Differentiated thyroid cancer, the most common form of thyroid cancer, is one of the success stories in the war on cancer. Since the advent of radioiodine therapy, it has been considered one of the most curable cancers. On the downside, current treatment involves taking patients off their thyroid medication. This can lead to serious side effects including symptoms of hypothyroidism, an unbalanced metabolic state that can induce fatigue, depression, and other unpleasant conditions.

B

It is estimated that some 37 million Americans suffer from allergic rhinitis and sinusitis each year. Many do not seek treatment; most find relief through prescription and over-the-counter medications. A minority of this population comes to the conclusion that medication is not a solution and seeks relief through endoscopic surgery. But the relief from sinusitis may have a cost – the quality of the voice.

A great voice has great resonance, affected by the body’s supraglottic area, pha

Wasabi, (Wasabia japonica) is commonly known as the Japanese horseradish used to enhance the enjoyment of sushi. This spice is a member of the Cruciferae family of plants; its rhizome, the creeping underground stem, is ground into a green paste and used as a condiment. Oral ingestion of wasabi causes a transient burning sensation in the nose, and there is a widely held notion that this produces a decongestant effect. This conclusion is anecdotal, because there have been no scientific studies to p

Some 37 million Americans suffer from sinusitis; some of those patients are unfortunate enough to also have asthma, an inflammatory disease of the lungs characterized by reversible airway obstruction. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that more than 15 million Americans have this disorder. The association between asthma and rhinosinusitis has long been established. While this relationship is unclear, molecular research is now focusing on whether asthma and rhinosinusitis are likely

A preliminary study indicates that BOTOX® injections may ease the irritation of tinnitus, otherwise know as ringing in the ears, for some patients. Researchers say more study is needed, but initial results are promising.

Tinnitus, or the presence of noises (ringing, whistling, hissing, roaring, booming) in the ears, is a common complaint affecting an estimated 10-20 percent of the general population. Chronic, persistent tinnitus can affect one’s ability to work, engage in social

New data presented today at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology confirm that specialized oral appliances are a viable option to counter the devastating effects of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and new FDA-approved technologies for home-based sleep studies are a valuable tool to diagnose and assess the effectiveness of the therapy.

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a disorder characterized by repeated episodes of reductions or cessation in breathing du

Using an animal model, investigators find that Mitomycin C, a common chemotherapy agent, offers limited benefit in reducing keloid or hypertrophic scars.

The tendency for extreme scarring is one reason many African Americans avoid plastic surgery and other surgical incisions. Though surgeons continue to develop less invasive techniques that minimize scarring, other options are needed to help these individuals who are prone to developing keloid scars.

Keloid scars are cause

WHO/WHAT:
The University of Illinois at Chicago unveils its 9.4-tesla MRI scanner, capable of revealing not just the anatomy but metabolism within the human brain. The scanner is the most powerful magnetic resonance imaging machine in the world for human studies.

WHEN:
Tuesday, Sept. 21
Ribbon-cutting ceremony: 10:30 a.m.
Media tour of MRI facility: 11:00 a.m.

WHERE:
UIC Center for Magnetic Resonance Research
1801 W. Taylor St.
Chicago, Illinois

Maggie Hart, a South Dakota School of Mines and Technology paleontology student, recently found a rare, beaked whale that washed ashore on St. Catherine’s Island off the coast of Georgia.

At the time of her discovery in late July, Hart, a master’s degree candidate from Brea, Calif., was working on the St. Catherine’s Island Sea Turtle Conservation Program. In her studies of sea turtles, Hart is collaborating with Mike Knell of Council Bluffs, Iowa. Knell also is a Te

Mayo Clinic researchers have used a comparative genomic strategy to demonstrate a causative link between eosinophils, a rare type of white blood cell, and asthma. Their research shows that the presence of these unique blood cells is absolutely required for the development of asthma. The details of this animal-based study appear in the Sept. 17, 2004, issue of Science, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

For more than a century, scientists

A new study by researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center sheds light on the key mechanisms by which new pancreatic beta cells normally form in response to insulin resistance. These findings may some day help researchers devise ways of staving off full-blown diabetes.

Insulin resistance is a condition in which the body needs increasing amounts of insulin to function properly, including keeping blood glucose levels in the normal range. It is a major contributor to type 2 diabetes, obesi

The way that HIV disables the body’s natural defences against retroviruses is not as well understood as recent studies suggest, according to new research published in the Open Access journal Retrovirology. Klaus Strebel and his colleagues from NIH found that the HIV encoded Vif protein does not need to destroy the enzyme APOBEC3G within infected cells to disable it. This latest finding has serious implications for the design of antivirals to fight HIV.

APOBEC3G is one of the most

Multidisciplinary teams to study animal movement, genetic links to outside world

How exactly do animals move? How do organisms adapt to newly acquired genes? What genetic forces draw members of an ecological community together? And does social behavior originate in nature, nurture or both? To tackle these and other major questions in biology, the National Science Foundation (NSF) today announced six new awards totaling nearly $30 million over five years from its Frontiers in Integrat

Results of a randomised trial in this week’s issue of THE LANCET suggest that a more aggressive approach involving coronary angioplasty soon after anti-clotting medical therapy is safe and could offer a better prognosis than more conservative treatment for patients who have had heart attack.

Medical therapy to reduce blood clotting (fibrinolysis) is widely used to treat people after heart attack. Coronary angioplasty is also effective for patients with heart attack, although the ti

Research funded by the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation focuses on 108 genes

The study, involving the seven Consortium laboratories, characterized the changes in gene expression at the site of, as well as above and below, a moderate contusion injury in rats. The project involved 108 GeneChips and looked at four time points, spanning from three hours after injury to a more “chronic” state 35 days later. The data analysis produced a spatial and temporal profile of spinal cord in

Severe infections with Group A streptococci, sometimes called “flesh-eating killer bacteria,” are considerably more common than expected in many countries. In an EU project covering 11 countries, headed by Lund University in Sweden, it was calculated that some 1,000 cases would be found over an initial 1½-year period. Fully 5,000 were identified.

Group A streptococci, GAS, can sometimes occur in the throat without the carrier noticing anything. In other cases, the bacteria can cause