local hospitals to reduce the number of drunks without medical needs being sent to the local ERs.

They created a checklist with 29 yes-or-no questions, such as whether the patient is cooperating with the ambulance worker’s examination and if the patient is willing to go to the detox center.

The patient was sent to the ER if the ambulance worker checked “no” on any question.

The researchers then went back to look at the patients they transported between December 2003 and December 2005 to see whether or not any of them ended up having serious medical problems at the detox center.

During that two year period, the ambulance workers transported 718 drunks. The detox center received 138 and the local ERs got 580.

Overall, 11 of the patients who were taken to detox were turned away because there was no room, their blood alcohol level exceeded the limit, their family came to pick them up or they were combative.

Another four patients at the detox center were taken to the ER because of minor complications, including chest and knee pain. However, there were no serious complications reported.

“We really believe that we did not miss anybody with a serious illness and injury that didn’t go to the ER as they should have,” said Ross.

But the researchers write in the Annals of Emergency Medicine that their study did have some limitations.

Specifically, the researchers did not plan in advance to do a study when they were creating the checklist, which means their findings are limited to whatever information was collected at the detox center and ERs.

Also, the number of people who were sent to the detox center in their study is relatively small, so it’s hard to tell how many serious complications they’d see among a larger group of people.

“We tried to estimate how likely we would have been to encounter a serious event… We estimated at most we’d encounter three serious adverse events (in 748 patients),” Ross told Reuters Health.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/QgPCT5 Annals of Emergency Medicine, online November 9, 2012.

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UK public sector borrowing rises

21 November 2012 Last updated at 06:39 ET

The government borrowed much more than expected in October, reducing the chances that the UK will hit its deficit reduction target in 2012-13.

UK public sector net borrowing, excluding financial interventions, hit £8.6bn in October, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

That marked a sharp rise from the £5.9bn borrowed in October 2011.

This is the last set of borrowing figures before the chancellor’s Autumn Statement on 5 December.

The headline figure was worse than expected – analysts had forecast borrowing of £6bn.

Corporation tax receipts fell nearly 10% in October, a month when there is usually a heavy inflow to boost the public coffers.

A rise in day-to-day departmental spending also contributed to the higher borrowing.

For the seven months of the financial year so far, borrowing has reached £73.3bn, excluding the one-off effects from the transfer of Royal Mail pension assets.

That is £5bn higher than the same time last year.

A spokesperson for the Treasury said: “The economy is healing, but it still faces many challenges.

“These numbers illustrate that, but also show the government’s plans to bring spending under control are on track for the year.”

But Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Rachel Reeves, said the chancellor was borrowing billions more to pay for the cost of his economic failure.

“Having failed on jobs and growth, the government is now failing on the deficit too,” she said.

‘Wrong direction’ Continue reading the main story

AAA-rating

The best credit rating that can be given to a borrower’s debts, indicating that the risk of borrowing defaulting is minuscule.

Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, said the low tax receipts reflected the disappointing performance of the economy, which is experiencing weak growth and weak consumer spending.

He told the BBC that he could see no chance of the government now hitting its deficit target of £120bn for 2012-13. Current projections suggest this year’s deficit would come in closer to £130bn.

“So it’s moving totally in the wrong direction,” he said.

“The longer-term prospects are looking much more disappointing than the Office for Budget Responsibility and the government were hoping when they first set these targets out back in March.”

He added that Chancellor George Osborne was likely to announce increases in taxes, further cuts in spending, or a combination of the two, when he delivers his Autumn Statement.

Chris Williamson, Chief Economist at Markit

However, analysts at Credit Suisse said the figures were disappointing but not disastrous.

“To some extent, this poor reading was mitigated by improvements in last month’s figure, which was around £0.8bn lower (less borrowing) than previously thought.

“In addition, the good news is that the poor figure appears to have been driven by expenditure rather than receipts data. This suggests that the weakness in the numbers may not be due to weaker GDP performance feeding into weaker tax receipts.”

They also pointed out that, overall, central government receipts were up 1.8% on the year to October, while expenditure was up 7.4%.

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Facebook proposes to end voting on privacy issues

NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook is proposing to end its practice of letting users vote on changes to its privacy policies. The company says it will continue to let users comment on proposed updates.

The world’s biggest social media company plans to announce Wednesday that its voting mechanism, which is triggered only if enough people comment on proposed changes, has become a system that emphasizes the quantity of responses over the quality of discussion.

