The new technique of SELECTIVE CEREBRAL PERFUSION has been successfully applied for the first time in the Basque Autonomous Community (B.A.C.)
Surgeons keep a patient in a state of hibernation at 15 degrees centigrade, without brain activity and with heart circulation and respiratory activity at a standstill for one hour while an aorta implant is fitted.
The technique enables operations involving aorta pathologies to take place in greater conditions of safety, thus
Malfunction of the motor that powers sperm plays havoc with more than fertility: it may also be the root cause of the rare genetic disease Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS).
Reporting in the journal Cell tomorrow, researchers from the UK, US and Canada reveal they have discovered a novel gene for BBS that’s necessary for the generation of a cell’s cilia and flagella – hair like tentacles used to propel a cell or sweep substances over their exterior.
Cilia and flagella are commonly known a
Research in monkeys suggests that long-term use of estrogen therapy may reduce levels of androgens – hormones involved in maintaining bone density, muscle mass, sexual function, memory, and psychological wellbeing in postmenopausal women.
“Our findings suggest that it might be important for women taking estrogen after menopause to also take androgen supplements – which can include testosterone,” said Charles E. Wood, D.V.M., lead researcher, from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Cente
New study shows aklylating DNA damage stimulates regulated necrotic cell death
Researchers at the Leonard and Madlyn Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania have found a second way by which chemotherapeutic agents can kill cancer cells. The finding – which will appear online and ahead of print in the June 1st edition of the journal Genes & Development – represents an important advance in understanding how and why some cancer cells die and others do
A new Mayo Clinic study shows that couples using in vitro fertilization have the same likelihood of successful pregnancy whether the sperm used is frozen or fresh. Researchers presented the results today at the annual scientific meeting of the American Urological Association in San Francisco.
“Without these data, we were concerned that frozen sperm might reduce the birth rate,” says Alan Thornhill, Ph.D., senior author of the study and director of the Mayo Clinic in vitro fertilization labor
Concerns that resulted in moratorium on laparoscopic procedure resolved
When performed by experienced surgeons, minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery is a safe and effective alternative to standard open surgery for most patients with cancer that is confined to the colon.
That is the main finding of a seven-year international study, which will be published in the May 13 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The study involves 872 patients with colon cancer and is th
The dream of saving and sharing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data is quickly becoming a reality, according to Dartmouth researchers who run the fMRI Data Center, which archives and distributes the raw data from studies that track brain activity using fMRI. The Dartmouth researchers wrote an essay in the May issue of Nature Neuroscience about the initial reluctance and gradual acceptance of the center, and they describe the many attributes a center such as theirs offers the scientific
More than one in 25 young adults in the United States is infected with the organism that causes the sexually transmitted disease known as chlamydia, according to the latest results from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a continuing University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill investigation.
If not detected and treated, chlamydia, which usually has no symptoms, can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility.
The prevalence of chlamydial
Individuals who have a variation of the COX-2 gene have an associated lower risk for a heart attack or stroke, according to a study in the May 12 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Although myocardial infarction (MI, or heart attack) and atherothrombotic ischemic stroke are thought to be caused by rupture of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques, they are recognized to be complex disorders that likely result from multifaceted interactions between an individual’s
Research News from Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry
A previously unknown synthetic “designer” steroid has been identified as tetrahydrogestrinone (THG). Researchers working out of the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory in Los Angeles synthesized and characterized the “New Chemical Entity”, and proceeded to develop a rapid and accurate urine detection test for it. Details of the research are published this week in Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry.
In June 20
Cancer, along with heart and vascular disease, is the major cause of death in the Western world. The first generation of anti-cancer drugs has already saved many lives, but because these medicines are non-specific they also often have severe side effects. Researchers at VIB (the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology) are now developing ‘nanobodies’ − a new generation of drugs consisting of extremely small antibodies that target tumour cells very specifically.
The vast ma
Researchers have recently confirmed a set of indicators that, alone and in combination, identify shingles patients who have an increased risk of developing persistent pain after the shingles rash heals. Results and implications of their study will be presented in the May 11 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Shingles (herpes zoster) has the highest incidence of all neurological diseases, affecting approximately half a million Americans annually.
A new guideline developed by the American Academy of Neurology evaluates the use of transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (TCD) to determine when use of the test leads to better informed decisions by doctors and improved patient outcomes. A TCD is an ultrasound test that uses reflected sound waves to evaluate blood as it flows through the brain. TCD is mainly used to evaluate patients with cerebrovascular disease.
The guideline, which is published in the May 11 issue of Neurology, the scienti
Tests to diagnose endometrial hyperplasia, a condition where the uterus lining becomes overgrown, are more accurate than experiments have suggested. A study published this week in BMC Medicine shows that delays in verifying test results have led to underestimates of test accuracy. Researchers from Birmingham Women’s Hospital systematically reviewed all the published research on the accuracy of diagnostic tests for endometrial hyperplasia. They found that if researchers waited more than
This release is being distributed on behalf of Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, L.L.C.
It is one of man’s most common, underestimated sexual problems: Ejaculating earlier than desired. More common than erectile dysfunction, this condition can affect men at any point in their lives, and one in four men experience poor control over ejaculation on a frequent basis. According to published research, 20%-30% of men worldwide are commonly affected by premature ej
Researchers at the University of Warwick have for the first time been able to detail how and why specific neurons in the brain control the hunger response. They have revealed a set of pacemaker nerve cells in the brain that appear to underlie the drive to feed which itself feeds on a complex web of signals. The level of complexity they have found is such that the system could be much more at risk of serious repercussions from a single error in how those signals are processed than anyone had previousl
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