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 Back to Eurekalert Medical and Health News Archives
Eurekalert Medical and Health News: 12-22-2004
Researchers at McMaster University have developed the first assessment tool of its kind for evaluating risks faced by Canadians suffering from a rare and often fatal bleeding disorder.Their detailed bleeding questionnaire helps discriminate between patients - often in the same family - affected by a puzzling and rare condition known as Quebec Platelet Disorder (QPD) and those who are not.
Flu. Smallpox. Anthrax. Whooping cough. The words represent a veritable murderers' row of infectious agents whose death toll runs in the millions. Between them and us stand a few small groups of nurses at select institutions around the country who protect the population from such scourges.
Premenopausal women who seek help for excessive hair growth, even if it is not significant enough to meet the clinical definition of hirsutism, need to be evaluated for endocrine and reproductive system abnormalities. In a study of 188 women, researchers found that more than half of patients with only minimal unwanted hair growth in male-type patterns had excessive amounts of "male" hormones. While this symptom is often considered merely cosmetic, the underlying causes and long-term consequences may be serious.
Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have discovered that the shape of a protein on the surface of pneumonia bacteria helps these germs invade the human bloodstream. This finding, published Dec. 16 online by the EMBO Journal, could help scientists develop a vaccine that is significantly more effective at protecting children against the disease.
With the dynamic evolution of wireless technology, Mayo Clinic researchers have been concerned about the potential effects of electromagnetic interference on heart pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators. In the current issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, researchers report they did not detect interference from personal digital assistants (PDAs).
In the December issue of Clinical Orthopedics and Related Research, orthpaedic surgeon William Harris, MD, DSc, of Massachusetts General Hospital tells a remarkable story of how a new disease was inadvertently caused by successful medical treatment, ultimately understood, and eventually defeated by scientific innovation.
.Very few jails in the United States continue methadone treatments for opiate-dependent inmates, and half fail to follow standard methadone detoxification protocols, according to a national survey by the University of Rochester Medical Center.
Doctors are less likely to actively engage their black patients in conversation when compared to the conversations they had with their white patients, according to a new study of primary care visits conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and School of Medicine.
Researchers knew that prions, the misfolded proteins that cause mad cow disease and other brain disorders, were killing off a class of important brain cells in a transgenic mouse model. But when they found a way to rescue those cells, they were astonished to discover the mice still became sick.
Research highlights in upcoming publications from the Society of Microbiology include: a new herpes vaccine may be ready for human trials, houseflies may contract e.coli from cattle and harmful bacterium commonly found in poultry may survive refrigeration and frozen storage combined.
The IADR/AADR is unveiling dramatic changes to its flagship publication, the Journal of Dental Research, under the leadership of new Editor Anthony J. Smith (University of Birmingham, UK). Each issue will now contain two manuscripts from the formerly independent publication, Critical Reviews in Oral Biology & Medicine, which will cease to exist as a stand-alone journal. The cover of each issue will have a full-color illustration, and content will be free of access control after 12 months.
The country's first ever Maze procedure done using high intensity focused ultrasound technology - the only energy source that allows surgeons to surgically cure atrial fibrillation (AF) while a patient's heart is beating rather than having to use a heart-lung bypass machine - was performed last Friday at the Northwestern Cardiovascular Institute at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
Pharmacogenomics, the study of genetic variability in the way individuals respond to medicines, has the potential to spark a major, technology-driven restructuring of the health care and pharmaceuticals industries, according to a commentary published in the current issue of Nature Medicine by faculty of the Indiana University Program in Pharmacogenomics, Ethics, and Public Policy.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have discovered that specific cancer-causing genes associated with leukemias can transform mature white blood cells into leukemic cells that have all the properties of stem cells. The findings are noteworthy because they show that certain leukemia oncogenes can commandeer and switch on genetic programs that govern self-renewal, one of the unique characteristics of stem cells.
Essential oils usually used in aromatherapy have been found to kill the deadly MRSA bacteria according to research carried out at The University of Manchester.
The effects of natural radon gas escaping the earth's surface into our homes is causing 9% of all deaths from lung cancer across Europe, and smokers are most at risk, according to a paper on BMJ.com today (21 December 2004).
Scientists have discovered that a system in our brain which responds to actions we are watching, such as a dancer's delicate pirouette or a masterful martial arts move, reacts differently if we are also skilled at doing the move. The University College London (UCL) study, published in the latest online edition of Cerebral Cortex, may help in the rehabilitation of people whose motor skills are damaged by stroke, and suggests that athletes and dancers could continue to mentally train while they are physically injured.
A new study suggests that age-related changes in how the brain responds to the female sex hormone estrogen may be involved in a woman's transition through menopause. The study provides new clues about hormonal influences on hot flashes and night sweats experienced by some women in the menopause transition.
Suicide rates for young people have increased dramatically in Scotland's most deprived areas, according to research in this week's BMJ.
With the time for New Year's resolutions uncomfortably close, latest data from a huge nationwide study shows that obesity is up, as is drinking by women. We are also getting more depressed and anxious and taking more drugs, and the poorer we are, the more likely it is we will smoke and not exercise or eat healthily.
Researchers at the University of Toronto have developed a new technique that enables them to examine the genetic material of cells in greater detail than ever before, a finding that could lead to better ways to study and diagnose diseases.
Contrary to previous reports, new research shows that cancer patients can not intentionally postpone death to survive for significant personal events such as Christmas, Thanksgiving or a birthday, according to a study in the December 22/29 issue of JAMA.
Two deaths have been attributed to a rare type of pneumonia that is occurring among U.S. troops in Iraq at a higher than normal rate, according to a study in the December 22/29 issue of JAMA.
Residents of Taiwan who consumed drinking water with high levels of arsenic have a higher risk of lung cancer, with cigarette smokers from this group having an even greater risk, according to a study in the December 22/29 issue of JAMA.
First-degree relatives of lung cancer patients have a 2 to 3.5 times greater risk of developing lung cancer than the general population, and tobacco smoke plays a major role, even among those with a genetic predisposition, according to a study in the December 22/29 issue of JAMA.
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