|
Insurance & Litigation
•
|
Tools & Information
•
•
•
|
|
 Back to Eurekalert Medical and Health News Archives
Eurekalert Medical and Health News: 01-03-2005
Using naturally-occurring mutant mice with a defective collagen gene, scientists at Harvard have identified a signaling molecule involved in one of the most common causes of disability among the elderly in the United States, osteoarthritis. Inhibitors of this molecule's signaling may eventually be used to slow down the progression of the disease, thus helping to relieve chronic pain in a large segment of the population.
The European Patent Office is pleased to announce the addition to its epoline. range of products and services of a new online service called Register Plus.
Dr. David Carroll, Florida Tech assistant professor of biological sciences, has earned a grant for $187,000 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to research fertilization and early development in the starfish. The grant is an NIH Academic Research Enhancement Award.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) today released the trans-NIH Action Plan for Liver Disease Research, a comprehensive plan that addresses the burden of liver diseases in the United States and maps out challenges for future research. The Action Plan is available on-line at http://liverplan.niddk.nih.gov.
Children who appear to have higher levels of shyness, or a particular gene, appear to have a different pattern of processing the signals of interpersonal hostility, according to a study in the January issue of The Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Newsworthy articles feature studies showing that: school-age survivors of bronchopulmonary dysplasia, the chronic lung disease of prematurity, demonstrated impaired lung function test results while revealing low levels of a marker of pulmonary cellular dysfunction; individuals who are beryllium sensitive progress to chronic beryllium disease at a rate of 6 to 8 percent per year; and early high procalcitonin levels following a diagnosis of ventilator-associated pneumonia are strong predictors of unfavorable outcome.
A survey of mothers in the January issue of Pediatrics found that physicians remain overwhelmingly negative in communicating a diagnosis of Down syndrome in newborn infants. By nearly all ratings - including explaining Down syndrome, the timing and setting of the news, and the language that was used -- physicians fell far short of making the birth a positive experience.
Johns Hopkins researchers, using a novel birthing simulator designed by biomedical engineering faculty, staff and students at the University, have identified what may be the least forceful way to deliver a baby whose shoulders are stuck in the birth canal.
The immune system uses antibodies to target foreign, "non-self" proteins and cells. Autoimmune antibodies, by contrast, attack the body's own cells, and those circulating in women with lupus and other autoimmune diseases can also cross the placenta and cause congenital heart block in the fetus. Scientists in Sweden now show how these antibodies cause heart cells to become paralyzed and eventually die.
Drugs used to treat the tumors common in people with a disorder called neurofibromatosis 1 rarely work, and scientists now know why. The chemotherapy drugs target a group of related proteins, call RAS proteins, which are thought to be responsible for these tumors. But researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that the disease affects only one member of the protein family, and it happens to be the one form of RAS that does not respond well to these particular treatments.
Researchers have shown a correlation between fast food, weight gain, and insulin resistance in what appears to be the first long-term study on this subject. The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study by Mark Pereira, Ph.D., assistant professor in epidemiology, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, and David Ludwig, M.D., Ph.D., Children's Hospital Boston, reported that fast food increases the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Young adults who eat frequently at fast-food restaurants gain more weight and have a greater increase in insulin resistance in early middle age, according to a large multi-center study. After 15 years, those who ate at fast-food restaurants at least twice each week compared to less than once a week had gained an extra ten pounds and had a two-fold greater increase in insulin resistance, a risk factor for type 2 diabetes.
Throughout the year, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) selects faculty members in minority-serving institutions who have shown excellence and dedication in the field of cancer research. They come from institutions which are historically Black, predominantly Hispanic, and Tribal Colleges and Universities.
Each year, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) presents awards to minority scholars who have made an impact in cancer research, and show potential to continue to do so in the future.
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has granted scholarships to outstanding women in cancer research through the AACR-Women in Cancer Research (WICR) Brigid G. Leventhal Scholar Award in Cancer Research program.
Switching of prescription drugs to over the counter availability is increasingly common, but what are the motives behind this trend, ask US researchers in this week's BMJ?
The BMJ has turned over confidential drug company documents that went missing from a 10 year old murder case to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for review.
UCLA researchers for the first time showed that advanced heart failure patients with diabetes who are treated with insulin faced a mortality rate four times higher than heart failure patients with diabetes treated with oral medications.
Migraine sufferers who had surgical treatment reduced the amount of time missed from work by 73 percent, according to a study published in the January issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. (PRS), the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). Additionally, surgical treatment substantially lowered the annual cost of migraine care for patients, the study found.
A new Web-based tool will be available Jan. 1 to help clinicians determine the best medication for patients with schizophrenia. An international team led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center's Herbert Meltzer, M.D., recently completed the new algorithms, the value of which was recently acknowledged by the World Health Organization. WHO has committed to establishing a Web link to the algorithms from its Web site.
The natural form of Prialt - a new drug for severe pain approved this week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration - was discovered at the University of Utah in 1979 by an incoming freshman studying toxins produced by cone snails.
A recently developed mouse model of brain tumors common in the genetic disorder neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) successfully mimics the human condition and provides unique insight into tumor development, diagnosis and treatment, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
In this issue: Insulin, physical activity, and caloric intake in postmenopausal women: breast cancer implications; Consumer behavior in the setting of over-the-counter statin availability: lessons from the consumer use study of OTC Mevacor; and Psychiatric study for cancer patients to measure psychoactive medication.
.If a runny nose and congested chest have you thinking of antibiotics, think again.."For uncomplicated colds, zero are necessary; bronchitis, less than 10 percent are necessary; sore throats, maybe up to 10 to 15 percent of these patients need an antibiotic," says Dr. Jim Wilde, pediatric emergency medicine and infectious disease physician at the Medical College of Georgia.
.Minimally invasive surgery to alleviate the pain and pressure of sinusitis is a safe, effective therapy for geriatric patients who can't be helped by medication alone, according to new research.
|
|