Facebook began letting users vote on privacy changes in 2009. Since then, it has gone public and its user base has ballooned from around 200 million to more than 1 billion. As part of the 2009 policy, users’ votes only count if more than 30 percent of all Facebook’s active users partake.

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Elmo left behind on ‘Sesame Street’ as actor exits

NEW YORK (AP) — Even on “Sesame Street,” where everything is famously A-OK, problems can arise for its residents.

And that includes the Muppets. Cookie Monster grapples with an eating disorder. Oscar the Grouch gets cranky. Mr. Snuffleupagus gets the blues.

But Elmo seemed immune to any of that. Since enjoying his breakout success more than two decades ago, the 3 1/2-year-old red monster has radiated good cheer, love and trilling giggles. No wonder everyone — adults as well as children — adores him.

The key to Elmo is “his innocence, his positiveness and his sweetness,” according to Kevin Clash, the man who created him and once told The Associated Press, “I would love to be totally like Elmo.”

Now Clash has been scandalously separated from Elmo and from “Sesame Street,” the TV series where he reigned behind the scenes for 28 years.

Clash spoke of “personal matters” as the cause of his resignation Tuesday after an unthinkable nine-day stretch that began with an unnamed man in his 20s claiming he had sex with Clash at age 16. That allegation was quickly recanted. But then came another accusation of sexual abuse, and a lawsuit.

That second accuser, a 24-year-old college student named Cecil Singleton, said the actor had engaged in sexual behavior with him when he was 15. He is suing Clash for $ 5 million.

“I am deeply sorry to be leaving,” said Clash in his parting statement, “and am looking forward to resolving these personal matters privately.”

But privacy may no longer be possible for Clash, the 52-year-old divorced father of a grown daughter who acknowledged last week that he is gay. Singleton’s lawyer, Jeff Herman, said he has been contacted by two other potential victims of Clash and expects additional legal action.

At a news conference Tuesday, Singleton said he and Clash met on a gay chat line and then, for a two-week period, they engaged in sexual contact, though not intercourse. Sex with a person under 17 is a felony in New York if the perpetrator is 21 or older.

Singleton said he didn’t know Clash’s profession until years later, when he Googled the man’s name.

“I was shocked when I found out what he did for a living,” said Singleton.

Now that career has ended for Clash, who, in his dream job as a puppeteer for “Sesame Street,” was assigned a little-used puppet now known as Elmo, then turned him into a star. In the process, Clash won 23 daytime Emmy awards and one prime-time Emmy. He published his 2006 autobiography, “My Life as a Furry Red Monster,” and was the subject of the 2011 documentary “Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey.”

Elmo overshadowed Big Bird and other “Sesame” Muppets in popularity and screen time, while marginalizing the cast of live actors. Since 1998, he has had his own show-within-a-show on “Sesame Street” in addition to appearances elsewhere in the hour.

He is also a major moneymaker for Sesame Workshop, the New York-based company that produces the show, and for licensees. At his merchandising height in 1996, he inspired the Tickle Me Elmo doll, which became a cultural phenomenon and that Christmas season’s hottest toy.

This year’s Elmo dolls, “LOL Elmo,” which giggles, and “Let’s Rock! Elmo,” which sings and comes with a microphone and drum set, haven’t made any of this year’s hot toy lists. Even so, Elmo toys probably account for one-half to two-thirds of the $ 75 million in annual sales the “Sesame Street” toy line generates for toy maker Hasbro, estimates BMO Capital Markets analyst Gerrick Johnson.

Johnson said he wasn’t sure how this week’s news might affect sales of Elmo toys this holiday.

“How many people are going to want to explain to their kid why they’re not getting an Elmo?” he asked.

On Tuesday, Hasbro issued a statement saying “We are confident that Elmo will remain an integral part of Sesame Street and that Sesame Street toys will continue to delight children for years to come.”

Despite his resignation, Clash will remain an integral part of “Sesame Street” for the foreseeable future. Taping of season No. 44 will wrap by mid-December and will begin airing next September, according to someone close to the show who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to publicly discuss details of its production. That means new episodes with Clash performing as Elmo will presumably continue well into 2014.

As for who might take over as Elmo, other “Sesame Street” puppeteers were already being trained to serve as Clash’s stand-in, Sesame Workshop said. It’s part of an understudy policy being adopted for all the major Muppet characters.

But no one knows how Elmo will fare going forward. Will the jokes spurred by Clash’s downfall leave a lasting mark on Elmo’s image? Will there be parents who see him tainted by association with the man who brought him to life?

In the wake of a personal tragedy that may still be unfolding, Elmo’s innocence, positiveness and sweetness will be put to the test.

