New research suggests that accumulation of amyloid-â peptides in cerebral blood vessels, as opposed to the brain itself, may be a more important pathological mediator of Alzheimer’s disease. Two independent yet related articles describe such findings in the August issue of The American Journal of Pathology. Both articles are highlighted on the Journal’s cover.
Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of progressive dementia, affects an estimated 4.5 million Ame
New research suggests that medications commonly referred to as fertility drugs may be ineffective for women who lack a gene called the estrogen receptor beta. The study showed that fertility drugs did not improve ovulation rates in mice that were genetically engineered to lack estrogen receptor beta. The estrogen receptor beta is one of two estrogen receptor proteins which mediate the effects of estrogen hormones and are present throughout the female reproductive tissues. These new data indicat
A new study found that the drug used to treat osteoporosis, when used in combination with calcium and vitamin D, can prevent the additional bone loss that commonly occurs after liver transplants. The treatment also helped stabilize bone loss in patients who already had osteoporosis, and helped improve their bone mineral density (BMD).
The results of this study appear in the August 2005 issue of Liver Transplantation, the official journal of the American Association for the Study of Liv
Precision mirrors to focus X-rays and neutron beams could speed the path to new materials and perhaps help explain why computers, cell phones and satellites go on the blink.
In the last few years, a team led by Gene Ice of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has improved by a factor of nearly 10 the performance of mirrors that enable researchers to examine variations in structure and chemistry and even individual nanoparticles. Information at this fine
News tips from the Harvard Health Letter
As the population ages, a growing number of people become more vulnerable to extreme summer heat. In 2003, a heat wave was blamed for 14,800 deaths in France. The July issue of the Harvard Health Letter offers tips for the elderly to beat this summer’s heat. In addition to heading for the air conditioning, staying out of the sun, and wearing loose, light clothes:
Review your Medications
Painkillers, for exa
Astronomers report tremendous quantities of warm dusty debris surrounding a star with luminosity and mass similar to the sun’s, but located 300 light-years from Earth. The extraordinary nature of the dust indicates a violent history of cosmic collisions between asteroids and comets, or perhaps even between planets. The discovery is published July 21 in Nature.
“What is so amazing is that the amount of dust around this star is approximately 1 million times greater than the du
Study holds hope for next generation hemophilia treatment
Researchers have doubled the potency of a protein that drives blood to clot, according to research to be published in the July 26 edition of Biochemistry. The study results may have profound implications for the treatment of hemophilia, the inherited blood disorder that causes easy or excessive bleeding in 30,000 Americans.
In most cases, hemophilia is caused by a lack of factor VIII, one of several proteins that
Results from a new study suggest that extremely obese people are more likely than normal-weight people to injure themselves.
Researchers collected health and injury data during a one-year period on more than 2,500 adults living in Colorado . More than one out of four (26 percent) of the extremely obese male participants reported personal injuries, and more than one out of five (21.7 percent) extremely obese women also reported injuries.
By comparison, about 17 percent of
Pluto’s moon hides a star
In a feat of astronomical and terrestrial alignment, a group of scientists from MIT (Cambridge, Mass.) and Williams College (Williamstown, Mass.) recently succeeded in observing distant Pluto’s tiny moon, Charon, hide a star. Such an event had been seen only once before, by a single telescope 25 years ago, and then not nearly as well. The MIT-Williams consortium spotted it with four telescopes in Chile on the night of July 10-11.
Golfers with low-back pain may be helped by a University of Pittsburgh research study, the findings of which may assist clinicians in designing appropriate back-specific exercise programs for golfers to prevent or rehabilitate low-back injury.
The findings are being shown today with a poster presentation at the annual meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, July 14-17, at the Keystone Resort in Keystone, Colo.
“More than 30 percent of golfers h
Maintaining a healthy weight in children may be one good way to keep a healthy blood lipid profile and a happy heart, a new study has found.
A study of 400 high school age children with a variety of fitness and fatness levels showed that fatter youths had unfavorable lipid profiles, including higher levels of triglycerides and higher ratios of total cholesterol to the protective HDL cholesterol or high density lipoprotein.
“This ratio tells about the balance of the ‘bad’
A study led by Mayo Clinic Cancer Center adds evidence to a growing body of knowledge that shows women with benign breast disease have a higher risk for breast cancer, and that certain types of breast disease may predict the near-term development of breast cancer. The findings will be published in the July 21 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
“Our findings indicate a link between select types of benign breast lesions and the later development of breast cancer,” says
Findings show new link between obesity and type 2 diabetes
A study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has shown that a protein found in fat cells is a newly discovered cause of insulin resistance, establishing a previously unidentified molecular link between obesity and type 2 diabetes and offering a potential new target for the development of drugs to treat diabetes. The findings appear in the July 21, 2005, issue of the journal Nature.
Acco
Rounding up wayward cells and particles on a microscope slide can be as difficult as corralling wild horses on the range, particularly if there’s a need to separate a single individual from the group.
But now, a new device developed by University of California, Berkeley, engineers, and dubbed an “optoelectronic tweezer,” will enable researchers to easily manipulate large numbers of single cells and particles using optical images projected onto a glass slide coated with
Eighty-three percent of Medicare beneficiaries have at least one chronic condition, such as congestive heart failure, Alzheimer’s disease or diabetes. Two-thirds of Medicare spending is incurred by the 9.5 million beneficiaries with five or more chronic conditions. These percentages suggest that the Medicare program needs to address chronic conditions rather than the acute, episodic illnesses that have been the focus of the Medicare program since it began in 1966.
The Medica
In recent years, American hospitals have made significant improvements on standardized, evidence-based measures of clinical performance for several medical conditions, including heart attacks, heart failure, and pneumonia. But an editorial, published in the July 21 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, says it’s not clear how much effect these improvements in patient care have had on public health, especially in reducing morbidity and mortality. The editorial, authored by Patrick S. Roman
Feedback
