Scan finds problems often missed by other tests, helps high-risk patients get help early
A single 15-minute CT scan may be all it takes to find tiny cancers, stones and other problems in the kidneys, bladders and urinary tracts of high-risk patients — potentially saving them from many additional tests, and from delayed detection and treatment. And the detailed imaging scan can be done using modern CT (computed tomography) machines now found in many large hospitals.
That
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have successfully turned adult stem cells into bone and cartilage, forming the ball structure of a joint found in the human jaw with its characteristic shape and tissue composition.
Tested so far only in animals, the tissue-engineering procedure to create a human-shaped articular condyle could be used one day to regenerate the ball structure of joints in the jaw, knee and hip that have been lost to injury or diseases such as arthritis.
Like junkies without drugs, mice without running wheels crave what they lack, suggesting that some animals can develop an addiction for exercise, report scientists in the Dec. 1 issue of the journal Behavioral Neuroscience.
We all know someone who can’t get enough exercise: the marathon runner who jogged 26 miles in all 50 states, the neighbor who speed walks at the crack of dawn or the cyclist who zooms by every Sunday. We might say these people are addicted to physical activity. But
A unique methodology that allows to control the form of cartilage tissues in the human organism has been developed by researchers of the Moscow Institute of Laser and Information Technologies Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences. A new methodology is based on strictly controllable heating of cartilages – for example, those of crooked nasal septum or injured intervertebral disks, – with the help of infrared laser radiation.
So far, the problem of crooked nasal septum has been solved only th
Astronomers at the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Councils UK Astronomy Technology Centre (ATC) at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh have produced compelling new evidence that Vega, one of the brightest stars in the sky, has a planetary system around it which is more like our own Solar System than any other so far discovered.
All of the hundred or so planets that have been discovered around other stars have been very large gaseous (Jupiter-like) planets orbiting close to their star.
A pilot study on people terrified of heights showed that that an existing prescription pill helped to “dramatically reduce” their fear, reports Chemistry & Industry Magazine. In principle, the drug could be used to treat fear of spiders, needles, flying or any other kind of phobia, as well as post-traumatic stress and obsessive compulsive disorder. It might also be used to help people cope with their fears when they learn to to ski, skydive or any other activity which makes us scared.
The C
Global AIDS epidemic shows no sign of abating; highest number of HIV infections and deaths ever. Rapid Increases in Newer HIV Epidemics in Asia and Eastern Europe.
Despite Improvements, Current Prevention and Care Efforts are Inadequate
The global AIDS epidemic shows no signs of abating. Five million people became infected with HIV worldwide and 3 million died this year alone – the highest ever. The findings are featured in “AIDS Epidemic Update 2003,” a comprehensive new
Fair-skinned people – who traditionally burn the most in the sun – benefited most from an anti-sunburn drug which has finished Phase II human trials, the Professor of Dermatology at Sydney University said today.
Professor Ross Barnetson – a world authority in the field of photobiology, ultraviolet skin damage and the immunology of skin tumours – ran the Phase II human trials at Sydney University, alongside a concurrent trial at Royal Adelaide Hospital. Eighty volunteers took part in the tri
A genetic pathway whose activity was suspected to advance heart disease by increasing inflammation in the blood vessels and arteries feeding the heart may actually protect against it at least in laboratory mice, reports a team of Rockefeller University scientists led by Jan Breslow, M.D., in the Nov. 25 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The Rockefeller scientists’ findings that blocking the NFkB pathway actually contributes to heart disease in the lab animals, o
Any older athlete can attest that aging muscles don’t heal as fast as youthful ones. Now researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine have found a molecular link between older muscles and slow healing. This work could lead to ways of preventing atrophy from immobilization, space flight or simply due to aging.
“What you really want to do is maintain the youthfulness of the regeneration pathway,” said Thomas Rando, MD, PhD, associate professor of neurology and neurological scien
“We should not count on carbon storage by land ecosystems to make a massive contribution to slowing climate change,” said Dr. Christopher Field, director of the Department of Global Ecology at the Carnegie Institution. “And lower storage of carbon in these ecosystems results in a faster increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, leading to more rapid global warming.”
Future atmospheric levels of the notorious heat-trapping gas, carbon dioxide, remain a controversial topic among environmental
Italy Hosts Second Meeting Of Group On Earth Observation
The ad-hoc intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO) will hold its second meeting this week in Baveno, Italy. The meeting aims to give direction to the continued development of a 10-year plan to implement a comprehensive, coordinated, and sustained Earth observation system or set of systems. The first meeting took place in August 2003 in Washington, DC, immediately after the first Earth Observation Summit, which estab
Aspirin and blood pressure lowering drugs can prevent heart disease at a fraction of the cost of cholesterol lowering drugs (statins) and clopidogrel (an anti-clotting drug), finds a study in this week’s BMJ.
Estimates of cost and effectiveness were obtained for aspirin, antihypertensive drugs, statins and clopidogrel. Cost per coronary event was calculated for treatments individually and in combination for patients at various levels of risk.
The most cost effective preventive treat
Today 200 scientists meet in Rome at the EU conference on “The Role of Research in Combating Antibiotic Resistance”. It was organised by the European Commission together with the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID).
Antibiotics, once hailed as a panacea to combat bacterial infections, seem to be more and more ineffective. The human body is responding less and less to antibiotics. New, more dangerous diseases, stubbornly resisting their power, are devel
With increasingly sophisticated in-vehicle communication systems it could be easy to become overloaded with information when driving. Managing the driver’s information needs, COMUNICAR, has designed, developed and tested an in-vehicle, integrated multimedia Human Machine Interface (HMI) that holds the potential to improve both safety and driving comfort.
More than 40,000 people die and 1.7 million are injured on Europe’s roads each year. The direct cost is €45 billion and indirect
Virtual floods modelled inside computers are an increasingly useful means for authorities to prepare for genuine river surges. With flooding classed as the world’s most costly natural hazard, an ESA project has assessed using satellite imagery to improve flood simulation models.
Flood control and management represents a major challenge for water authorities, and as the global incidence of flooding increases, it has also become a subject of concern for the global insurance industry.
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