Didn’t get your flu shot this season? A study published in the February 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases supports the efficacy of an adjunct to influenza vaccination.
Researchers examined the common influenza season scenario of a household in which a family member is infected with influenza virus. They found that when the family member with influenza was treated with the antiviral drug oseltamivir, post-exposure oseltamivir prophylaxis of all other family members significa
Statins and ACE inhibitors for peripheral arterial disease studied
The same drugs that help millions of heart patients can also aid people who have painful blockages in the blood vessels of their legs, new research from the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center shows.
Drugs called statins and ACE inhibitors can save those patients’ lives, or their limbs, if they take the medications before having a leg bypass operation, the study finds.
But the U-M rese
Incidental abnormalities detected in cancer patients by radiologists using positron emission tomography (PET) may signal new, unrelated malignancies, according to a study appearing in the February issue of the journal Radiology.
“The unexpected abnormalities we followed up on were significant,” said the study’s lead author, Harry Agress Jr., M.D., who is director of nuclear medicine at Hackensack University Medical Center’s PET center. “Approximately 71 percent of the lesions that
Kidney dialysis patients with higher cholesterol levels die at a lower rate than those with lower cholesterol levels, which is opposite of the general public. However, a study by researchers at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health determined that the lower mortality rate of those with higher cholesterol is likely due to the cholesterol-lowering effects of inflammation and malnutrition, two serious complications of kidney dialysis, and not a benefit of high cholesterol. The study is publ
Common and small mutation in the fragile X gene, once thought to have no health effects in male carriers, now linked to tremors, balance problems and dementia.
A team of researchers, led by physicians at the UC Davis M.I.N.D Institute, have discovered a new, progressive neurodegenerative disorder that predominantly affects men over age 50 and results in tremors, balance problems and dementia that become increasingly more severe with age.
A significant but currently unknown
C-reactive protein, already accepted as indicating a risk of heart disease, also participates in the process of atherosclerosis that narrows heart arteries, said a Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) researcher.
In a report that went online in the “rapid track” portion of the website of Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, today, Dr. Lawrence Chan, chief of the BCM division of diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism, and members of his laboratory said that when mice genet
When someone’s spinal cord is completely severed, brain signals can no longer reach the legs to tell the legs to walk.
A study in this month’s journal Spinal Cord shows that those who have suffered a spinal cord injury can generate muscle activity independent of brain signals. Dan Ferris, now an assistant professor of kinesiology at U-M, led the research as part of his post-doctorate work with Susan Harkema at University of California Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medi
The number of sigmoidoscopy examinations that fail to attain an adequate depth of insertion increases progressively along with advancing age in men and women, according to a new study by a researcher at the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC). In addition, the study found, women are up to twice as likely as men to have inadequate exams. The findings, which are based on reviews of thousands of records of sigmoidoscopies, suggest that a patient’s age and sex are important factors to consider
Artificial glass livers being developed at the University of Leeds could help those suffering from liver failure, and improve understanding of how the organ works, researchers believe.
Dr Peter Walker of mechanical engineering is leading Leeds’ contribution to a three-year £320,000 project that aims to replicate the geometry of the liver, using glass and liver cells.
“The liver is a very complex organ, which we still don’t fully understand,” said Dr Walker. “If we can mimic closely
Microscopic colitis is a newly discovered inflammatory intestinal disease that occurs in two different forms, lymphocytary colitis and collagenic colitis. Örebro University, Sweden, is on the cutting edge of research on these diseases, and Martin Olesen is one of first scientists in the country to write a dissertation on the subject, defending it at University Hospital, Örebro.
The disease is difficult to discover because the mucous lining of the intestine often looks perfect
It is known that previous pregnancy decreases the risk of breast cancer. But a new dissertation from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows that even brief pregnancies terminated prior to full term can have a certain preventive effect. The results could not confirm several earlier studies showing that the risk of developing breast cancer increases among individuals who have had an abortion.
It has long been known that pregnancy has a preventive effect against breast cance
The eradication of leprosy, one of the world’s oldest and most feared diseases, may be one step closer. An international research team lead by scientists from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) discovered that small changes in certain genes, the Parkin 2 gene and its neighbor, PACRG, result in an increased susceptibility to leprosy. Parkin 2 has also been shown to cause certain forms of Parkinson’s Disease, a common neuro-degenerative disease in developed countries.
In the most comprehensive study of how multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms change over time, Mayo Clinic researchers have found that less than half of patients studied developed worsening disability within 10 years. Their report appears in the current edition of the journal Neurology [Pittock SJ et al. (2004). Neurology 62:51-59].
Knowing how the symptoms of MS change over time provides good news for patients newly diagnosed with MS, who may feel the disease leads to inevitable and uniform dec
One of the newest tools in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease and stroke combines a 40-year-old imaging technique and liposomes, little globules of soluble fats and water that circulate naturally throughout the bloodstream.
The technique, developed by Northwestern University researcher David D. McPherson, M.D., and colleagues with a $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, uses ultrasound energy to create microbubbles inside specially treated liposomes a
A new vaccine formulation that utilizes an unusual protein derived from a bacterium that causes food poisoning — Listeria — could paradoxically be used to improve the safety and effectiveness of vaccines for a variety of viral diseases. These could include HIV, smallpox and influenza, according to researchers at the University of Michigan.
Conventional vaccine formulations typically use live or weakened viruses to boost the immune response. The Listeria formulation uses viral protein compon
High levels of estrogen may enhance the brain’s response to stress, making women more vulnerable to mental illnesses such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to a Yale study.
This finding may explain why stress-related mental illnesses occur at least twice as often in women as in men. It also may explain why the discrepancy in prevalence begins in women at puberty, continues through the childbearing years, and then declines in postmenopausal years, said B
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