’Extended’ criteria increase organ donations without compromising patient health
Using more liberal criteria to evaluate potential lung donors combined with aggressive donor management significantly increases the availability of potential lung donors, and ultimately decreases mortality of recipients on the waiting list, says a new study presented at CHEST 2003, the 69th annual international scientific assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP). The new study
Onset of coronary events occur within one week of aspirin withdrawal
Patients with coronary artery disease who stop taking aspirin may be at risk for developing withdrawal-related coronary events, says a new study presented at CHEST 2003, the 69th annual international scientific assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP). The study found that previously stable coronary patients experienced coronary events, including unstable angina and myocardial infarction (heart att
Smokers are nearly twice as likely to develop multiple sclerosis (MS) as people who have never smoked, according to a study published in the October 28 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The risk was increased for people whether they were smokers at the time they developed MS or were past smokers. “This is one more reason for young people to avoid smoking,” said study author Trond Riise, PhD, of the University of Bergen in Norway. “Hopef
Lowering blood pressure in the first 24 hours following a stroke can be harmful to recovery, according to a study published in the October 28 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A team in Brazil studied blood pressure in 115 stroke patients. The average blood pressure upon hospital admission was 160/94 mm Hg (mercury). Blood pressure dropped in all patients – either spontaneously or with medication – during the first 24 hours after stroke (the
A component of red wine, resveratrol, seems to damp down the inflammatory process in the progressive lung disease COPD, finds a small study in Thorax.
So effective was resveratrol in laboratory tests that the authors suggest that the compound could be developed to treat the disease.
COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) is irreversible and progressive. The lungs deteriorate, making it difficult, and eventually impossible, to breathe. Treatment is at best palliative. Smoking
Researchers in Germany are using a new combination treatment to first shrink and then kill liver tumors, according to a study appearing in the November issue of the journal Radiology.
The first part of the treatment, transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), is “a mixture of occlusion (closing off passages), reduction of the blood supply and chemotherapy to help decrease the size of the tumor,” said study author Thomas J. Vogl, M.D., chairman of the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional
Discovery opens doors to treating symptom that can cause the body to attack itself
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified a variant of the human gene for tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) as the cause for photosensitivity in lupus patients. This discovery, which was presented today at the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Rheumatology, will not only help in treating photosensitivity, but will also advance research on
In the first national study to examine survival among liver transplant patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), researchers found excellent five-year survival results, with a steady improvement over the last decade. Hepatocellular carcinoma, also known as hepatoma, or cancer of the liver, is a common cancer worldwide, with more than one million new cases diagnosed each year and a median life expectancy of six to nine months. Most hepatoma patients have cirrhosis, a risk factor of hepato
Cellular immunity amongst the elderly with non-hospital acquired pneumonia diminishes both quantitatively and qualitatively. Nevertheless, the cellular immunosupression detected in these patients is reversible and improves with time.
30% mortality
In the past few decades there has been a significant and progressive increase in the number of elderly people and so there is a greater number of illnesses such as pneumonia. The problem arises because pneumonia amongst the elderl
Scientists have developed a potential treatment for severe incontinence that means the millions of sufferers worldwide could one day throw away their incontinence pads.
University of Melbourne scientists, who developed the technique, have now licensed the intellectual property to Continence Control Systems International P/L (CCS), an Australian company created to commercialise the technology that will address a worldwide potential market of more than A$1 billion per year.
Ur
New findings hold potential for new AIDS prevention
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic have discovered a way that the mouth may prevent the contraction of HIV. The findings are reported in the October 28 issue of the international journal AIDS. The researchers also added that the findings hold potential for finding new ways of preventing AIDS and other infections in the body.
With the lining of the mouth constantly under attack by a barra
Cancer is a complex disease where multiple genetic and environmental factors contribute to risk. Its onset and progression depends on the combination of a series of genetic disruptions rather than on a single event. At a genetic level, it is not just presence or absence of a gene (or a mutated version of the gene) that causes disease, but as Pier Paolo Pandolfi and colleagues report, protein “dose”–that is, the level of remaining activity–also influences cancer progression.
Focusing on th
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed an easier and less expensive way to make sockets for prosthetic limbs.
The study’s principal investigator, Jack R. Engsberg, Ph.D., will receive the Howard R. Thranhardt Lecture Honorarium for this work and present preliminary findings at the National Assembly of the American Orthotic and Prosthetic Association at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 25, in Reno, Nev.
“What we’re doing is an entirel
How the same enzyme helps protect brain cells from the destruction of Alzheimer’s yet contributes to the blood vessel disease of diabetics is a puzzle Dr. Mario B. Marrero wants to solve.
“I call JAK2 the good, the bad and the ugly because its function depends on the cell type and where it acts,” says the biochemist at the Medical College of Georgia who wants to eliminate – or at least control – the “bad” and “ugly.”
JAK2, or janus kinase 2, is an enzyme found in all cells th
Results of 41,885 Patient Analysis Announced at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting
The disease modifying anti-rheumatic arthritis drug (DMARD), leflunomide does not have a higher risk of liver side effects than the traditional drug, but other newer DMARDs may, according to investigators at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center (MUHC). Their findings, presented today at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting, s
Breast cancer patients have a lower chance of long-term survival if they carry an inherited mutation in the BRCA1 gene, according to research published in Breast Cancer Research this week. However, the poor prognosis associated with the mutated gene is mitigated by chemotherapy.
The breast cancer susceptibility genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, were identified over eight years ago, but the best way of treating women who develop hereditary breast cancer associated with mutations in these genes is still
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