Adverse drug reactions to alternative medicines have more than doubled in three years
Since traditional, complementary and alternative medicines remain largely unregulated, consumers worldwide need to be informed and given the tools to access appropriate, safe and effective treatment. To help address this issue, the World Health Organization (WHO) today releases a new set of guidelines for national health authorities to develop context specific and reliable information for consumer
Study suggests that the chronic bacterial infections found in periodontal diseases may affect reproduction success and the outcome of infertility treatment
Researchers found that women undergoing ovulation induction for infertility treatment for more than three menstrual cycles experience higher gingival inflammation, bleeding and gingival crevicular fluid (GCF). This study appeared in the recent issue of the Journal of Periodontology.
In this study, the gingival inflammatio
Discovery yields hope for universal treatment
Researchers at the University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins and the Institute of Bioinformatics in India have discovered a gene-expression “signature” common to distinct types of cancer, renewing hope that a universal treatment for the nation’s second leading killer might be found.
Scientists essentially abandoned the search for a common approach to cancer therapy after research launched by the 1970s “War on Cancer” revealed the
Older women using estrogen-alone hormone therapy could be at a slightly greater risk of developing dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), than women who do not use any menopausal hormone therapy, according to a new report by scientists with the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS). The scientists also found that estrogen alone did not prevent cognitive decline in these older women. These findings from WHIMS appear in the June 23/30, 2004, Journal of the American Medical Association
An investigation of how blood flows through stents after opening clogged arteries has led a team of researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin Cardiovascular Center in Milwaukee to suggest that stents designed with thinner and fewer linkages may be the basis of a new generation of stents. Their findings are published in the July 2004 issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology.
One of the most common methods for treating heart blockages is balloon angioplasty, inflating tiny catheters w
Researchers have new insights into a mysterious type of amnesia, according to a study published in the June 22 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study showed lesions didn’t appear immediately in the patients’ brains, but developed one to two days after an episode of transient global amnesia.
Using diffusion weighted imaging, a type of MRI, a team in Germany examined 31 patients within hours of the onset of amnesia. In a new approach, the pat
New research by scientists by the University of Warwick may explain why methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections are so difficult to control in hospitals. MRSA is a major cause of invasive and sometimes deadly disease in hospitalised patients. Currently, attempts to prevent spread of these infections include isolating infected patients and increasing staff hygiene measures such as handwashing. However, these attempts have met with limited success.
A new mathematical mo
Two researchers affiliated with the University of Verona have reviewed the literature on depression caused by medications in an article published in the July-August issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. Certain medications may contribute to the etiology of depressive symptoms and disorders. Research in this area, however, has been hampered by methodological and conceptual problems. This review had two objectives: to identify evidence linking medical drugs to depressive symptoms and disor
“AIDS is now the leading cause of death in military and police forces in some African countries, accounting for more than half of in-service mortality,” write Ugboga Nwokoji and Ademola Ajuwon in the Open Access journal BMC Public Health today. They believe that secrecy about AIDS-related deaths, and multiple sex partnering in the Nigerian navy could be helping to fuel the HIV epidemic in Nigeria, Africa’s most populated country. Their survey of 480 Nigerian naval personnel revealed tha
A new computer cluster funded by the University of Sheffield and located within the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, will help scientists to improve their understanding of how human cells and organs work. This will ultimately lead to more effective ways of treating cardiovascular disease and cancer as well as other diseases. It will also eventually allow doctors to tailor treatment in a way specific to that patient rather than a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.
Two of the current uses for the comput
Long term relief for arthritis sufferers could be one step closer, thanks to a study of B-cell targeted therapy published today. The study from UCL reveals a major but hitherto poorly acknowledged role for B-cells in the most common and severe form of arthritis to affect younger people. By targeting B-cells, which are part of the body’s immune system, it may be possible to break a key vicious cycle underlying the disease.
The drug trial, led by UCL Professor Jonathan Edwards, published toda
José María Mato is a scientist at the new CIC-Biogune research centre in Zamudio (Bizkaia). For more than twenty years now he has been studying the liver disease known as steatohepatitis. This is a serious illness which develops when large amounts of fat are accumulate din the liver, and mat result in cirrhosis or, in the worst scenario, in cancerous tumours.
The greatest problem with this illness to date is that it cannot be diagnosed until the symptoms have already appeared and then it is
Patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who enter remission with abnormal chromosomes in bone marrow cells are twice as vulnerable to recurrence of their disease as are AML patients with normal bone marrow cells at remission, according to a new study.
The findings by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute call for routine testing for chromosomal abnormalities in AML patients at diagno
UK researchers have shown a strong direct relationship between ovarian volume and the number of primordial follicles (eggs) remaining in the ovaries of women of reproductive age. The measurement of ovarian volume by transvaginal ultrasound will enable an accurate prediction of the age of menopause and hence a woman’s reproductive age.
They say that the possibility of making an accurate assessment of ovarian reserve will revolutionize the care of women seeking assisted conception, those
A new approach to therapy can avoid most of the debilitating effects of preparing for critical, postsurgical treatment for patients with thyroid cancer, according to an international study led by researchers from Johns Hopkins and the University of Pisa.
Using a genetically engineered thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) – called thyrotropin alfa, or rTSH – doctors were able to ablate, or destroy, the small amount of thyroid gland tissue that often remains after thyroidectomy, without the need
Angel Montero Carcaboso’s research work, “Lecciones nuevas con una vieja vacuna” (New lessons for an old vaccine) is the prizewinner in the Thesis Award Competition. The Users’ Award, on the other hand, goes to, Pedro Ilundain Aranburu’s work, “Producción de pinturas vinílicas y acrílicas ecológicas” (Production of ecological vinyl and acrylic paintings).
The Thesis Award Competition organised by the Basque Research portal has been judged. This year a total of 40 theses were presente
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