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 Back to Eurekalert Medical and Health News Archives
Eurekalert Medical and Health News: 12-27-2004
Can the toxicological effects of cigarette additives be measured? A new report concludes they can.
A new study says cancer surgery performed at a medical center designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a "center of excellence" is associated with less risk of death soon after surgery than if performed at a high-volume surgery center, but finds no difference in five-year survival rates.
High levels of a blood protein called mannose-binding lectin (MBL) are associated with lower risk of heart attack, particularly among diabetics, report Saevardottir and colleagues. They suggest that measuring this protein in the bloodstream may help doctors decide if certain patients should receive additional treatments to decrease their heart attack risk, according to a study in the January 3rd issue of The Journal of Experimental Medicine.
An inexpensive, non-narcotic medication has been identified as an important step in treating acute migraine headaches
For the first time, scientists have found that bacteria can use a Sonar-like system to spot other cells (either normal body cells or other bacteria) and target them for destruction. Reported in the December 24 issue of Science, this finding explains how some bacteria know when to produce a toxin that makes infection more severe. It may lead to the design of new toxin inhibitors.
As a result of a worldwide cooperative movement, the absolute driving ban for people with epilepsy (PWE) has been lifted in Japan. Since 1960, people who have epilepsy have been banned from driving in Japan. A December article in the journal Epilepsia outlines the efforts and procedures taken to reinstate driving rights to people with epilepsy, a restriction affecting many epilepsy patients throughout the world.
By alternating the flow of fluid through tiny plastic pipes, a team of mechanical engineers at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has discovered a new and speedier way to mix liquids, which in turn will someday produce better and safer medications.
There is a desert in the heart of the South Pacific. Surrounding Easter Island is the purest and bluest seawater on Earth, almost empty of the microscopic phytoplankton at the base of the marine food web. French vessel L'Atalante recently completed a research cruise through this region, its day-to-day route guided by ocean colour satellites.
Sudden cardiac death from emotional stress may be triggered by uneven signals from the brain to the heart, according to a study by University College London (UCL) scientists published in the January issue of Brain.
Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have compiled the first atlas showing the locations of crucial gene regulators, or switches that determine how different parts of the brain develop - and, in some cases, develop abnormally or malfunction.
Despite critics who say patients' bills of rights laws are actually designed to protect health care providers, new research published in the current issue of the American Journal of Medicine found just the opposite.
New research by investigators at Duke University Medical Center has provided insight into a fundamental cellular control mechanism that governs tissue regeneration, stem cell renewal and cancer growth.
Few things about growing older are as inevitable and obvious as "going gray," yet scientists have been unable to explain the precise cause of this usually unwelcome transformation.In a report posted today on the Web site of the journal Science, researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital Boston say they have found the cellular cause of graying hair while investigating the origins of malignant melanoma, the potentially deadly skin cancer.
Birds that migrate early in the season may have a distinct advantage when it comes to attracting the opposite sex, say researchers from Queen's University and the Smithsonian Institution.
If you want to avoid allergies or asthma, scientists at the University of Michigan Medical School suggest you start paying more attention to what's in your gut.
East Hanover, December 22, 2004 - Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Enablex. (darifenacin) extended-release tablets (7.5mg and 15mg) for the treatment of overactive bladder (OAB) with symptoms of urge urinary incontinence, urgency and frequency. Enablex, a once-daily medication, is expected to launch in the U.S. in early 2005.
The latest holiday gifts being offered to the scientific community this season by scientists in the laboratory of Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Roger Y. Tsien come in a dazzling variety of hues -- cherry, strawberry, tangerine, tomato, orange, banana and honeydew. The color spectrum would make Pantone proud. No, Tsien's group is not giving out fruit baskets; the names describe vibrant new varieties of fluorescent protein that the researchers have created to tag cells and observe a range of cellular processes.
Fascinated by the efficient way the human immune system generates a rapid response to create a near-infinite variety of antibodies, researchers have "hijacked" that machinery and used it to evolve a new type of fluorescent protein. The researchers say their technique is widely applicable, and should prove useful in mutating genes faster to produce proteins with useful new properties.
HydroGlobe, a Technogenesis environmental technology company incubated at Stevens Institute of Technology, which produces patented products for the removal of heavy metals - including lead and arsenic - from water, has been acquired by Graver Technologies, a leading manufacturer of filtration and separation products.
Devices the size of pagers now have greater capabilities than computers that once occupied an entire room. Similar advances are being made in synthetic biology at the University of Houston, now allowing researchers to mass produce and inexpensively program the chemical synthesis of entire genes on a single microchip. The findings of Professor Xiaolian Gao are appearing in the current issue of Nature in the paper "Accurate multiplex gene synthesis from programmable DNA microchips."
Researchers at The Molecular Sciences Institute revealed means for sensitive detection and precise quantification of arbitrarily designated molecules. The work is published in the current issue of Nature Methods.
The American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology in Fairfax, Va., has won the Award of Excellence in the 2005 Associations Advance America awards program, a national competition sponsored by the American Society for Association Executives. ASTRO received the award for its public awareness campaign to help cancer patients and their families better understand their treatment options. The campaign is now in the running to receive a Summit Award, ASAE's top honor for association programs.
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.
Well-fed male field crickets die young because they spend too much time courting members of the opposite sex, according to research by Australian scientists in the latest edition of Nature.The results reveal how male crickets (Teleogryllus commodus) fed on a high protein diet engaged in more "sexual calling" and died sooner than males reared on a low protein diet. The well-fed males also died earlier than well-fed female crickets (females don't "call" to males).
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