Study may one day lead to test that could show which patients may be helped by immediate steroid treatment
Our immune system protects us from disease, destroying invading microbes with a swarm of attacking cells. But it can also go haywire for no apparent reason, ganging up on normal tissues in our body and wreaking havoc.
In thousands of people each year, the immune system attacks the inner ear, home to the tiny, delicate structures that allow us to hear. Without war
X-ray angiography falls short in critical finding
Electron-beam computed tomography (EBCT) is more accurate than conventional catheter angiography for identifying which adult patients face the greatest risk of sudden death from congenital abnormalities in the arteries supplying blood to the heart, according to a study in the September 2005 issue of Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions: Journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions.
A pioneering vaccination programme for children has virtually wiped out a killer bug in the Gambia – and could save hundreds of thousands of young lives across Africa.
The vaccinations have slashed the incidence of the disease, which causes meningitis and other diseases in babies and infants, to virtually zero.
Paul Milligan of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said: “This is an extremely valuable result. It proves that a routine vaccination to eradica
Placing gadolinium in DNA-sized carbon tubes boosts performance, reduces toxicity
Researchers at Rice University, the Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Houston and the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland have created a new class of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents that are at least 40 times more effective than the best in clinical use.
The new agents — dubbed gadonanotubes — use the same highly toxic metal, gadolinium, th
First Imaging Study to Implicate Brain Opioids Could Explain Addictive Nature of Behavioral Disorder, Say Johns Hopkins Researchers
The role of the brain’s opioid receptor system—or endorphin system—may hold the key to understanding and treating bulimia nervosa, according to research reported in the Society of Nuclear Medicine’s August issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
“Involvement of the opioid system may explain the addictive quality of this behavioral dis
Research on new materials and coatings in EUREKA project E! 2866 VASCUCHARGE will extend the life of synthetic vascular grafts from months to years, saving on average €7,000 per operation. As such grafts are used in around 500 out of each million vascular treatments in Europe, the savings could be considerable. Furthermore, the pain and discomfort suffered by patients is significantly reduced, as is the drain on health service resources.
The number of implants used in the surgical trea
The treatment of a lung condition that affects almost half of all pre-school children is to be investigated by researchers at the Universities of Nottingham and Leicester.
They aim to find a definitive answer on the best way of treating the tens of thousands of children brought into hospitals every year with unexplained wheezing and shortness of breath.
The condition affecting them, known as ‘viral-induced wheezing’, is one of the commonest reasons for young children to
Treatment failures occur with any drug and aspirin is no exception. Evidence is growing that some people will not respond to the anti-coagulant action of aspirin and the drug will not protect against cardiovascular events despite its regular intake.
Professor Andrew Szczeklik from Poland and Professor Graeme Hankey from Western Australia will present the latest findings on aspirin resistance at the XXth Congress of the International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis today.
Cocoa shows benefits for coronary heart disease
Throughout history, cocoa has been described as a medicine for many ailments. New research suggests that cocoa may also have a beneficial effect on heart disease and stroke. A research team in Southampton in England, led by Dr Denise O’Shaugnessy, has shown that drinking a cup of cocoa can prevent potentially fatal blood clots. Dr O’Shaughnessy will present this data at the XXth Congress of the International Society on Thrombosis & H
The latest information coming from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University
Age-related cataract, the world’s leading cause of blindness, affects more than 20 million Americans over the age of 40 years. Surgical correction is currently the only known option for intervention, but researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University recently sought, in three different studies, to determine if prevention is
Breast cancer patients could find out whether they will respond positively to chemotherapy treatment by testing for the activity of certain genes. In a study published today in the Open Access journal, Journal of Translational Medicine, researchers analysed the genes expressed in the tumours of eighty-three patients with primary breast cancer. The researchers were able to predict which breast tumours would improve from chemotherapy in all cases of partial remission and nearly three quarters of
An amazing device has been invented by the St. Petersburg physicists – specialists of the Vavilov State Optical Institute. With its help, a patient can learn the glucose concentration in the blood without injections, and if the concentration is rather high, to inject additional amount of insulin into the blood.
The device is an artificial pancreas and it will consist of two parts. One part, according to the developers’ idea, is slightly larger than a watch battery and can be im
Malaria remains a devastating problem in Africa and understanding the factors affecting its transmission remains a crucial part of the effort to combat the disease. A new study published in the premier open access journal PLoS Biology conducted in Western Kenya by Jacob Koella and colleagues now reveals that mosquitoes are more attracted to children with the infectious stages of malaria than to those infected with non-transmissible forms of the disease or to uninfected people.
The questi
A survey of U.S. adults has found that a majority believe that HIV vaccines are the best hope for controlling the global AIDS epidemic and are confident such vaccines can be made. But while most of those surveyed felt it personally important to help support HIV vaccine research, a majority expressed reluctance to support a friend or family member’s participation in an HIV vaccine clinical trial.
These were among the conflicting findings of a telephone survey of more than 3,500 adu
Key research from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) could lead to the first early diagnostic tool for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
“At the moment we don’t have any biological tests for these conditions,” said one of the authors, UNSW Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Philip Ward, who is based at Liverpool Hospital’s Schizophrenia Research Unit. “Our research could eventually lead to a simple, cost-effective and safe way to distinguish patients with schizop
A single dose of the contrast agent gadobenate dimeglumine can help liver donors avoid multiple MRI examinations during the screening process, cutting down on time and cost without compromising accuracy, say researchers from the Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul, Korea.
For the study, 11 potential liver donors underwent MRI examinations after a single dose of gadobenate dimeglumine in order to screen them for donor adequacy. The researchers were able to find anatomic
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