OU Medical Center-Health Matters

Heart specialists perform more than a million angioplasty procedures a year in this country to re-open blocked arteries. But a clinical trial that just concluded at the OU Medical Center may point the way to making these procedurees even more effective.

Cancer is a frightening diagnosis. But a study by the National Institutes of Health found that the vast majority of seniors fear blindness almost as much as cancer. Now, a researcher at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center hopes to find a way to keep cells in the eye from dying. And he's been awarded a one million dollar grant from the National Eye Institute to boost his scientific efforts.

How well did you sleep last night? Probably not as well as you should have. A new survey shows sleep problems affect a lot of us. In fact, two-thirds of older adults in this country report frequent problems sleeping. Most of us just assume that we sleep less as we get older. But the survey reveals it's not age, but health that determines the quality of your sleep.

For women diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer, life-saving treatment options have had lifelong implications. These women would no longer be able to bear children. Now a new procedure shows promise in both successfully treating the cancer and also preserving fertility. It is offered by only a handful of cancer surgeons in the nation-one of them at the OU MEDICAL CENTER.

1. Research reveals a new once-a-day medication for Deep Vein Thrombosis. 2. A minimally invasive technique helps get kidney cancer patients back on thier feet faster.

It is a disease that robs people over fifty of their central vision, leaving them unable to drive, to read, to pay their own bills. Macular degeneration is a debilitating disease that impacts people over the age of fifty. But new research by specialists at the Dean A. McGee Eye Institute and the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center may offer hope. It focuses on new technology . . . a tiny telescopic device that is implanted in the eye to aid vision.

1. The top chamber of the heart quivers instead of beats. A new procedure offers relief. 2. An in-office procedure uses a bulking agent to provide immediate and long lasting relief.

1. Tens of thousands of eye injuries occur each year from sports and recreation-related activities. 2. Unless corrected, Lazy eye or Amblyopia can lead to permanent vision loss in one eye.

The OU Physicians became the first medical specialists in the nation to offer a promising new cancer treatment. The treatment is for primary liver cancer...a cancer with very low survival rates and very few effective treatments. This new treatment combines radio-chemotherapy with an oil-like substance to specifically target cancer cells in the liver. It's been used successfully abroad, but never before in the United States.

Americans are living longer. We've all seen the recent headlines. Many assume we will continue to add years to our lives, but a researcher at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center finds that may not be the case. In fact, he says there is one "Big" factor that may soon begin erasing the gains we've made in life expectancy.

1. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to see the doctor without actually having to go to the doctor's office. 2. A 15-minute test can see if you will have heart failure. It's called the BNP test.

It's a cancer that's cause remains largely a mystery. Some 35-thousand people in this country are diagnosed with kidney cancer each year and more than 12-thousand will die of this disease this year alone. The good news is that if detected and treated early, the chances for a full recovery are good. Now, a new, less invasive surgical treatment can help kidney cancer patients get back on their feet faster.

Did you know that every year one million people in this country are diagnosed with cancer? Every six minutes a woman is diagnosed with cancer of the reproductive organs. According to Dr. Joan Walker of the OU Physician's Cade Cancer Center, there are some surprisingly simple things that women can do to protect themselves.

Imagine a baby born with a heart defect no one could fix and somehow surviving anyhow. Ed Enslinger of Oklahoma City will tell you his life was a miracle right from the start. Born with a potentially fatal heart defect, he was able to survive because of yet another anomaly with his heart, but he was a severly dibilitated child. Then a surgeon at The Children's Hospital gave him hope. Now, 25-years later, another heart surgeon at Children's will again try to save his life.

Regular physical exams are critical for early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. The disease can be present without symptoms in the early stages. Half of men will develop and enlarged prostate. Now laser technology is taking aim at the most common men's health problem.