Any older person can attest that aging muscles don’t heal like young ones. But it turns out that’s not the muscle’s fault. A study in the Feb. 17 issue of Nature shows that it’s old blood that keeps the muscles down.
The study, led by Thomas Rando, MD, PhD, associate professor of neurology and neurological sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine, built on previous work showing that old muscles have the capacity to repair themselves but fail to
The history of hormone therapy drugs – once thought of as almost magic pills to keep women healthy, vital and young – shows why it is so important to conduct research studies to identify the risks and benefits of drugs, say researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
“The hormone therapy debate is one more example of a larger issue: are the medications that doctors prescribe safe, and do the benefits outweigh any risks?” said Michelle Naughton, Ph.D., lead a
A clinical trial is underway at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) to study the safety and effectiveness of an endovascular medical device to treat life-threatening thoracic aortic aneurysms. Ronald Fairman, MD, Chief of Vascular Surgery at HUP, is leading the study at Penn and is one of 35 principal investigators in North America to participate in this landmark trial.
Thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAAs) occur when a section of the aorta – the body’s largest a
The partners in EUREKA project E! 2526 IMPULSE have developed an implanted nerve stimulator which helps patients with drop foot to walk much better. Over 500,000 people suffer from a stroke each year in Europe and 10% of stroke victims are left with drop foot, which causes severe walking problems.
Drop foot is a chronic condition, often caused by a stroke which is characterised by the inability to raise the foot during the swing phase of walking. People affected tend to have a labo
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have concluded that sudden, temporary spikes in the amount of HIV in the body, commonly called “blips,” generally do not mean the virus is developing resistance to AIDS drugs and gaining strength in numbers.
“These results should provide relief to hundreds of thousands of HIV-positive patients in the United States currently taking drug therapy, called highly active anti-retroviral therapy, or HAART, and reassure them that their medications have not fail
Researchers hope test increases early detection
Physicians now have a more dependable, less expensive tool to help detect bladder cancer earlier. Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center found that a simple test that can be administered and read in the doctor’s office was three times more effective than a conventional laboratory test for detecting bladder cancer.
In a study published in the February 16 issue of the Journal of the American Me
A study on bladder cancer cells lines showed that green tea extract has potential as an anti-cancer agent, proving for the first time that it is able to target cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone.
The study, published in the Feb. 15, 2005 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Clinical Cancer Research, also uncovered more about how green tea extract works to counteract the development of cancer, said JianYu Rao, a Jonsson Cancer Center member, an associate professor of p
Radiofrequency (RF) ablation offers an effective first-line treatment for some liver cancer patients who are excluded from surgery, according to two studies appearing in the March issue of the journal Radiology.
“I believe that this treatment will soon enter into the guidelines for the clinical management of liver cancer patients,” said the first study’s lead author, Riccardo Lencioni, M.D., a radiology professor at the University of Pisa in Italy.
Liver cancer is the
The European Vaccine Effort against HIV/AIDS, today announced that a phase I clinical trial of novel investigational vaccines comprising DNA-HIV-C and NYVAC-HIV-C for the prevention of HIV infection has started in Lausanne and London in February 2005. These vaccines are based on HIV subtype C, which is prevalent in China, India and sub-Saharan Africa, and constitutes more than 50 percent of the new HIV infections worldwide.
The phase I clinical trial, with the EuroVacc Foundat
New findings from the Lung Health Study (LHS) show that intensive smoking cessation programs can significantly improve long-term survival among smokers. Supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), LHS is a landmark study that differs from many other studies of cigarette smoking in that it was a randomized, controlled clinical trial — considered the gold standard in determining cause and effect; furthermore, the size and duration of LHS enabled it to more accurately mea
What is the connection between a fly’s aerodynamic skill and human heart function? Using the nation’s most brilliant X-rays, located at the Advanced Photon Source at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, a cardiac molecular motors expert from the University of Vermont (UVM) and colleagues from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and Caltech performed research to answer that and other questions.
The research team, including David Maughan, Ph.D., res
The mechanisms that govern the relation between personal mobility and transmission of the AIDS virus (HIV) are still poorly known. Surveys conducted in the River Senegal Valley by two demographers from the IRD and the University of Montreal suggest that the way individuals returning to their community of origin deal with sexual risks depends on the migratory paths (internal or international migrations) and the social pressures prevailing in that community. Such influences cause most migrants to
A possible diagnostic use for clot-dissolving drugs such as tPA has been found by Medical College of Georgia researchers working to improve a test that identifies potentially deadly blood clots in the legs.
“This study is a fairly simple concept,” says Dr. Vincent J.B. Robinson, nuclear cardiologist at MCG and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Augusta and lead author of a study in the February issue of CHEST detailing how clot-busting drugs such as tPA, already used to tr
Older patients can take heart in new transplantation study
Policy makers who use age as a discriminating factor in determining eligibility for heart transplant surgery may want to reconsider their rules in the light of new research at the University of Alberta. Published in the Journal of Cardiac Surgery, the study shows that older heart transplant recipients fare just as well as their younger counterparts, even many years after surgery.
The study involved all 275 adu
3-D ultrasound reveals effects of tongue surgery on speech
New imaging research about tongue shape and volume before and after surgery should ultimately help surgeons decide how to best reconstruct tongue defects resulting from cancer surgery, says a team of researchers at the University of Toronto.
Tim Bressmann, a professor in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology, and his colleague Jonathan Irish, a professor in the Department of Otolaryngology and a head an
Risk of damage from loud music
A new U of T study recommends the provision of ear plugs, education at concert entrances and the reduction of music sound levels to minimize the risk of hearing loss for rock concert attendees.
The conclusions are part of a study published in the January/February issue of the Canadian Journal of Public Health, which looked at whether concert goers perceive there is a risk of hearing damage from the loud music at concerts and whether they use
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