Malaria vaccine trial
The results of a randomized controlled trial of a malaria vaccine called ME-TRAP are published this month in PLoS Medicine. “This first field efficacy trial was an important milestone in the progression of new recombinant vectored vaccines to deployable products,” says Adrian Hill (University of Oxford, United Kingdom), the senior investigator of the study. “The safety profile was excellent and the efficacy data provide a first indication of the levels of
Drinking regular cuppas could help improve your memory, new research suggests.
Results of laboratory tests by a team from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne found that green and black tea inhibit the activity of certain enzymes in the brain which are associated with memory. The findings, which are published in the academic journal, Phytotherapy Research, may lead to the development of a new treatment for a form of dementia which affects an estimated ten million people worldwi
Many patients with sleep apnea or insomnia also have attention deficit disorder
People who have difficulty sleeping at night or staying awake during the day may suffer from more than just a sleep disorder. According to a new study presented at CHEST 2004, the 70th annual international scientific assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), the majority of patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and/or nonrestorative sleep have a high degree of attention defi
Retina specialists and ophthalmologists are encouraged by promising new scientific approaches that could have the potential to reduce the devastating effects of wet AMD for patients and offer the medical community a new paradigm of care, according to presentations made at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in New Orleans.
Many experts consider AMD, the leading cause of blindness in Americans over age 50, as a growing public health epidemic. Diagno
Findings of a recent study published in Public Health Nursing suggest that if the main barriers preventing high-risk populations from having routine testing for HIV are addressed, the spread of AIDS could be slowed in the US.
The study, conducted at an urgent care center in Atlanta, GA, interviewed 143 high-risk patients to identify behavioral and psychosocial barriers associated with having repeat and routine aids testing. Women, who had been tested for HIV previously, wer
Three University of Chicago geriatricians just published a study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine calling for creative and wide-reaching solutions to the problem of sub-optimal end-of-life care for patients with dementia. An estimated 500,000 people die every year in the United States suffering from Alzheimer’s or related diseases and many of them receive inadequate pain control, are subjected to ineffective and invasive therapies such as tube feedings, and do not receive the ben
The scenarios where radiotherapy can be used for curative (and palliative) treatment of cancer have steadily increased, and radiotherapy now forms a part of the treatment of more than 50% of all cancer patients. However, in many countries, treatment capacity is exceeded and access to treatment is a major problem. This was the conclusion of three leading European radiation oncologists who were jointly presenting their findings at the 23rd Meeting of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology
Women under 35 years of age with breast cancer can have an almost 20% lower risk of their disease recurring if they are treated using a new radiotherapy regime. These were some of the results presented here today (Tuesday 26th October) by Prof Harry Bartelink and his colleagues at the 23rd Meeting of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology.
The analyses were based on data from the EORTC (European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer) 22881 trial with updat
Immediate post-operative radiotherapy following surgery to remove the prostate results in improved progression-free survival for prostate cancer patients, according to the results of a study presented here today (Tuesday 26th October 2004) by Prof Michel Bolla of CHU de Grenoble, Grenoble, France, at the 23rd Meeting of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiation and Oncology.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, but if it is detected early enough by individual (o
The voice laboratory at the University of Navarre University Hospital has designed a novel and efficient protocol to evaluate and rehabilitate the voice of patients who have undergone laryngectomy. This involves a monitoring procedure based on patterns of phonatory flow. The study forms part of the PhD thesis by Dr Francisco Vázquez de la Iglesia. The title of the work is “Physiological Bases of the Pharyngoesophageal Segment. Characterisation of the erigmophonic voice as a function of its acoust
Two new products have been approved to European medical markets: antibacterial bioactive glass granules for remedying frontal sinus and bone defects and a bioactive glass plate for the repair of the orbital floor.
The products, registered by a Finnish biomaterials company Vivoxid Ltd are aimed at solving medical problems in the head and neck area.
Bioactive glass products hold substantial commercial potential. Bioactive glass offers a number of new application areas in th
A piece of the puzzle of how nerves find their way across the midline of the brain and spinal cord in a developing embryo has been found by Medical College of Georgia researchers.
They have found that an enzyme called focal adhesion kinase tells the arm-like extension of a neuron to cross the midline of the spinal cord, says Dr. Wen-Cheng Xiong, developmental neurobiologist and lead author on the paper in the November issue of Nature Neuroscience. After crossing, the axon become
Children of older fathers are more likely to develop schizophrenia in later life, concludes new research published on bmj.com today.
These findings add weight to the theory that accumulating mutations in the sperm of older fathers contributes to the overall risk of schizophrenia. The study involved over 700,000 people born in Sweden between 1973 and 1980. The analysis was based on records of people admitted to hospital between 1989-2001 with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or other
For the first time, the public will have the extraordinary opportunity to observe live brain surgery in a pioneering event at the Science Museum’s Dana Centre in London, on Thursday 28 October.
Broadcast for the first time to a UK audience, visitors to the Dana Centre will not only watch live surgery, but be able to direct questions to the surgical team in the USA whilst the operation takes place. Live from Brainworks will be broadcast across the Atlantic Ocean from Overlook Hosp
For people who suffer from a rapid heartbeat condition called tachycardia, an implanted device can usually nudge the racing blood pump back into a normal rhythm by applying electrical pulses to the heart. But on rare occasions, in a twist that has baffled physicians, the anti-tachycardia pulses produce the opposite effect: they trigger an even faster and more dangerous heartbeat.
By electrically jolting cardiac cells in a lab and mapping the change in the electrical activity, bio
Inebriated bees could give researchers better insight into alcohol’s effects on human behavior, a new study suggests.
“Alcohol affects bees and humans in similar ways – it impairs motor functioning along with learning and memory processing,” said Julie Mustard, a study co-author and a postdoctoral researcher in entomology at Ohio State University.
Researchers gave honey bees various levels of ethanol, the intoxicating agent in liquor, and monitored the ensuing behavio
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