|
Insurance & Litigation
•
|
Tools & Information
•
•
•
|
|
 Back to Eurekalert Medical and Health News Archives
Eurekalert Medical and Health News: 02-22-2005
In a new study of breast milk and store-bought milk from across the United States, scientists at Texas Tech University found perchlorate in every sample but one. The results suggest that this thyroid-disrupting chemical may be more widespread than previously believed. The report was published Feb. 22 on the Web site of Environmental Science & Technology.
Researchers identified a protein that might trigger kidney disease in diabetic patients, a condition that affects one in three people with type 1 and one in ten people with type 2 diabetes. The new study, led by researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Thomas Jefferson University is published in the February issue of PLoS Medicine.
Researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have developed a new laboratory method that rapidly identifies babies born with inherited forms of severe immune deficiency. The new genetic test, which still must be validated before widespread use, could someday be added to the panel of tests that already screen newborns for a variety of disorders.
Physician-researchers have shown an investigational medication, known as LEA29Y (belatacept), is effective in preserving transplanted kidney function while at the same time avoiding the toxic side effects that are common in the currently used long-term, immunosuppressive transplant medications. The pre-clinical research conducted with nonhuman primates at the Yerkes National Primate Research center was an important step in establishing human clinical trials to develop an effective alternative to current anti-rejection therapies.
People infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) have a higher risk of developing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma, according to a recent study of the Swedish population.
Short-term use of selective COX-2 inhibitors may be safe for patients with cirrhosis of the liver, according to a recent study that compared the effects of celecoxib, naproxen, and a placebo on cirrhotic patients in a double-blind randomized controlled study.
UK researchers have launched the world's biggest ever study of an embarrassing problem that costs health services millions - constipation. In Britain, more drugs are prescribed for this condition than for diabetes. As it mainly affects the over-55s the problem is expected to worsen as the proportion of older people in the population increases. The .650,000 study is funded by the British Government and aims to recruit nearly 2,000 sufferers.
Problems with the brain - not just the ears - cause a great deal of the age-related hearing loss in older people. Researchers are finding more and more subtle problems in the way our brain processes information as we age, so much so that an older person whose ears are in fine shape may have trouble hearing because of an aging brain.
Engineers at Cardiff University, UK are using their expertise to help create a device which could greatly increase the rate of recovery for stroke victims. The device, known as Alladin, will diagnose the precise state of a victim from the time of the attack throughout their recovery, enabling medical staff to determine the correct treatment at each stage.
Early diagnosis and treatment is important for children and adolescents with bipolar disorder, according to new treatment guidelines. The guidelines were sponsored by the Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation (CABF), a national parent advocacy group, and were drafted by a scientific consortium led by Robert Kowatch, M.D., director of the Pediatric Mood Disorders Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
Rockefeller University scientists have found that a single gene is responsible for the sense of smell in fruit flies, malaria mosquitoes, medfly and corn earworm moth. This information may provide a starting point for future designs of pesticides and disease-controlling insect repellents.
In the first comprehensive examination of strenuous physical activity and the risk of developing Parkinson's disease, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have found that men who exercised regularly and vigorously early in their adult life had a lower risk for developing Parkinson's disease compared to men who did not. The findings appear in the February 22, 2005 issue of the journal Neurology.
On Feb. 21 at the annual meeting for the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., Taylor will present his latest accomplishment: factoring in the flexibility of veins and arteries to his model of the cardiovascular system. The realistic response of blood vessels adds more predictive ability to earlier versions of his simulation, which assumed rigid vessel walls for simplicity.
A Mayo Clinic physician and researcher today reported that a combination of the latest technology and double-tiered analysis could improve genetic screening for newborns as much as forty-fold, while testing for dozens more diseases than is now performed in some states.
Scientists at Jefferson Medical College and Mount Sinai School of Medicine have identified a protein that plays a leading part in triggering kidney disease in diabetic patients, a condition known as diabetic nephropathy and the leading cause of kidney failure worldwide. The finding, which they report February 22 in the journal PLoS Medicine, could lead to the eventual development of compounds that might be used to treat diabetic kidney disease.
Use of cell phones to send images via e-mail to consulting physicians at remote locations appears to be a feasible approach for visualization of chronic leg ulcerations, according to an article in the February issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The article is part of the special theme issues in the JAMA/Archives journals on medical applications of biotechnology.
An overnight sleep test is required to distinguish ordinary snorers from persons with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), according to a study in the February issue of Archives of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Elderly patients can safely undergo gastric bypass surgery and can be expected to experience similar benefits from the operation as younger patients, according to an article in the February issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Antimicrobial medications intended to prevent surgical site infections are appropriately administered to patients (within one hour before incision) only 55.7 percent of the time, according to a study published in the February issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Some genetically engineered "supermice" with bone mass four times greater than that of ordinary mice may hold the secret to new drugs for preventing or treating osteoporosis and other diseases. A new study shows that their bone strength is aided by a signaling protein called Wnt10b, which was already known for keeping fat tissue from developing but now appears to stimulate the growth of bone cells, too.
The medical needs of many of the world's population go unmet. A new treaty on essential health R&D published in the premier open-access journal PLoS Medicine could provide a binding framework to redirect today's scientific expertise to priority needs.
Private banks offer expectant parents the option to pay a fee for the chance to store cord blood for possible future use by the child. A debate in the premier open-access journal PLoS Medicine tackles the controversial practice with scientific and ethical reasons.
In a study published in the freely-available international medical journal PLoS Medicine, mass spectrometry-based sequence analysis provides a sensitive and accurate method to characterize genetic variation of the SARS coronavirus in clinical samples.
In the premier open-access health journal PLoS Medicine, a study reveals a mathematical model that allows to determine a strategy for distribution of limited medical resources (in this case, antiretrovirals) such that each individual in need will have an equal chance of receiving treatment.
A specific secondary mutation in the kinase domain of the epidermal growth factor receptor can render cells insensitive to the two kinase inhibitors, a study in the premier open-access health journal PLoS Medicine shows. This mutation was found in resistant tumors from three to six patients studied.
|
|
