Patients with diabetes who received a solitary pancreas transplant appeared to have worse survival than patients on the transplant waiting list who received conventional therapy, according to a study in the December 3 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

According to background information in the article, pancreatic transplantation is a therapeutic option for patients with complicated diabetes mellitus. The American Diabetes Association supports the procedure for

Doppler ultrasound performed in early pregnancy can accurately identify embryonic congestive heart failure and subsequent risk of miscarriage, according to research being presented today at the 89th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

“The chances the pregnancy will continue are very high, about 95 percent, when Doppler ultrasound confirms normal embryonic heart function at six weeks,” said the study’s author Jason C. Birnholz, M.

Comprehensive Approach to HIV/AIDS Treatment and Prevention – New AIDS Medicine and Diagnostics Service – Simple Treatment Regimens Published – Training Tens of Thousands of People to Support AIDS Treatment and Prevention

The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS today release a detailed and concrete plan to reach the 3 by 5 target of providing antiretroviral treatment to three million people living with AIDS in developing countries and those in transition by the end of 2005. T

While women with breast cancer who have used hormone-replacement therapy are known to have better survival odds than those who’ve never taken hormones, the advantage is due, most likely, to more-frequent mammography screening rather than the effect of the hormones on tumor biology, according to new findings by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

“Most of the good prognostic factors that have been ascribed to HRT – such as smaller tumor size and earlier cancer stage a

Deleting a particular ion channel from sperm cells causes those cells to lose the power needed for fertilization, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas found while expanding studies into male infertility.

These findings, which could eventually lead to more effective forms of contraception, are currently available online and will appear in the Dec. 9 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In studies on mice, disrupting a gene that contains a

A startling mutual-aid society is linking fungus and snails in marine ecosystems, according to a study led by a Brown University biologist. The study presents the first evidence that a species of marine snail engages in a previously undemonstrated form of food acquisition and ecological control by initiating and encouraging the growth of fungi, its preferred food, on live marsh grass. Infestation by fungi greatly slows the growth of the grass.

In surveys conducted along 2,000 kilometers of s

Discovery may have implications for stabilizing chromosomes in cancer cells

Overturning 60 years of scientific presumption, new evidence from Johns Hopkins scientists shows that enzymes nibble away at chromosomes when the chromosomes’ protective tips, called telomeres, get too short.

Much like the plastic tips on shoelaces, telomeres protect the ends of chromosomes. When telomeres get too short, cells usually die. If they don’t, the unprotected ends drag the chromo

Research published this week in BMC Psychiatry shows that people suffering from depression respond better to treatment if they have high levels of vitamin B12 in their blood

Researchers from the Kuopio University Hospital in Finland monitored 115 outpatients, suffering from depression, over a six-month period, and grouped them according to how well they responded to treatment: not at all; partially; or fully. By measuring the level of vitamin B12 in the patients’ blood when they fi

An artificial blood product developed by researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University is showing great promise in ongoing clinical trials in Stockholm, Sweden – the first time that a blood substitute has ever been used successfully in humans. The Einstein researchers – whose work is supported by $2.2 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Army — are also fine-tuning a powder version of the substitute that can be reconstituted for use as

Chemists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have produced a molecule that selectively kills cancerous cells in a desired way and leaves healthy cells virtually untouched.

While encouraging, the findings don’t mean a new treatment is imminent. The basic laboratory experiments were done in microtiter dishes, where the compound was simply exposed to leukemia and lymphoma cells and healthy white blood cells from mice.

“It’s hard to say where this discovery may

Three-dimensional computed tomography (CT) colonography, also known as virtual colonoscopy, is more sensitive and less invasive than conventional colonoscopy in screening average-risk patients, according to research presented today at the 89th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

The new technology allows radiologists to obtain 3-D images from different angles, providing a “movie” of the interior of the colon without having to insert a

The same health risks that make morbidly obese patients eligible for gastric bypass surgery also leave them susceptible to complications during and after the surgery, a study of 335 patients shows.

The patients all had Roux-en-Y gastric bypass at the University Hospitals of Cleveland from 1998 to 2002. Roux-en-Y is the most popular surgery in the treatment of severely obese patients to help weight loss. It involves stapling the upper stomach to create a small pouch that is then attached to

A new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology reduces brain-imaging time from 20 minutes to three minutes while maintaining accuracy and decreasing patient discomfort, according to early research results presented at the 89th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

“The three-minute head scan is as good as the 20-minute version, and in some instances better because stroke patients may be distressed and move around,” said study co-autho

Like junkies without drugs, mice without running wheels crave what they lack, suggesting that some animals can develop an addiction for exercise, report scientists in the Dec. 1 issue of the journal Behavioral Neuroscience.

We all know someone who can’t get enough exercise: the marathon runner who jogged 26 miles in all 50 states, the neighbor who speed walks at the crack of dawn or the cyclist who zooms by every Sunday. We might say these people are addicted to physical activity. But

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have successfully turned adult stem cells into bone and cartilage, forming the ball structure of a joint found in the human jaw with its characteristic shape and tissue composition.

Tested so far only in animals, the tissue-engineering procedure to create a human-shaped articular condyle could be used one day to regenerate the ball structure of joints in the jaw, knee and hip that have been lost to injury or diseases such as arthritis.

Scientists have discovered a new role for estrogen in maintaining health. Drs. Yuka Nagata and Kazuo Todokoro report in the December 1 issue of Genes & Development that the most abundant form of naturally occurring estrogen, estradiol, triggers the formation of blood platelet cells. This discovery has important clinical implications for the treatment of conditions associated with altered platelet counts, like anemia, certain leukemias, and even chemotherapy.

Blood is composed of 3 cell type