___

AP Television Writer David Bauder and AP Retail Writer Mae Anderson contributed to this report.

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En los pacientes de Medicare es común que se repitan los tests

NUEVA YORK (Reuters Health) – La mitad o más de los

beneficiarios de Medicare repiten los tests cardíacos,

pulmonares, estomacales o vesical en tres años, señala un

estudio.

Esas pruebas no deberían repetirse. Es más, en algunos

casos, como el ecocardiograma o la prueba de esfuerzo cardíaco,

existen recomendaciones en contra de su uso rutinario.

“Nos sorprendió la frecuencia con la que se repiten estas

pruebas”, dijo el autor principal, doctor H. Gilbert Welch, del

Instituto para las Políticas de Salud y la Práctica Clínica de

Dartmouth, New Hampshire. “O esos pacientes desarrollan nuevas

enfermedades continuamente o hay médicos que repiten los

estudios como rutina”.

Con su equipo analizó el uso de seis tests en 743.478

beneficiarios de Medicare: ecocardiograma (ultrasonido

cardíaco), prueba de esfuerzo cardíaco, test de función

pulmonar, tomografía de tórax, cistoscopía (exploración de la

vejiga con una sonda) y endoscopía superior (examen el tracto

gastrointestinal superior).

Todas las pruebas eran diagnósticas, es decir que se

realizan en personas con síntomas para que los médicos puedan

realizar un diagnóstico. Cuestan entre 200 y más de 1000

dólares.

En el período 2004-2006, entre el 7 por ciento (cistoscopía)

y el 29 por ciento (ecocardiograma) de los adultos mayores se

habían realizado esos tests por lo menos una vez.

A menudo, esos exámenes se repetían: el 35 por ciento de los

pacientes a quienes se le había indicado una endoscopía del

tracto superior volvió a hacerse la prueba en tres años. Lo

mismo ocurrió con el 55 por ciento que se había realizado un

ecocardiograma. Para el resto de los exámenes, los resultados

estuvieron dentro de ese rango.

El intervalo promedio para la repetición de los tests fue de

entre cuatro y 14 meses, según publica el equipo en Archives of

Internal Medicine.

Welch aclaró que la única excepción médica para repetir

estas pruebas es cuando los pacientes desarrollan un nuevo

conjunto de síntomas que los médicos controlan después de la

primera prueba. Pero los incentivos económicos suelen lograr que

se pidan más exámenes, sin importar la finalidad.

En el caso de un ecocardiograma, por ejemplo, “si es un

cardiólogo quien lo solicita y lo va a interpretar (…) quizás

exista un incentivo económico para sobreutilizar la prueba”,

dijo la doctora Rachel Werner, de University of Pennsylvania,

Filadelfia. “El hecho es que cobramos más por hacer más”,

agregó. Y no siempre es lo mejor.

“Los pacientes comprendieron la importancia de no usar

medicamentos innecesarios. Pero pienso que la noción

generalizada es que un test diagnóstico nunca hará daño”, dijo

Welch. Pero agregó: “Cuando lo realizamos, podríamos distraernos

con un resultado circunstancial”. Son esos resultados los que

exigen nuevas pruebas y, quizás, un tratamiento innecesario.

Su equipo halló también que las ciudades donde se realizaba

la mayor cantidad de pruebas diagnósticas iniciales también

registraban los porcentajes más altos de repetición de esos

tests.

FUENTE: Archives of Internal Medicine, online 19 de

noviembre del 2012.

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Wall Street edges up as bargain hunting offsets HP, France

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks inched higher on Tuesday, reversing earlier declines after bargain hunters stepped in to buy beaten-down shares and offset the impact of Hewlett-Packard‘s accounting charge and France losing its triple-A credit rating.

The S&P 500 briefly dipped below its 200-day moving average at 1,382, but recovered to trade slightly above the key technical level, which is seen as a support mark.

Stocks rallied for the last two days on optimism that Washington politicians could agree on a deal to avoid the U.S. “fiscal cliff.” But the gains followed two weeks of sharp losses.

“We got into a very oversold condition on just about any indicator and then you had intraday reversals in just about all the indexes,” said Jeffrey Saut, Raymond James Financial‘s chief investment strategist in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Shares of McDonald’s shot up 1.3 percent to $ 86.11, leading the Dow industrials’ slim advance.

Moody’s Investors Service cut France’s sovereign rating by one notch to Aa1 after the market’s close on Monday, citing an uncertain fiscal outlook as a result of the weakening economy.

