Monday, January 5, 2009

‘Health & Medicine’ News

Can Heart Tissue Be Regenerated? Mature Heart Cells, Given The Right Environment, Can Replicate

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 13:08

When human hearts are injured, healthy tissue normally can’t normally regrow. (Credit: iStockphoto) Periostin is a component of the material that surrounds cells and is derived from the skin around bone. Though the mature heart only has tiny amounts, it’s abundant during fetal ...

Better Sleep May Put Huntington’s Disease Sufferers Back On Track

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 13:04

Researchers at the University of Cambridge found that daily treatments of Alprazolam or chloral hydrate, two different sedative drugs, enabled them to develop a regular sleep pattern and improved their cognitive function -- their ability to understand and act on information. According to the Cambridge neuroscientists conducting the research, HD mice ...

Chronic Rhinosinusitis: Washing Nasal Passages With Saline Can Help

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 13:00

Between 5% and 15% of people experience persistent infection of the nasal passages (chronic rhinosinusitis). Many homoeopathic and yogic forms of healthcare recommend spraying saline into the nose to relieve symptoms, and it is now often recommended as part of a programme of treatment in conventional medicine. A team of Cochrane ...

Nasal Cannula May Be Viable Treatment For Sufferers Of Sleep Apnea

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 12:56

"Our findings provide evidence that TNI may offer a viable treatment alternative to patients with obstructive hypopneas and apneas," said lead researcher Hartmut Schneider, M.D., of Johns Hopkins Asthma and Allergy Center. The proof of concept study included 11 patients with mild to severe apnea-hypopnea disorders, who were selected to provide ...

Tumor Painting Revolutionizes Cancer Surgery: New Visual Method 500 Times More Sensitive Than MRI

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 12:52

The study, published in the July 15, 2007 issue of Cancer Research, shows that the tumor paint can help surgeons distinguish between cancer cells and normal brain tissue in the operating room. The paint is a scorpion-derived peptide called chlorotoxin that is linked to the molecular beacon Cy5.5. Until now ...

Sports Hernia Repair Surgery Plus Innovative Rehab Program Helps Athletes Return To Play

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 12:48

Lead investigator L. Michael Brunt, M.D., professor of surgery, presented the study Sunday, July 15 at the annual meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society of Sports Medicine, held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He and his colleagues evaluated the results of 61 sports hernia repair surgeries and a ...

Commentary Highlights Impact Of Food-cancer Drug Interactions

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 12:44

The commentary, by Mark Ratain, MD and Ezra Cohen, MD of the University of Chicago, examines recent pharmacologic research which found that taking the targeted therapy lapatinib (Tykerb) with food significantly increased the concentration of the drug in the body. The commentary suggests that taking lapatinib with food instead ...

Kids With Obstructive Sleep Apnea: Marker For Cardiovascular Disease May Also Indicate Severity Of Cognitive Disability

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 12:40

"Children with OSA have increased levels of hsCRP [high-sensitivty C-reactive protein] and also exhibit decreased cognitive performances," said lead researcher David Gozal, M.D., of the University of Louisville in Kentucky. "Furthermore, hsCRP levels are significantly increased among patients with OSA and cognitive dysfunction." To identify children for the study, parents in ...

Scientists Identify The Cytokine IL6 As A New Chemotherapeutic Target For Ras-driven Cancers

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 12:36

Ras is a key intracellular messenger protein that directs, among other things, cell growth and proliferation. Over-expression of the Ras oncogene, or of its growth-promoting pathway, is an integral step in the development of a number of human cancers, particularly pancreatic and lung cancer. Unfortunately, though, attempts to target ...

Poor Ventilation And Crowding In Nunavut Homes Associated With Lung Infections In Inuit Children

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 12:32

Dr. Tom Kovesi and colleagues collected data on respiratory health and indoor air quality for 49 Inuit children under 5 years of age in the Baffin ...

Enzyme Eliminated By Cancer Cells Holds Promise For Cancer Treatment

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 12:28

Dr. Darren Browning, MCG cancer researcher. (Credit: Medical College of Georgia) In a high-stakes tit for tat, protein kinase G enables healthy cells to stay on task to proliferate, differentiate then provide a useful function. Cancer somehow reduces or eliminates PKG and cells get ...

Gene Identified For Crohn’s Disease In Children

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 12:24

The research reinforces previous results by German researchers, who found the same gene variant associated with the adult form of Crohn’s disease. Researchers from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and The University of Pennsylvania reported their results in a letter in the August issue of the journal Gut. "Because Crohn’s disease ...

Exercise, Exercise, Rest, Repeat — How A Break Can Help Your Workout

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 12:20

"Many people believe prolonged exercise will be optimal in order to reduce body fat, but our study has shown that repetitions of shorter exercise may cause enhancements of fat mobilization and utilization during and after the exercise. These findings will be informative about the design of [future] exercise regimens," said ...

The End Of Barroom Brawls: Study Shows Alcohol Can Reduce Aggression

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 12:16

The link between alcohol and aggression is well known. What’s not so clear is just why drunks get belligerent. What is it about the brain-on-alcohol that makes fighting seem like a good idea? And do all intoxicated people get more aggressive? Or does it depend on the circumstances? University of Kentucky ...

