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Writing in the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, he said he found that a 10 percent increase in treatment-room humidity meant an additional 9 in 100 patients needed more treatment. Results also were influenced by outdoor temperatures and humidity.

Strep throat in children is better treated with antibiotics called cephalosporins than with the old standby penicillin, a review of dozens of studies involving thousands of youngsters found. Oral cephalosporins — cephalexin, cefadroxil, cefuroxime, cefprozil and cefdinir all — are safe for children and can be taken in liquid and pill forms. They've been available for decades, but penicillin was favored because it was believed the only drug that might prevent strep from causing potentially deadly rheumatic heart disease. Researchers said they hoped the findings would prompt reconsideration of guidelines that recommend penicillin as the first-line treatment for strep throat. Penicillin has a documented failure rate of up to 42 percent, they said.

In a commentary that was to accompany the study in the April issue of Pediatrics (but which was inadvertently omitted and will be published in June), critics said the new analysis relied on flawed studies, and that penicillin has "stood the test of time."

When a first epileptic seizure occurs after age 60, it appears to increase risk of stroke. British researchers compared more than 4,700 people 60 or older who'd had unexplained seizures with a similar group that had no history of seizures, stroke, dementia or other brain disease. The seizure group had nearly triple the risk of subsequently suffering a stroke.

The number of older people who suffer strokes far exceeds those who suffer seizures without a known cause, but the findings suggest doctors assess stroke risks and preventive treatments in older patients who have had a seizure, researchers said.

The findings ran in The Lancet.

— Times news services

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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