While the move was expected after Standard & Poor’s made a similar downgrade in January, it was a reminder of the headwinds buffeting the global economy and the danger of contagion by the euro zone’s debt crisis.

Hewlett-Packard Co shares tumbled 10.5 percent to a 10-year low at $ 11.91 as the computer and printer maker swung to a fourth-quarter loss. The company said it took an $ 8.8 billion charge related to its acquisition of software firm Autonomy, citing “serious accounting improprieties.

A bright spot for the economy came in data showing U.S. housing starts rose to their highest rate in more than four years in October, suggesting the housing market’s recovery was gathering momentum. The PHLX housing sector index <.HGX> jumped 2.4 percent, led by PulteGroup Inc , up 4.8 percent at $ 16.67.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was up 10.34 points, or 0.08 percent, at 12,806.30. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index <.SPX> was up 2.17 points, or 0.16 percent, at 1,389.06. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was up 3.41 points, or 0.12 percent, at 2,913.48.

The S&P 500 index had fallen 5.3 percent between election day two weeks ago and the start of the rebound as angst over a possible U.S. budget deal drove investors to sell stocks and limit the impact of expected tax increases on capital gains and dividends.

President Barack Obama and congressional leaders hope to start serious negotiations after the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” a series of mandatory tax hikes and spending cuts that would go into effect early next year – if a deal is not reached – and could push the U.S. economy back into recession.

(Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak Editing by W Simon, Kenneth Barry and Jan Paschal)

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Interpublic exits Facebook

(Reuters) – Interpublic Group of Cos said it sold its remaining investment in Facebook Inc for $ 95 million in cash.

Interpublic said it expects to record a pre-tax gain of $ 94 million. It had recorded a pre-tax gain of $ 132.2 million for the third quarter of last year from the sale of half of its 0.4 percent stake in Facebook.

Interpublic paid less than $ 5 million for the stake in 2006.

Shares of Facebook, which debuted with a market value of more than $ 100 billion in May, have lost nearly half their value since then on concerns about money-making prospects.

“We decided to sell our remaining shares in Facebook as our investment was no longer strategic in nature,” Chief Executive Michael Roth said in a statement.

Interpublic also authorized an increase in its existing share repurchase program to $ 400 million from $ 300 million. The company repurchased shares worth $ 151 million, as of September 30.

Shares of the company were up 1 percent at $ 10 on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

Facebook shares were marginally up at $ 23.00 on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das)

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Phillip Phillips looks at life beyond “American Idol”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Like the 10 winners before him, Phillip Phillips faces the uneven road from “American Idol” victor to pop-chart mainstay.

After the success of his Top 10 hit, “Home,” the Georgia native is facing a new challenge – to replicate the mainstream successes of past “Idol” winners Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson on his debut album, “The World from the Side of the Moon,” released on Monday by Interscope Records.

Phillips, 22, spoke to Reuters about making his first proper studio album, what he might do differently on a second one, and whether he could have won “Idol” with this season’s panel of judges.

Q: How do you plan to transition from “American Idol” winner to a mainstream music career?

A: “It’s pretty funny that you mention that because the majority of the people I meet don’t even know that I was on ‘Idol.’ It’s really cool to hear that. When I go home, people ask, ‘What’ve you been doing? I’ve heard your song,’ but they don’t even know that I’ve been on ‘Idol.’”

Q: Your first single “Home” has gone twice platinum. You’ve said that it isn’t a song you would have written yourself. What’s your relationship now with your first hit?

A: “It’s amazing how well it has done, and I look at all the stories that I hear like how it has helped families out with their situation, or something’s happened with their kid, mom or dad, or if their child’s overseas in the war. Something like that’s pretty amazing how many different stories come out of it.”

Q: Did you have any ideas on how you wanted to develop your sound finally getting into a big-time studio?

A: “I already had the songs written, and it was just a matter of throwing in ideas and then just trimming it down to what felt right, because we only had three weeks to do this album. So it was kind of pressured, but that kind of helped out as well. It didn’t make us overthink anything.”

Q: Was there anything in particular you wanted to achieve?

A: “I wanted to make it similar to what I did on the show – a horn section and some rock. I tried to be a little artistic. I just wrote what came from my heart and what felt right.”

Q: Unlike many of the other contestants, you went into “Idol” as a songwriter, how many of the album’s songs did you write?

A: “I think five. Some of the co-writes, (the writers) really just kind of pushed me, so I kind of wrote most of those myself. But it was a lot of fun; it was a great experience.”

Q: Would you do anything differently next time?