Great Expectations: Why The Placebo Effect Varies From Person To Person

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 12:12

A new study from the University of Michigan Health System may help explain why. Using two different types of brain scans, U-M researchers have found that the extent to which a person responds to a placebo treatment is closely linked to how active a certain area of their brain becomes ...

COPD Patients Taking Inhaled Steroids Are At Greater Risk For Severe Pneumonia, Study Finds

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 12:08

"In a large cohort of patients with COPD, we found that current inhaled corticosteroid use was associated with a significant 70 percent increase in the risk of being hospitalized for pneumonia," said the researchers. "Furthermore, for the severest pneumonias leading to death within 30 days of hospitalization, the risk with ...

Mathematical Model Identifies Genes Which Battle Hepatitis C

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 12:04

"When we know which genes are responsible for fighting the viruses which attack our liver, we will be able to look for the medications which will activate these genes most favorably," said Dr. Brodsky. The team conducted clinical trials, supported by the Health National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and ...

Intensive Training Of Young Tennis Players Can Cause Spinal Damage, Study Shows

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 12:00

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of young elite tennis players with no symptoms of pain showed a variety of spinal abnormalities in the lower back, some of which were irreparable. The scans picked up problems in 28 of the 33 players scanned. All the players were aged between 16 and 23 ...

Metabolic Syndrome: Don’t Blame The Belly Fat

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 11:56

But with the help of powerful new imaging technologies, a team of Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers at Yale University School of Medicine has found that insulin resistance in skeletal muscle leads to alterations in energy storage that set the stage for the metabolic syndrome. Insulin resistance ...

Throwing Motion In Young Baseball Players May Actually Protect Shoulder

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 11:52

"An adult will never have as much shoulder motion as a nine year-old," Dr. Mair explains. (Credit: iStockphoto/Rob Friedman) "Young baseball players who throw a lot maintain external shoulder rotation as they mature," says principal investigator Scott D. Mair, M.D., associate professor of orthopedic ...

Scientists Take Next Step In Understanding Potential Target For Ovarian Cancer Treatment

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 11:48

A Penn State College of Medicine research team, led by Kathleen M. Mulder, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology, is studying the normal function of a protein called "km23", the traffice cop protein, because the team previously found altered forms of the protein in 42 percent of tumor tissue samples taken from ...

Scientist’s Patent Dramatically Improves DNA Analysis

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 11:44

Jonathan Brody, Ph.D., assistant professor of surgery and colleague Scott Kern, M.D., at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, have developed a technique that makes a DNA separation technique called electrophoresis five times faster and less expensive than now is possible. “It could save millions of dollars a year, just by ...

Links Between Food Cravings, Types Of Cravings, And Weight Management

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 11:40

Accepting food cravings and keeping them in check may be an important component of weight management, according to findings from the first six-month phase of a calorie-restriction study conducted at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University. Supplemental results from the Comprehensive ...

Eye Test Can Cause Severe Lethargy In Infants, Study Finds

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 11:36

In the article "Adverse Effects of Apraclonidine Used in the Diagnosis of Horner Syndrome in Infants", published in the June issue of Journal of AAPOS (Journal of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus), Dr. Patrick Watts and coauthors described five cases of extreme drowsiness or unresponsiveness after infants ...

Effectiveness Of Tailored Health Messages Examined

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 11:32

With messages relating to health, prior research has demonstrated that the message is more effective if matched to important characteristics of the recipient, an idea known by psychologists as the congruency effect. For example, loss-framed messages, which highlight the risks in not engaging in a health behavior, are more effective ...

New Ink Sampling Technique Taking A Bite Of Out Time

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 11:28

Susan Lorge, Midwest Forensics Resource Center research associate, prepares an ink sample for testing in the DART mass spectrometry interface. MFRC researchers are using DART to build a library of forensic ink mass spectra using U.S. Secret Service ink samples. (Credit: Image courtesy of ...

Lithium For Pediatric Bipolar Disorder?

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 11:24

"Lithium is the prototype mood stabilizer for treating adult bipolar disorder, but it is not FDA-approved for use in kids younger than 13," said Mani Pavuluri, director of the Pediatric Mood Disorders Clinic at UIC’s Institute for Juvenile Research. "We do not have a perfect drug that cures all aspects ...

Proteins’ Internal Motion Found To Affect Their Function: Implications For Drug Design

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 11:20

Artist rendering of calmodulin molecule depicting protein "dark energy." (Credit: Mary Leonard and Michael Marlow, PhD, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine) “The situation is akin to the discussion in astrophysics in which theoreticians predict that there is ...

New Proteomics Research Promises To Revolutionize Biomedical Discovery

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 11:16

In a research article that will be published in the July 20th issue of the journal Molecular Cell, a research team led by Dr. Benoit Coulombe from the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM) describes a powerful proteomics approach that promises to have a profound impact on our current ...

Stroke In Nonvascular Atrial Fibrillation: Anti-coagulants Better Than Anti-platelet Therapy

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 11:12

In standard medical practice, anticoagulants are often given to people with AF who are at high risk of strokes, while anti-platelet treatments are offered to people at lower risk. A team of Cochrane Researchers set out to compare the relative benefits of these two treatments. After searching the medical literature, they ...