Heart failure patients who are treated in accordance with established European guidelines do better than patients who are not, yet many doctors are still not adhering to the guidelines, according to pioneering research published today (Tuesday 3 May) in Europe’s leading cardiology journal, the European Heart Journal.

In the first large European study to look at the effect of prescribing practices on outcome in heart failure outpatients outside of a clinical trial[1], Professo

Every day, in thousands of busy pediatric medical offices, doctors and nurses routinely use a variety of questions to determine which of their young patients are at risk for exposure to second-hand smoke in their homes.

But these don’t always provide a clear enough picture of a young child’s environment. Questions can be ambiguous or misunderstood by the child’s caregiver, or the caregiver may be consciously or unconsciously less than accurate with their answers.

A rep

Den Trialog zwischen Betroffenen, Angehörigen und Behandelnden stärken, dies nennt Prof. Dr. Gaebel, Direktor der psychiatrischen Universitätsklinik Düsseldorf und Sprecher des Kompetenznetzes Schizophrenie, als Ziel der 3. Informationsbörse für Schizophrenie in Rostock.

400 Menschen, vor allem Betroffene und Angehörige, besuchten die Vorträge, Diskussionsrunden und Ausstellungen der ganztägigen Veranstaltung. Diese Resonanz übertraf die Erwartungen des Kompetenznetzes Schiz

Scientists may have found a way to dramatically slow organ transplant rejection by as much as several years.

That’s the promising implication of an animal study carried out by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the University of Florida (UF) published in today’s (May 2) issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The research team reported that they have identified the biological pathway of a potent molecule that cou

PegInterferon-alfa-2b with ribavirin shows promise

More than half of 61 children infected with chronic hepatitis C achieved a sustained viral response after treatment with peginterferon-alfa-2b and ribavirin, report the authors of a new study published in the May 2005 issue of Hepatology, the official journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., the journal is available online via Wiley InterScience at

With its doughy, carbohydrate-dense crust and high fat content, pizza can wreak havoc in people with diabetes. A Penn State Diabetes Center study suggests a slow and steady insulin-dosing pattern may best combat the glucose-raising effects of that common favorite food.

“Keeping glucose levels from jumping too high or dipping too low may help to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, which has been connected to erratic glucose levels in those with diabetes,” said Robert Ga

A long-standing paradigm in developmental biology has been that default neuralization (ie., the differentiation of dissociated ectodermal cells to neural cells in culture) is caused by the dilution and thereby suppression of BMP growth factor signaling.

Dr. Edward De Robertis and colleagues now show that, contrary to this traditional belief, BMP signaling is, in fact, sustained at comparable levels in dissociated ectodermal cells as in intact Xenopus embryos.

The researchers

Dr. Stephen Goff and colleagues have identified a novel retroviral resistance gene, called FEZ1, that can mediate a potent resistance to murine leukemia virus, as well as HIV-1, in cell culture.

The researchers found that the high level of FEZ1 expression in a specific laboratory rat cell line caused a significant block to retroviral infection – retroviruses were able to enter the host cells and synthesize the viral DNA, but were excluded from entering the host cell nucleus.

“W

The establishment of first polarity in the developing mammalian embryo is one of the most contentious topics in developmental biology today. Drs. Davor Solter and Takashi Hiiragi have new evidence to fuel the ongoing debate.

Using various techniques, including comprehensive time-lapse microscopy, the researchers showed compelling evidence for the absence of predetermined polarity in the mouse egg. Their findings are in contrast to those who feel that the site of sperm entry determines th

Severely obese children have lipoprotein profiles that signal early risk of cardiovascular disease and the metabolic syndrome, according to a study presented at the American Heart Association’s Sixth Annual Scientific Conference on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.

“The message is urgent about the importance of prevention of cardiovascular disease in childhood. Lifestyle modification with appropriate diet and exercise can reduce cardiovascular risk in children,

Columbia University/University of Iowa study suggests inflammation and other immune responses might trigger genetic cause of blindness in elderly

Age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the elderly, occurs when a common inherited gene variation is triggered, possibly by an infection, according to a new study led by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center and the University of Iowa, with an international research team.

The gene, kno

New theory contends that long-lived, quiescent retroelements are a major driving force in human genome evolution

Louisiana State University scientists in the Department of Biological Sciences have unraveled the details of a 25-million-year-old evolutionary process in the human genome. Specific DNA sequences that appear to have persisted in a latent state for long periods of time may not be simply lying dormant. Instead, the researchers say that these elements have played a c

Blocking the COX-1 enzyme – not COX-2 – might lead to a way to prevent and treat the most common and fatal form of ovarian cancer, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center reported this week.

The finding, that COX-1 inhibition slowed the growth of epithelial ovarian tumors in a mouse model of the disease, is surprising, said Sudhansu K. Dey, Ph.D., senior author of the paper and director of the Division of Reproductive and Developmental Biology in the Vanderbilt Depa

The chemotherapy drug motexafin gadolinium (brand name: Xcytrin, manufactured by Pharmacyclics, Inc.) works to thwart cancer cells by disrupting key enzymes involved in cellular metabolism, according to a team of researchers led by Joseph Hacia, Ph.D., assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

The cellular disruption results in increases in the amount of zinc available inside the cancer cells

Mayo Clinic researchers have identified defects in a second gene called RyR2 that causes malfunctions in the heart’s electrical system and contributes to what were previously unexplained drownings.

Mayo researchers first discovered defects in a gene that causes the heart’s electrical system to malfunction and described how it might cause a drowning of an otherwise healthy person and reported their findings in a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine

A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm shows that hundreds of genes in the thigh muscle are activated in regular cycle training. The study also reveals that great differences in training response may be due to the ability in some people to activate their genes much more forcefully. The study is published May 2 in FASEB Journal.

It is common knowledge that it is very dangerous to be inactive and that regular physical activity brings health, improves quality of life and extend