A: “It’s still early, but I’d definitely want a little more time to do it. But that’s really about it, because three weeks is just really quick, and also I have just so many other things going on. … It was very kind of stressful and hopefully for the next record I’ll have a little more time.”

Q: What would that time allow you to do in the studio?

A: “Just being able to listen to it a little more. We all knew that it sounded really good but also having to listen to, like 17 songs in a row. You say, ‘Yeah that sounds great’ but you listen to it more and more and (say) ‘Maybe I would’ve brought this instrument down a little bit or brought it up a little bit more.’”

Q: Would you have fared any differently on ‘Idol’ with the current judges Nicky Minaj and Mariah Carey?

A: “I don’t know. I’m curious to see how they’re going to judge. It’s a completely different panel this year. … I don’t really know how I would’ve turned out. Maybe I’ll have to go out and audition again (laughs).”

Q: Would you have had to change your roots-y style?

A: “Naw, I would’ve still been the same dude. If they wouldn’t have sent me through, they wouldn’t have sent me through. And if they did, that’d be awesome.”

(Reporting By Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Gunna Dickson)

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No increase in heart disease after food poisoning

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Despite earlier evidence tying an outbreak of E. coli infections in Canada to later heart disease, an expanded follow up study finds no link between the two.

“Although we definitely want to avoid anyone getting infected in the first place, this new information is reassuring for those who develop an infection from E. coli O157:H7,” Dr. Amit Garg, one of the authors of the study, said in a press release issued by the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), which published the study.

This strain of E. coli bacteria polluted the drinking water supply of Walkerton, Ontario in May of 2000, sickening more than 2,300 people and resulting in seven deaths.

Food-borne E. coli infections – which affect about 265,000 people each year in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – can damage the kidneys and lead to high blood pressure. That has raised concerns that they might also contribute to heart disease and stroke.

“There’s anecdotal evidence that certain infections immediately predate heart attack or stroke,” said Dr. Deepak Bhatt, the chief of Cardiology at VA Boston Healthcare System, who was not involved in the study.

“It’s not been clear whether it’s the infection or inflammation (from the infection) or coincidence,” Bhatt, also a professor at Harvard Medical School, told Reuters Health.

To see whether an E. coli outbreak could increase the risk of heart disease and stroke, Garg, a professor at Western University, Lawson Health Research Institute in London, Ontario, and his colleagues collected data on affected individuals from the 2000 event at a health clinic where they had annual visits.

Initially, the group seemed to have a higher risk for heart disease and stroke compared to people who had not suffered an E. coli infection. The researchers point out, however, that nearly half of the participants dropped out of the study, making those findings difficult to interpret.

In the current study, the group included 153 people who experienced severe illness during the outbreak, 414 people with mild illness, 331 people from Walkerton who did not get sick and more than 11,000 people who lived in neighboring towns that were spared from the E. coli outbreak.

In the decade following the outbreak, people who became severely sick were no more likely to later suffer a heart attack or stroke than people who lived outside of Walkerton.

In contrast, people who suffered a mild illness were actually 36 percent less likely to die from heart disease or stroke than residents of the surrounding communities.

Among people with a mild reaction to the infection, about 6 percent died during the study period, compared to about 10 percent of people who lived outside of the outbreak.

The reason is not totally clear. The authors write in their study that perhaps people in the mild-illness group didn’t get that sick from the infection – and also had a lower risk of cardiovascular death – because they were healthier than average.

(Garg would not agree to an interview with Reuters Health unless he was able to review major portions of this article in advance, a practice that violates Reuters’ policy to protect journalistic independence.)

STILL UNCLEAR?

The results from the study don’t necessarily mean infections don’t increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, said Dr. Liam Smeeth, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who was not part of the study.

Smeeth told Reuters Health that research has shown that any impact on the coronary arteries from infection and subsequent inflammation is short-lived, and perhaps the numbers in the Walkerton study were not big enough, or the increased risk not large enough, to be detected.

“It’s not crystal clear because it was a relatively small study,” he said.

Bhatt agreed that the findings don’t prove or disprove the idea that infections could be involved in heart disease, and it’s also possible that the type of infection might matter.

He said that it’s important to rule out the types that don’t contribute.

“I think the study’s important because it makes it very, very much less likely that gastrointestinal infections in some way are linked to atherosclerosis, and I think that finding is useful because probably investigators in the future shouldn’t focus on this area as far as causes of atherosclerosis and heart attack and stroke,” he said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/Te450j CMAJ, online November 19, 2012.

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