Hi-tech medical scanners could be used to probe causes of death, reducing the need for invasive autopsies that can upset bereaved families, a study published in The Lancet on Tuesday says.

In Britain, post-mortems are ordered in about a fifth of deaths, notably where crime is suspected. The procedure has changed little over the past century, entailing evisceration and then dissection of the major organs.

Poor treatment of many elderly people in their own homes is breaching their human rights, says a study of England's home care services.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission report into council-operated home care said there is evidence of a "systematic failure" in the way care is given.

The government delivered a blow to some desperate patients Friday as it ruled the blockbuster drug Avastin should no longer be used to treat advanced breast cancer.

Avastin is hailed for treating colon cancer and certain other malignancies. But the Food and Drug Administration said it appeared to be a false hope for breast cancer: Studies haven't found that it helps those patients live longer or brings enough other benefit to outweigh its dangerous side effects.

The European Union warned Thursday of a sharp rise in deaths across the 27-nation bloc due to bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics.

With some 25,000 Europeans dying each year from infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria, European health commissioner John Dalli said "we need to take swift and determined action if we do not want to lose antimicrobial medicines" for humans and animals.

Women who delay pregnancy until a later age are placing themselves at increased risk of stroke, according to Dr. Matthew Fink, Professor of Clinical Neurology and Interim Chairman and Neurologist-in-Chief of the Department of Neurology and Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.

Speaking at the monthly community health seminar, Medicine & U moderated by Professor Basim M. Uthman at the Weill Cornell Medical College in Doha, Dr. Fink said the increasing prevalence of hypertension, cardiac disease, obesity and diabetes also adds to the risk of stroke for mothers.

Give people free prescription drugs and many of them still won't bother to take their medicine.

Doctors were stunned to see that happen in a major study involving heart attack survivors. The patients were offered well-established drugs to prevent a recurrence of heart trouble, including cholesterol-lowering statins and medicines that slow the heart and help it pump more effectively.

Regular professional cleaning of teeth not only gives a patient a more radiant smile but also helps reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke, according to a new study.

The study presented Sunday at an American Heart Association meeting in Orlando, Florida, was conducted at the Veterans General Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan.

An experimental drug helped obese monkeys lose 11 percent of their extra weight in a month, a promising sign in the hunt for obesity drugs that could apply to humans, U.S. researchers said Wednesday.

The drug, known as Adipotide, works by attacking the blood supply of a certain kind of fat, known as white adipose tissue, that tends to accumulate under the skin and around the belly.

Women alcoholics suffer damage to the part of their brain that controls moods, impulses and sleep three times faster than their male counterparts, a Swedish study showed Wednesday.

Women suffer a 50-percent reduction in the so-called serotonin function in their brain after four years of excessive drinking, while men show the same amount of damage after 12 years of alcohol abuse, according to the study by researchers at Gothenburg University.

A post-mortem analysis of half a dozen autistic boys showed that their brains were heavier and contained many more neurons than counterparts without the disorder, US researchers said Tuesday.

The study, while small, suggests that brain overgrowth may be occurring in the womb, according to the findings published in the November 9 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.