Women with a combined HIV/malaria infection more frequently experience complications during pregnancy than healthy women. This is revealed in research from Kenya. However, to their surprise the researchers established that HIV-infected mothers with a mild malaria infection less frequently transmit the HIV infection to their children than HIV-infected mothers without malaria.
In Kenya, the epidemiologists Annemieke van Eijk and John Ayisi investigated the interaction between HIV and malaria a
A headache is often regarded as an excuse for not having sexual intercourse, but neurologists in Germany have been conducting a trial to investigate the true nature of this condition. They found that men in their early 20s are more likely to get a sexual headache, delegates at the European Federation of Neurological Societies congress were told today (28 October).
Sexual headache occurs in up to one percent of the population who suffer from it at least once in their life. It is not caused b
A new generation of realistic models of the human body could give radiation scientists and medical workers a better view of how exposure to radiation affects different internal organs. These so-called “voxel phantoms” offer a new way to reveal the effects of radioactive particles that have been ingested or breathed in or otherwise entered the body. (The word “voxel” means volume element and is the three-dimensional equivalent of pixel).
Maria Zankl of the Institute of Radiation Protection in
Penn State engineers have developed a prototype for an ultrasound insulin delivery system that is about the size and weight of a matchbook that can be worn as a patch on the body.
Dr. Nadine Barrie Smith, assistant professor of bioengineering, says, “The new Penn State ultrasound patch, which operates in the same frequency range as the large commercially available sonic drug delivery devices, is about an inch-and-a-half by an inch-and-a-half in size and weighs less than an ounce. Commerciall
Non-high density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C) may help predict heart problems in people who have heart disease, according to a report in today’s Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Reducing low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol has long been the goal of medications and other cholesterol-lowering treatments. But researchers are finding that other lipoproteins appear to be involved in developing heart disease. These include some very low-density lipop
People who find it hard to lose all the weight they want or that their doctors recommend should take heart, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scientist says. New research suggests that losing even modest amounts of weight can pay off in better health.
The study showed for the first time that shedding excess pounds decreases activity of a key enzyme known to play a central role in high blood pressure, said Dr. Joyce Harp, associate professor of nutrition and medicine at the UNC s
When we feel pain in response to harmful stimuli it is the result of messages sent from pain sensors in the periphery of the body to the brain. These pain sensors – or nociceptors – often lie beneath the skin and detect and signal the presence of tissue-damaging stimuli or the existence of tissue damage. One particular nociceptor, vanilloid receptor-1 (VR1), relays sensory messages to the brain in response to thermal and painful chemical stimuli and is generally regarded as the major pain sensor.
Blood from human umbilical cords is a rich source of hematopoeitic stem cells, the progenitors that can reconstitute all of the different cell types in our blood, including oxygen-carrying red blood cells and white blood cells that are our major defense against infections. Cord blood contains a higher percentage of stem cells than adult bone marrow (another source of blood stem cells), and has several additional advantages: cord blood stem cells divide faster than stem cells from bone marrow and have
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have developed several drug candidates that show promise in animal studies in protecting the brain against sudden damage from stroke, with the potential for fighting chronic neurodegenerative conditions like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. The drugs, called p53 inhibitors, attack a key protein involved in nerve cell death and represent a new strategy for preserving brain function following sudden injury or chronic disease, according to t
The incidence of gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs), generally considered a rare sarcoma, is more than three times as high as previously believed, according to data presented in Nice at the 27th annual European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress. An accurate estimate of GIST incidence has been elusive because of diagnostic ambiguities, now largely resolved by modern immunohistochemistry.
The higher incidence of GIST – calculated at 16 per 1,000,000 people annually – is especi
Low levels of folic acid in plasma have been associated with an increased risk of miscarriage in a study published in Journal of the American Medical Association lately. On the other hand, no connection was found between high levels of folic acid and increased risk of miscarriage.
In the US folic acid is added to flour to prevent pregnant women from developing a deficit of folic acid. Previous studies have shown that both deficits and surpluses of folic acid can heighten the risk of miscarri
First line chemotherapy containing Taxol is an independent predictive factor for survival
New data presented for the first time today adds to existing evidence that Taxol? offers women with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) a 31% improvement in overall survival compared to standard treatment and a 33% chance of improved progression free survival, the largest improvements ever seen. The data collected from 640 patients treated in a consecutive series of studies between 1994 and 2001 als
The use of a small wireless capsule video device to detect bleeding in the small intestine is safe, well-tolerated, and more accurate than another common diagnostic approach according to a study presented at the 67th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology.
“The investigation of obscure gastrointestinal bleeding is often difficult due to limitations of conventional endoscopic studies in the detection of disorders in the small intestine,” said Ramona M. Lim, M.D
Researchers recommend testing symptomatic patients for the condition
Researchers at the University of Kansas Medical Center (Kansas City) urge physicians to consider adding fructose breath testing to their diagnostic strategy for patients with unexplained abdominal pain, gas, diarrhea, and intestinal rumbling or gurgling. The recent study’s results, presented at the 67th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology, indicate that fructose malabsorption oc
The genetically – inherited disease cystic fibrosis causes severe, unrelenting lung disease in children and adults worldwide. Approximately 1 in 2,500 infants are born with this disease and only half survive past 30 years of age.
Now, researchers from the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide have developed a novel system of gene therapy for lungs affected by cystic fibrosis, involving a natural compound found in our lungs which ’conditions’ lung airways to allow cells to take up the t
Onkologen in Italien haben nachgewiesen, dass eine strukturierte Einführung zur Bereitstellung von Gesundheitsinformationen für Krebspatienten wirklich ihr psychologisches und physisches Befinden verbessert und dass dieses Schema in jeder Krebsstation eingeführt werden sollte. Die Ergebnisse einer Studie mit 3.300 Patienten beim Test einer Methode zur Vermittlung von Gesundheitsinformationen für Krebspatienten wurden heute (20 Oktober 2002) beim Kongress der European Society for Medical Oncology in N
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