Oddly enough, having an aneurysm in the ascending aorta is significantly associated with decreased incidence of atherosclerosis, according to a study by Yale School of Medicine researchers published this month in Chest.

An aortic aneurysm is a widening of the major artery leading from the heart that may rupture, causing hemorrhage, or may split into layers, jeopardizing blood flow to internal organs. When split into layers it is called “aortic dissection.”

“This is a sil

An Internet-based examination system enables stroke patients to be treated as rapidly in rural communities as they are in bigger hospitals with stroke teams, researchers have found.

A study of 194 stroke patients in eight rural Georgia hospitals seen via the REACH system by stroke team members at an academic medical center showed most patients got clot-dissolving tPA in less than two hours, says Dr. David Hess, chair of the Medical College of Georgia Department of Neurology and

Testing for exercise capacity and heart rate recovery improves on traditional risk-factor scoring

Performing cardiac stress tests that measure exercise capacity and heart rate recovery can improve dramatically on existing techniques that predict who is most likely to suffer a heart attack or die from coronary heart disease (CHD), the leading cause of death in the United States, a team of cardiologists at Johns Hopkins reports.

In the Sept. 13 edition of the journal C

Take a young child at high risk of doing poorly in the elementary school years, put him or her in a classroom with a great teacher, and that child will do just as well as children who have no such risks. This finding, published in the September/October issue of the journal Child Development, provides important evidence that the quality of everyday experiences in schools can greatly reduce children’s academic and social problems, even closing gaps between children of varying demographic, experi

A large body of research finds that physically abused children have a very high risk of developing emotional and behavioral problems later in life. Now a study from researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison finds that these children have a tendency to focus and respond to even subtle signs of anger from others, one explanation for their distraction in classroom and social situations.

The researchers had previously shown that physically abused children tended to become especiall

Although preadolescents and adolescents might think their parents hold no sway over them, a study published in the September/October issue of the journal Child Development finds just the opposite – early parenting style makes a big difference in how a child turns out.

Researchers from Arizona State University in Tempe evaluated 186 adolescents three times over a six-year period, once every two years from the time the children were about 9 to about age 13. They used parent and

The long-term effects of teasing or harassment by their peers on pre-adolescent children – specifically, depression and anxiety – are related, in part, to the level of victimization at the end of fourth grade, as well as to how much that harassment increased or decreased between fourth and sixth grade, according to a study published in the September/October issue of the journal Child Development.

The study, by researchers from North Dakota State University and Arizona State

A leading educationalist is criticising new United Nations (UN) proposals to eliminate all fees in state primary schools globally to meet its goal of universal primary education by 2015.

Professor James Tooley, of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, says the UN, which is placing particular emphasis on those regions doing worse at moving towards ’education for all’, namely sub-Saharan Afria and South Asia, is “backing the wrong horse”.

Prof Tooley makes his c

Despite the government’s £1bn commitment to increase the use of information technology in schools, few teachers make full use of computers in the classroom, according to ESRC funded research. The findings of the four-year project at the University of Bristol confirm recent reports by Ofsted and OECD, which found the use of ICT in schools was ‘sporadic’ and ‘disappointing’ in the UK and internationally. The ESRC study reveals that many teachers fear that computers would interfere with ‘genuine’

Study points to importance of pathway in cancer progression

The cancer gene MYC is among the most commonly overexpressed oncogenes in human cancers. Most human cancers demonstrate high levels of MYC or its biological partners, including those of the breast, ovaries, lung, prostate, and skin, as well as leukemias and lymphomas. MYC is a regulator of other genes–a transcription factor–and scientists have been working for more than two decades to identify its target genes in order

Study suggests chronic infections may create autoimmune response

New research finds the human immune system has foregone evolutionary changes that would allow it to produce better antibodies in less time because the improved antibodies would be far more likely to attack the body’s own tissues. The Rice University study finds the immune system has evolved a near-perfect balance for producing antibodies that are both effective against pathogens and unlikely to cause autoimmune

Landmark data from the PROactive Study, presented today at the 41st meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) demonstrated that ACTOS® (pioglitazone HCl) significantly reduced the combined risk of heart attacks, strokes and death by 16% in high-risk patients with type 2 diabetes.

“The PROactive study is the first in the world to prospectively show that a specific oral glucose lowering medication, namely pioglitazone, can significantly improve cardiov

Yale School of Medicine researchers published a report this month in the Archives of General Psychiatry that highlights the interplay of two brain signaling systems, glutamate and dopamine, in psychosis and cognitive function.

The study helps resolve a long-standing research debate between the “dopamine hypothesis” and the “glutamate hypothesis” or “PCP Model,” said John Krystal, M.D., professor, deputy chair for research in the Department of Psychiatry, and lead author of th

In a study published in The American Journal of Gastroenterology, researchers found that budesonide capsules are an effective treatment to prolong and maintain the period of remission of Crohn’s Disease. Previous studies have demonstrated that budesonide is effective for inducing remission of Crohn’s disease.

Four double-blind, placebo-controlled trials were conducted with identical protocols in which patients with Crohn’s Disease, and medically induced remission,

If you suffered from piles, would you want your friends asking about your condition in public? Most people wouldn’t, yet new research suggests that the older you become the more likely you are to make someone blush with embarrassment in that way.

But old people may not intend to be rude: in fact, age-related changes in brain function may explain their lack of tact, according to a new Australian study just published in the journal Psychology and Aging.

Tests carried ou

Finding may significantly broaden understanding of how the brain selects and retains information

By examining how sounds are registered during the process of learning, UC Irvine neurobiologists have discovered a neural coding mechanism that the brain relies upon to register the intensity of memories based on the importance of the experience.

While neurobiologists have long hypothesized this type of neural coding, the study presents the first evidence that a “memory co