Researchers might have found evidence that chronic fatigue syndrome is a real and legitimate neurological condition. A pilot study published today in the open access journal BMC Neurology reveals that patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) have a set of proteins in their spinal cord fluid that were not detected in healthy individuals. These proteins might give insight into the causes of CFS, and could be used as markers to diagnose patients with CFS.
James Baraniuk and Begona Casad
Cannabis intoxication and fatal road crashes in France: population based case-control study BMJ Online First
Driving under the influence of cannabis almost doubles the risk of a fatal road crash, finds a study published online by the BMJ today. However its share in fatal crashes is significantly lower than those involving alcohol.
The study took place in France and involved 10,748 drivers who were involved in fatal crashes from October 2001 to September 2003. All drivers
Animal study advances call for early implants in children born deaf
New research at Johns Hopkins has clearly demonstrated the ability of cochlear implants in very young animals to forge normal nerve fibers that transmit sound and to restore hearing by reversing or preventing damage to the brain’s auditory system.
The findings in cats, published in Science online Dec. 2, help explain why implants are up to 80 percent successful in restoring hearing in young children born
Increase believed to offer breast cancer protection
Moderate physical activity, which is believed to help reduce the risk of breast cancer, may do so because it increases production of a hormone believed to have protective effects against the disease, a Canadian research team has learned.
Researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital’s Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute in Toronto have completed a study of how light and other factors, such as physical activity, influence the
A team of researchers led by the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute have determined that the corneal infection rate associated with the use of 30-day -extended-wear contact lenses made from silicone hydrogel is comparable to that previously reported for older lens types worn for fewer consecutive 24-hour periods.
The study, published in the Dec. 1 issue of Ophthalmology, recruited 6,245 patients, 64 percent of them women with an average age of 35, from 131 practices in North
A Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center study of children who were hospitalized from motorized go-cart accidents found that the average hospital stay was almost five days and that more than half of children required at least one operation – and almost a third required two or more operations.
“Many parents don’t seem to be aware of the potential dangers of private go-karts,” said David Cline, M.D., an emergency medicine specialist and one of the study researchers. “M
The first large-scale study to see whether trained volunteers and lay people can use defibrillators to save the lives of cardiac arrest (CA) victims has concluded that their use by lay people is safe, and if the response time can be shortened to within eight minutes there is the potential to save the lives of 15 out of 100 people who collapse suddenly with CA.
Brescia in Italy – a large mixed rural and urban county with an area of more than 4,800 square kilometres and a population of wel
Digital mammography images can be accurately transmitted over broadband Internet, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
“We’ve proven that telemammography works,” said the study’s lead author, Alan R. Melton, M.D., assistant clinical professor of radiology at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. “The ability to transmit mammograms over long dista
A minimally invasive procedure can permanently cure people who suffer from “sweaty hands,” according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
Computed tomography (CT) fluoroscopy allows precise needle guidance in the treatment of palmar hyperhidrosis, or sweaty hands, minimizing risk and discomfort to the patient.
“This CT-guided percutaneous technique is the most secure treatment today and stops sweating fr
Scholl’s CLEAR makes strides in negative pressure wound therapy and antibiotic treatment of diabetic foot wounds
Every 30 seconds a limb is lost to diabetes. This is the backdrop for two major studies reported in the November 12, 2005, issue of Lancet by Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Sciences’ Center for Lower Extremity Ambulatory Research (CLEAR). Dr. David G. Armstrong, CLEAR’s Director and a principal investigator on both studies, reiterated: “We
Finding may help explain differences in heart care between genders
Women with heart problems may be “tougher” about their disease than their male counterparts, a new University of Michigan study suggests. And that difference may help explain why they’re less likely to get aggressive care for the No. 1 killer of both women and men.
In a study published in the most recent issue of the American Journal of Medicine, researchers from the U-M College of Pharmacy and the U-M Cardiovas
RNA continues to shed its reputation as DNA’s faithful sidekick. Now, researchers in the lab of Whitehead Institute Member David Bartel have found that a class of small RNAs called microRNAs influence the evolution of genes far more widely than previous research had indicated.
“MicroRNAs are affecting the majority of protein-coding genes, either at a functional level or an evolutionary level,” says Andrew Grimson, a post-doctoral fellow in Bartel’s lab.
In o
A clinical study of ovarian cancer initiated by investigators at Yale School of Medicine will combine the anti-cancer drug phenoxodiol with docetaxel for women with recurrent ovarian cancer.
“Advanced-stage ovarian cancer is one of the most devastating forms of cancer, with half of the women diagnosed with it dying within five years,” said principal investigator Thomas Rutherford, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at
Most people with a rare type of dementia called primary progressive aphasia (PPA) have a specific combination of prion gene variants, a new study shows. The study is the first to link the prion protein gene to this disorder. It was funded in part by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and appears in the December 2005 issue of the Annals of Neurology.[1]
The researchers, led by James A. Mastria
Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) researchers have identified a process that could lead to development of repair mechanisms for people suffering from dementia and acquired brain injury.
The research reveals discoveries in the hippocampus – a part of the brain commonly associated with memory function – where the brain’s ability to regenerate nerve cells or neurons is known to degenerate with age.
The study by Dr Natalie Bull and Professor Perry Bartlett, from The Uni
When you look at the exterior of a building, can you tell whether the building is a city hall, an art museum, a library, or a live theater?
Most people can’t, according to a new study.
And those results suggest that many public buildings don’t follow one of the most famous dictums of architecture: Form follows function.
Residents of three different cities were shown pictures of city halls, libraries, art museums, and live theaters in a distant city
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