University of Maryland study may change traditional thinking about offering kidney transplants to dialysis patients whose hearts do not pump effectively

Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center say that contrary to conventional thinking, a kidney transplant can significantly improve the heart function of people on dialysis with a serious form of heart failure. In a study published in the April 5, 2005 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the res

Financial ’buffer’ appears to help preserve well-being after health setbacks

The old saying that ’money doesn’t buy happiness’ may hold true most of the time. But when a serious health problem comes along, financial resources may really cushion the blow to a person’s psyche, a new study suggests.

The finding, made by researchers at the University of Michigan Health System and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, stands in contrast to previo

Four-year-old children who receive emotional support and cognitive stimulation from their parents are significantly less likely to become bullies in grade school, but the more television four-year-olds watch the more likely they are to bully later, according to an article in the April issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Bullying among school children is considered a serious public health problem, affecting an estimated 30

The number of days people stay home ill is influenced by neighborhood poverty and whether they receive subsidized health care, such as Medicaid, says a Purdue University urban sociologist.

“As state policy-makers decide whether to cut or invest in their state health insurance programs, such as Medicaid, they need to better understand factors, both systemic and individual, that influence whether and how people seek treatment for illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pres

Researchers at the University of Southampton are looking for people to take part in a major new study into organ donation. The national study will look at the decision-making and experiences of bereaved people who after the death of a family member chose not to donate organs or tissues of the deceased relative for transplant operations.

Little is known about how families who do not donate experience the donation process. This means that issues such as how families deal with th

Novel calcium block attacks cause, rather than symptoms, of idiopathic pulmonary hypertension (IPAH), also called primary pulmonary hypertension

Cholesterol-lowering agents, such as the widely-prescribed statin drugs, and cholesterol-blocking agents may prove to be “novel therapeutic agents to modify cellular calcium that contributes to the development of pulmonary hypertension,” according Hemal H. Patel who lead a multidisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Californ

But less likely if sales clerks think they’re trying to lose weight

Sales clerks tend to subtly discriminate against overweight shoppers but treat them more favorably if they perceive that the individual is trying to lose weight, according to a study by Rice University researchers.

The research, conducted in a large Houston shopping mall, will be presented in a poster session at the annual conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP)

Young adolescents believe that oral sex is less risky to their health and emotions than vaginal sex, more prevalent among teens their age and more acceptable among their peers. They are also more likely to try oral sex, according to a UCSF study published in the April 2005 issue of Pediatrics.

“These findings suggest that adults should discuss more than one type of sexual practice when they counsel teens,” said Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, PhD, associate professor of adolescent medicine

New findings give infants a greater window of opportunity, better survival odds

A study showing that infants under one year of age can accept heart transplants from donors of different blood groups without the risk of organ rejection means a better chance of survival for infant patients and more efficient use of donor organs overall.
Results will be presented at the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) Annual Meeting and Scientific Session in Phil

Descriptors from the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) lexicon for ultrasound can be useful in differentiating benign from malignant solid masses, according to a new study by researchers at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, NC, and supported by the National Institutes of Health.

For the study, the researchers analyzed 403 sonograms of solid masses, 141 of which were found to be malignant at biopsy. Each lesion was described using features from the BI

Bone SPECT is better than FDG PET for detecting breast cancer that has spread (metastasized) to a patient’s bones, according to researchers from Shizuoka Cancer Center Hospital in Japan.

FDG PET is an imaging technique based on the increased metabolism of glucose in tumor cells. SPECT is a type of nuclear medicine scan that detects special radioactive elements administered to the patient by the physician. According to the authors, due to these differences in method, bone SPECT

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign report dramatic evidence of the importance of visual cues in the control of food intake in the current issue of Obesity Research, a leading nutrition journal.

The researchers served a free soup lunch to 54 adults, half of whom ate from normal 18-ounce soup bowls, while the other half ate from identical bowls that, unbeknownst to the participants, were slowly refilled through tubing connected to out-of-sight soup cauldro

Children on school buses collectively inhale as much or more exhaust emitted from those buses as does the rest of the city’s population, according to a new analysis by researchers at the University of California.

The results highlight the problem of “self-pollution,” or exhaust from the vehicle leaking into the cabin, particularly among older buses. This also is the first study to specifically look at how much exhaust is breathed in on school buses. “Although environmental regu

A new brain imaging study of recently diagnosed schizophrenia patients has found, for the first time, that the loss of gray matter typically experienced by patients can be prevented by one of the new atypical antipsychotic drugs, olanzapine, but not by haloperidol, an older, conventional drug. The study, published in today’s Archives of General Psychiatry, also confirmed previous studies that show patients who experience less brain loss do better clinically.

“This is a really

At the request of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), a series of surveys on the labour market and the informal sector were performed in 2001 – 2003, in seven countries of this region. They were conducted by the national statistical institutes under the joint guidance of experts from AFRISTAT and IRD economists (1 ). The first results provide accurate, original and homogeneous figures on the employment market and the informal sector in the capital city of each country. While

Learning disabilities such as dyslexia are believed to affect nearly one in 10 children. To better study them, a Northwestern University research team has developed a data-driven conceptual framework that links two well-established scientific concepts. In doing so, they also have developed a non-invasive diagnostic tool called BioMAP that can quickly identify children with learning disabilities.

Scientists have long recognized that children who can best process various aspects o