In a major study conducted at 20 centers in the United States and Europe, a bioartificial liver developed by researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center reduced mortality significantly among patients suffering from acute liver failure, the dramatic loss of liver function that can cause death in days or even hours. Study results are published in the May issue of Annals of Surgery.
This is the first large-scale, prospective, randomized, multi-center trial examining the effectiveness of any art
A simple, inexpensive blood test performed at birth to screen for immune disorders could dramatically increase the chance of survival for babies born with such potentially fatal disorders as severe combined immunodeficiency disease (SCID).
Physicians at Duke University Medical Center have performed stem cell transplants in 136 infants with SCID in the past 22 years. The survival rate for 38 infants receiving transplants in the first 3.5 months of life is 97 percent, but the rate drops to 69
The food and drink we consume have to pass strict quality control tests. Nevertheless, these precautions are not always sufficient, given that some foodstuffs still give rise to illness. In most cases, food poisoning is caused by micro-organisms. The salmonella bacteria is, without doubt, one of the better known ones. The University of the Basque Country (EHU) is developing a new system to detect salmonella with greater rapidity – within 24 hours.
Salmonella is quite a ubiquitous bacteria, f
Scientists identify two major risk factors for community-acquired skin infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in a report published in the May 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases: previous antibiotic use and a genetic predisposition.
S. aureus is a common bacterium found on human nasal mucous membranes and skin, and strains that are resistant to methicillin can cause disease. Until recently drug-resistant strains were considered to be acquired almo
Two largest organ transplant societies join forces to tackle problem of traditional and exotic infections in thoracic transplantation
Complications from infectious diseases, such as HIV and West Nile virus in heart and lung transplant patients, is the focus of a joint symposium at the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) 24th Annual Meeting held in San Francisco.
When demand for organs continually outstrips supply, offering transplants to patient
A booster dose of a substance already found in the body appears to be safe and non-toxic for the treatment of pancreatic cancer, and shows signs of arresting pancreatic cancer cell growth in patients, Penn State College of Medicine researchers report.
“Our previous laboratory and animal studies showed that opioid growth factor, called OGF, can markedly slow down the proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells,” said Ian S. Zagon, Ph.D., professor of neural and behavioral sciences, Penn State C
Coronary artery surgery performed “off-pump”, i.e., keeping the heart beating and not using the cardiopulmonary bypass machine, has similar outcomes after one year, and costs less, when compared to conventional coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) using cardiopulmonary bypass, according to a study in the April 21 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
To try to avoid some of the complications attributable to cardiopulmonary bypass, U.S. surgeons performed approxim
Health care professionals make contact with an average of 35 patients daily. If you calculate that the hand wash takes 2 minutes, including the time to find a basin, more than one hour of the work day is used for washing.
Hospital infections cost the world thousands of lives. An important cause is unclean hands. A new device will clean hands completely in a fraction of the time used for a typical hand washing.
The newly developed hand-wash device contains two main components: disinf
Utilising the same principle that lets a TV camera transform external images into electric signals, IST project OPTIVIP has tested an implantable visual prosthesis to stimulate the optic nerve and allow limited sight for certain sufferers of blindness.
The method used by the four-year project is based on the stimulation of the optic nerve by a cuff electrode. The prosthesis is operational only if the optic nerve is still healthy in spite of the complete blindness. For this reason, OPTIVIP h
Alternative hormones, doses and delivery systems not explored in WHI may exhibit
Low-dose transdermal hormone therapy (HT) remains a viable short-term alternative for women to treat debilitating menopausal symptoms, offer lipid protection and preserve bone health, despite the negative news about oral HT effects from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), according to a recent review of peer-reviewed medical studies by Mary Jane Minkin, M.D., of Yale University School of Medicine, i
In one of the first national surveys of dental hygienists about their knowledge and screening practices for oral cancers, researchers at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Dental Medicine found indications that while dental hygienists view screening for oral cancer an important component of their practice and possess comparable oral cancer knowledge with the general dentist in the private practice, they often do not carry out oral cancer screenings.
Oral cancer impacts people.
A Mayo Clinic discovery about a protein known as Dynamin-2 has thrown conventional wisdom for a loop. Finding the protein on the centrosome, a minute structure near a cell’s nucleus, may lead to new strategies for stopping cancer growth.
The Mayo team, already known for discovering several families of dynamins, this time discovered them — not on a membrane, as expected — but on the unlikely centrosome which has no membrane. It was the last place they expected to find them, but the surpris
Mayo Clinic researchers have found a way to revive immunity in mice that have abnormal or deficient immune systems. The discovery may lead to a means of restoring immunity to individuals with immunodeficiency diseases such as AIDS and cancer. Also, because the research involves an existing therapy, application may be possible in the near future.
The research team, led by Mayo Clinic immunologists Marilia Cascalho, M.D., Ph.D., and Jeffrey Platt, M.D., report in this month’s Journal of I
Ever since the AIDS epidemic began more than two decades ago, scientists have been trying to understand why as many as one-quarter of those infected with HIV develop dementia.
Now, researchers at Jefferson Medical College may have an answer.
Investigators led by virologist Roger J. Pomerantz, M.D., director of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Environmental Medicine at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, have shown that the virus produces
Tissue damage due to Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is reduced and lifespan lengthened in mouse models of the disease when a naturally occurring fibrous protein called fibrin is depleted from the body, according to researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine.
The study, reported online the week of April 19, 2004 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, identifies fibrin as a potential target for therapeutic intervention in the disease, which affe
A new study demonstrates that a protein called periostin promotes deadly spreading and late stage progression of colon cancer. The research results demonstrate that periostin promotes metastatic growth of colon cancer by activating signaling molecules that encourage cell survival and identify the protein as a potential therapeutic target for the control of colon cancer.
Colorectal cancer commonly metastasizes to the liver and is the second leading cause of death from cancer in the United St
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