University of Michigan dentistry student Sara Kellogg believes dentists could save lives simply by taking a few minutes to measure the blood pressure of every patient.

This isn’t just the opinion of one dentist-to-be. Kellogg has data to back it up. In an article in the Sept. 10 issue of the Journal of Dental Education, Kellogg reports that after reviewing the records of patients treated at U-M School of Dentistry clinics in 1999, she found about one third had high blood pressure. M

Vaccination supplies can be rendered useless if their temperature rises above the permitted maximum. MEDICASE has developed an intelligent transit box which ensures tight temperature control and which has a built-in data logger to provide a temperature audit trail.

Research shows that a surprising proportion of medical supplies and samples become damaged during transit. This represents a serious problem both for supplier and end users. A customer recently received a consignment of va

A series of experiments reported on this week in the journal Science shows for the first time that novel biosensor dyes can directly reveal activation of proteins in individual living cells.

The research, led by Dr. Klaus M. Hahn, professor of pharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Medicine, demonstrated that at least one of the dyes Hahn developed makes it possible to dramatically visualize the changing activation and intracellular location

Mosquito abatement usually means one thing: blasting the pesky critters with pesticides. Those pesticides, although highly effective, can impair other organisms in the environment.

Que Lan, insect physiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her colleagues in the entomology department are working on a new, more targeted approach to mosquito control: inhibiting their ability to metabolize cholesterol.

Cholesterol, the sticky substance that accumulates on the lini

Researchers have developed a new genetic test that can help predict whether parents who have one child with the “isolated” form of cleft lip or palate are likely to have a second child with the same birth defect. Isolated clefts account for 70 percent of all cleft lip and palate cases.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences provided funding for the st

For many years scientists have believed they understood how closely related species that occupy the same regions of the ocean were kept from interbreeding. It turns out they were only seeing part of the picture.

New research from the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories shows that common assumptions about sea urchin reproduction don’t hold true for all species of the invertebrate creature. The work could lead to better understanding of fertilization among mammals,

There may be new treatments for stroke, migraine, Alzheimer’s and other brain disorders, thanks to the discovery of a mechanism for regulating brain blood flow made by researchers at the University of British Columbia.

Scientists found that astrocytes — cells that surround nerve cells and all blood vessels in the brain — have a primary role in regulating blood flow within the brain, and hold promise as a target for new therapies. The findings of the two-year study funded by the Ca

A large number of diseases − including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and mad cow disease − are the result of proteins that erroneously assume the wrong shape, causing them to stick to each other. This phenomenon is perceptible, but up to now it has been difficult to predict. Researchers from the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) at the Free University of Brussels (VUB), in collaboration with a German research group, have developed TANGO − a

SCI (Society of Chemical Industry) has named Dr Gordon E. Moore, Chairman Emeritus of Intel Corporation, as winner of the 2004 Perkin Medal. Moore will receive the award at the 98th annual Perkin Medal Award Dinner on September 14 in Philadelphia, USA.

Moore predicted the industry’s ability to exponentially increase the amount of transistors that could be placed on a silicon chip and open the doors for semiconductor chips to become the lowest cost and most efficient method for deliv

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have made a breakthrough by using supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) as a reaction medium for the preparation of molecules of interest to the pharmaceutical industry.

Many industries throughout the world have begun using the non-toxic, environmentally friendly scCO2 as a solvent, replacing harsher volatile organic solvents, such as chlorinated hydrocarbons and chlorofluorocarbons. Until no

Pioneering research on leukaemia cells can have identified their vulnerable spot. This new knowledge can now be used to produce more effective medicines.

A group of scientists at the University of Bergen and Haukeland University Hospital made a surprising discovery when they stimulated leukaemia cells with the growth hormone GM-CSF. The reaction of the cells surprised everyone and would seem to indicate that scientists in Bergen have uncovered a new biological principle and conseque

The PSA test, commonly used as a screening tool for detecting prostate cancer, is now all but useless for predicting prostate cancer risk, according to Stanford University School of Medicine researchers. A study of prostate tissues collected over 20 years – from the time it first became standard to remove prostates in response to high PSA levels to the present – reveals that as a screen, the test now indicates nothing more than the size of the prostate gland.

“The PSA era is over

Therapeutic approaches in childhood IBD using growth hormone could promote growth and intestinal healing

Children with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) frequently experience problems with poor and delayed growth and intestinal bleeding. This in part is due to impaired actions of growth hormone, a naturally occurring compound that normally acts to promote both growth and healing.

About 10%, or 100,000 of the estimated 1 million Americans who suffer from IBD (either Croh

A new study finds most women now follow the recommendation to receive their first screening mammogram at age 40, but there is widespread failure to return promptly for subsequent exams and several sub-populations of women still are not being screened by the recommended age. The authors say their findings, published September 13, 2004 in the online edition of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, suggest there is little to be gained from population-wide efforts to encourage

People who survive cancer are less likely to receive necessary care for a wide range of other non-cancer-related medical problems according to a new study published September 13, 2004 in the online edition of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The study suggests that a history of cancer may cause health care providers to ignore other chronic medical ailments, such as heart disease, heart failure, diabetes, and lung disease. The abstract of this article will be freely acc

Current methods of delivering health care to kids are woefully unable to cope with a pediatric disease pendulum that has swung from acute to chronic illnesses, says a researcher at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. In addition, some of the most effective clinical advances for children may increase the disparity between children teetering on the bottom rung of the social and economic ladder and their more fortunate peers.

“There&#