Patients who have recently undergone an operation experience less breathing problems after being given a cocktail of vitamins C and E. This is the conclusion reached by researchers from the Leiden University Medical Center following experiments with patients and healthy volunteers.
During the first two to three days after a major abdominal operation, most patients have frequent episodes of airway obstruction and hypoxaemia. This can lead to an increase in the heart rate and blood pressure, w
Raw garlic consumption may help limit the damage done to the heart after surgery because if its natural antioxidant properties, according to a new study published in BMC Pharmacology.
After a heart attack it is important to restore the flow of blood to the heart so that damage to the heart muscle can be minimised. However, the return of blood flow can paradoxically cause further damage, so called “ischemic-reperfusion injury, due to the release of free radicals. Free radicals cause oxidativ
Pilot project for stroke victims to begin this fall
A Queen’s neuroscientist’s invention to help understand the role of the brain in arm and leg movement will dramatically improve the assessment and rehabilitation of stroke and spinal cord victims. It will also help lay the groundwork for development of neural prostheses that can re-activate paralyzed limbs.
Dr. Stephen Scott’s unique mathematical model, combined with his new experimental device, KINARM (Kines
Another piece of the complex puzzle of how inflammation is involved in heart attacks and strokes has been discovered by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine.
Their findings demonstrate that C-reactive protein (CRP) binds to oxidized low density lipoprotein (LDL), implicating the interaction of CRP and oxidized LDL as a potential trigger for the cascade of events leading to atherosclerosis. This form of artery disease is characterized by the buildup
Scientists from the University of Edinburgh are using immune cells harvested from blood donors to help fight an unusual cancer which can affect transplant patients. And their findings, published recently in The Lancet show that the therapy has proved effective in a number of cases. The treatment proved successful last year in saving the life of a four-year-old boy from Birmingham, who developed the cancer— post-transplant lympho-proliferative disease— following a liver and bowel transplant.
The inflammatory myopathies comprise three different entities: polymyositis, inclusion body myositis and dermatomyositis. People in all age groups can be affected by major muscle weakness and pain, and show evidence of muscle fiber breakdown in the serum. Autoimmune pathogenetic mechanisms have been identified in each inflammatory myopathy, but the antigen(s) recognized by the autoreactive inflammatory cells and the factors eliciting the aberrant immune responses remain unknown. Currently, patients a
The week after Carlton Harris underwent a novel therapy at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center to destroy three cancerous liver tumors, he was back at the gym huffing, puffing, lifting and sweating. Not even a single stitch to show for his trouble, Harris wore only a small bandage to cover the three tiny holes — the size of a snake-bite — where wire probes entered his skin and literally burned away the cancerous tumors inside his liver.
So simple is the new procedure — called radiofrequ
A skin test can detect a tissue disorder that may increase the risk of intracranial aneurysm, which can lead to stroke, according to a pilot study published in the September Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers found defects in the structural matrix of skin tissue in 33 percent of study patients with intracranial aneurysms. Aneurysms are weakened sections of blood vessels that balloon out from the artery wall. When they rupture, they can cause a type of stroke known
Major breakthrough could lead to successful treatment of viral cancers, without side-effects. Yorkshire Cancer Research funded researchers at the University of York have made a major cancer breakthrough. Using a new technique called RNA interference, they have successfully killed human cervical cancer cells grown in culture without causing damage to healthy cells. The discovery could have major implications, potentially leading to the successful treatment of cancers caused by viral
New research findings by scientists in Germany* – soon to be published in The Royal Society`s Proceedings B journal – will be of major importance for HIV and AIDS treatment in the future. The findings provide estimates on the likely success of drugs which are currently in development and clarifies key factors of HIV dynamics that must be eliminated to pave the way for an efficient treatment of HIV/AIDS.
Using computer simulations to map the `predator-prey` dynamics between viruses and the im
Research yields another benefit to low-dose aspirin
The original miracle drug, aspirin, continues to surprise medical scientists. While studies have proven that aspirin can prevent a second heart attack by thinning the blood, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have shown that aspirin can also prevent heart attacks and stroke through an entirely different mechanism. Using laboratory models, the Penn researchers demonstrated that aspirin also lessens the
People are more likely to keep to their plans to exercise on non-work days than on work days. However, it is worry over one’s personal life rather than work-related worries that prevents people keeping to their plans. This is the finding of a study reported today, Thursday 5 September 2002, at the British Psychological Society Division of Health Psychology Annual Conference, Sheffield Hallam University, by psychologists Nicola Payne, Fiona Jones, and Peter Harris of Sheffield Hallam University.
Soap manufacturers and governments in developing countries will today be urged to join forces to promote handwashing with soap, and help to save a million lives a year.
While most households in the world have soap and water, very few use them together to wash their hands, especially not after cleaning up a dirty baby or going to the toilet. Yet recent research at the LSHTM has revealed that the simple act of washing your hands could almost halve the number of deaths from diarrhoeal diseases
Not much is known about how clustered cancer cells move, but it is important to understand how individual cancer cells break off from a cluster and spread throughout the human body. A research collaboration between the University of Wales College of Medicine and Kingston University * has lead to the development of a computational imaging technique that tracks the movement of individual cancer cells within cell clusters.
Dr Hoppe, a member of the research team from Kingston University, will
A Loughborough University research team, led by Professor Peter Smith and Vincent Crabtree, has developed a way of monitoring the blood flowing in human body tissue without actually touching the skin. This hands-free technique could one day be used to assess patients during surgery and monitor the healing of wounds or burns. Other applications include a remote heart rate monitor.
Speaking at the Photon02 Conference in Cardiff on Monday 2 September Mr Crabtree will explain how the team adapte
Insulin resistance, a condition commonly associated with the development of type 2 diabetes, is likely a major cause of kidney disease, or nephropathy, in people with type 1 diabetes, according to study results published by University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) researchers in the September issue of Kidney International, a journal of the International Society of Nephrology. “Kidney disease is a major lethal complication for people with diabetes, particularly those with type
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