Cardiovascular disease risk is extremely high in adults with diabetes. Yet women as well as people under 50 who have diabetes do not use aspirin, despite the fact that aspirin has been found an effective and inexpensive means to reduce risk of first and subsequent heart attack.
Previous research has demonstrated less frequent use of invasive cardiovascular procedures and effective medications for acute myocardial infarction, including thrombolytics, beta-blockers and aspirin,
Statistical physics approach to analysis of heartbeat pattern uncovers link to circadian cycle
In a newly reported, first-ever finding, physicists from Boston University and physiologists from Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have found that the body’s biological clock affects the patterns of heart-rate control in healthy individuals independent of sleep/wake cycle or other behavior influences. Their analysis of the heartbeat dynamics of the healthy individuals in the
In animal studies, researchers at Johns Hopkins have effectively used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure with 94 percent accuracy the size and amount of heart muscle damaged by a heart attack, known in medical terms as a myocardial infarct, or m.i., for short.
The Hopkins development, if confirmed in further pathology studies in humans, could standardize how physicians currently gauge the severity of a heart attack and a patient’s chances for recovery. A variety
Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children’s Hospital Boston have discovered that malignant melanoma, the potentially lethal skin cancer, can’t grow without a steady supply of a protein that normal cells can do without.
The findings, which are published in the December issue of Cancer Cell, suggest that drugs that cut off melanoma cells’ supply of the protein, called CDK2, might curb the growth of the dangerous skin cancer in patients, and with rela
Patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) could potentially be treated using their own stem cells that have been manipulated by gene therapy, suggests a study reported in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The authors, who represent five institutions, including the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, demonstrate for the first time that human bone marrow-derived adult stem cells can be coaxed to differentiate into ai
Paxceed shows therapeutic promise for diseases involving brain amyloids
In a preclinical efficacy trial, the cancer drug paclitaxel (Paxceed)–which exerts its effects by binding to and stabilizing microtubules inside cells–reduced the adverse effects of Alzheimer’s disease (AD)-like pathology in a mouse model. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine showed that the microtubule-stabilizing drug Paxceed helps correct the problems caused by clumped tau
MGH study provides clues to best therapeutic schedule, cellular underpinnings of treatment
Although the earliest clinical trials of the cancer-fighting potential of antiangiogenesis drugs did not have the dramatic results that some hoped for, subsequent trials showed that combining agents that suppress blood-vessel growth with therapies that destroy cancer cells can improve patient survival. In the December issue of Cancer Cell, researchers from the Massachusetts General Hosp
The costs of caring for elderly Florida patients hospitalized for colon surgery are not reduced by Medicare HMOs, report University of South Florida researchers in the December issue of the Archives of Surgery.
Despite significantly shorter hospital stays, Medicare HMO beneficiaries who underwent colon resections — surgery to remove a diseased section of the large intestines — incurred the same overall hospital charges as patients covered by traditional fee-for-service Medica
Acupuncture provides pain relief and improves function for people with osteoarthritis of the knee and serves as an effective complement to standard care. This landmark study was funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), both components of the National Institutes of Health. The findings of the study–the longest and largest randomized, controlled phase III clinical trial o
Agents designed to attack blood vessels that feed a growing tumor are effective against tumor growth in laboratory experiments. However, results of early clinical trials with these inhibitors have not yet exhibited the same success observed in animal models. Now, a new study published in the December issue of Cancer Cell demonstrates that a unique time period exists during which combined radiation and antiangiogenic therapy can exert a remarkable synergistic effect that significantly slows tumor
In experiments in the lab and with guinea pigs, researchers from Johns Hopkins have found the first evidence that genetically engineered heart cells derived from human embryonic stem (ES) cells might one day be a promising biological alternative to the electronic pacemakers used by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.
Electronic pacemakers are used in children and adults with certain heart conditions that interfere with a normal heartbeat. However, these life-saving device
People in earthquake-prone California often talk about the “Big One,” a devastating quake that many experts say will surely strike the region sometime in the future.
A research team is now working to predict when the big one – and even little ones – might occur. Termed SAFOD (San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth), the project involves more than 20 researchers from several major universities, labs and government agencies, including the husband-wife team of Fred and Judi Chester
Europe’s coastlines are exposed to risk of pollution. I-MARQ’s prototype Geographical Information System (GIS) delivers detailed information on coastal water quality, helping decision makers shore up defences by taking appropriate action against contamination.
A recent Communication from the European Commission highlights some of the issues the IST-funded i-MARQ project aims to solve: “Our coastal zones are facing serious problems of habitat destruction, water contamination, coast
A study conducted by an expert at the University of Sheffield and officials at NASA has found that while Greenland’s ice is certainly thinning, snowfall in some areas is increasing, with levels in south-east Greenland in the past year being three times higher than is usual. This opens debate as to how global warming will affect Greenland’s ice sheet and could mean that it remains stable, as thinning ice is offset by increased snowfall, which will replace the melted ice.
Edward Han
A new computer program for orchard planning, which can provide maximal profit in specific local conditions, is developed by a team from Krasnodar supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises. Recommendations offered by the program are based on the data on environmental conditions and soil-climatic requirements of orchard trees, and primarily, stone fruit crops (apricot, peach, cherry).
Potential yields of vari
The universal open system technology has been developed by Russian researchers with support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises (FASIE). The new technology will help to finally achieve mutual understanding between computers even if one of them thinks and speaks the Unix language and the other – the language of Windows.
Computers connected to a single network will soon be able to communicate easily with each other thanks
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