Children with cerebral palsy who are severely impaired showed significant improvement in their motor skills using a new experimental physical therapy regimen, said researchers at Georgetown University and University of Alabama at Birmingham. The study – the first randomized, controlled trial of its kind conducted on children – appears in the February 2 issue of the journal Pediatrics.
All treated children in this study outperformed the children in conventional therapy across all measures of
New findings may pave way for improved pain relief methods
Although physicians administer radiation therapy to relieve bone cancer pain in more than 100,000 patients each year in the United States, little is known about why the treatment works. Using an experimental radiation model, University of Minnesota Cancer Center researchers and colleagues have determined that radiation treatment may relieve pain by reducing bone tumor size and decreasing progression of cancer-induced bone dest
Antibiotics, antihistamines, alcohol use, tobacco use, untreated hypertension and multisystem autoimmune diseases are potential risk factors for a retinal disorder known as central serous chorioretinopathy. This is the conclusion of a study appearing in the February issue of Ophthalmology, the clinical journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Eye M.D. Association. Central serous chorioretinopathy, or CSCR, is a disorder in which retinal cells detach and atrophy, causing visual impairment
Détente, and a good fence, can be far more effective than all-out assault in the age-old war between man and microbe, University of Chicago researchers report in the February issue of Gastroenterology. By injecting a protective coating into the intestines to pacify bacteria there instead of relying on antibiotics to kill them, the scientists were able to protect mice from otherwise lethal infections.
The protective coating, a high-molecular-weight polyethylene glycol, protected mice who had
A previously unidentified protein on the surface of intestinal cells is giving Purdue University researchers clues on how to prevent disease
The scientists believe their results eventually could lead to a way to prevent food-borne Listeria monocytogenes infection, which has a 20 percent fatality rate, as well as other diseases. The study of the bacteria is reported in the February issue of the journal Infection and Immunity.
“This research reveals a detailed mechanism tha
A new portable system for analyzing the walking patterns of people with Parkinson’s disease has been developed by researchers in the US and Japan. The system, described in the Institute of Physics publication Journal of Neural Engineering, will help doctors monitor the progress of the disease in patients and so tailor their therapy and drug regime more accurately than previously possible.
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disorder of the central nervous system. Its symptoms inc
The butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker may be more famous, but the pharmacist, the engineer, and the doctor may be onto something big.
The latter group has combined resources and knowledge to create a novel way to deliver a new lung cancer treatment. The new system, which uses “nanoparticle cluster bombs,” has proven effective in treating cancerous lung cells in vitro (in a petri dish), it was reported today in the International Journal of Pharmaceuticals. The research tea
Women with breast cancer have fewer adverse effects from chemotherapy and less fatigue when using virtual reality as a distraction intervention during treatments, according to a study from the Duke University School of Nursing and Case Western Reserve Comprehensive Cancer Center.
In the study, published in the January 2004 issue of Oncology Nursing Forum, the researchers described how chemotherapy patients eased their fatigue and discomfort by solving a mystery, touring an art gallery or go
When recovering from a heart attack or stroke, the body must restore blood flow in order to resupply cells with oxygen. Ironically, the process of reoxygenation – so necessary for full recovery – also generates reactive oxygen species (ROS), molecules that induce apoptosis, or cellular death. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the University of Iowa have identified a biochemical strategy to block ROS – which effectively prevents cellular damage and death. Their
Birds were dying on an island off the coast of Florida, and people didn’t know why. A group of conservationists wondered if the culprit might be a pesticide sprayed into the air to wipe out mosquitoes. The explanation quickly came from an unlikely source in Wisconsin.
For several years, Warren Porter, a professor of zoology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been working with faculty and staff across campus to develop a computer model that could predict how animals, living on a
Careful study of changes in the genetic make-up of the SARS virus through the recent epidemic has allowed researchers from China and the University of Chicago to bolster the evidence for the animal origins of SARS and to chart three phases of the virus’s molecular evolution as it gradually adapted to human hosts, becoming more infectious over time.
The earliest phase involved cases that appeared to be independent and featured viral genomes identical to those found in animal hosts, the
Teenagers suffering from depression may have abnormal brain structure, according to new research. An article published in BMC Medicine this week shows that adolescents diagnosed with major depressive disorder tend to have a small hippocampus – a part of the brain associated with motivation, emotion, and memory formation.
Researchers from Dalhousie University and the National Research Council of Canada studied 34 adolescents between the ages of 13 to 18 years old, half of whom were suffering
Scientists have discovered just how a genetic defect disrupts the cellular “garbage disposal” of a cell, resulting in a horrific childhood disease that kills most patients before the age of 25.
For nine years researchers have known the precise genetic flaw that causes Batten disease. But understanding how a straightforward mistake in life’s blueprint translates to a disease that ravages roughly 1,000 children in the United States each year has been a challenge. Now, in a paper in the D
Older men with lower levels of free, or unbound, testosterone circulating in their bloodstreams could be at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) than their peers, according to new research. This prospective observational study is believed to be the first to associate low circulating blood levels of free testosterone with AD years before diagnosis.
The study appears in the January 27, 2004 issue of the journal Neurology. This work was conducted by investigators at the Natio
A retrospective analysis by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center published in The New England Journal of Medicine found no causal relationship between testosterone replacement and prostate cancer or heart disease risk.
The comprehensive review of 72 studies, addresses the current controversy about testosterone replacement therapy and its potential health risks to men.
“We reviewed decades of research and found no compelling evidence that testosterone replacement the
Operation time somewhat longer, but benefits seen
In the first-ever direct comparison of robot-assisted and traditional surgery for children’s heart defects, University of Michigan surgeons report that the robot’s help reduces patients’ recuperation time and surgery-related trauma and scarring, while extending the length of the operation by just over half an hour.
Their finding suggests that the minimally invasive surgical techniques made possible by the surge
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