A unique methodology that allows to control the form of cartilage tissues in the human organism has been developed by researchers of the Moscow Institute of Laser and Information Technologies Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences. A new methodology is based on strictly controllable heating of cartilages – for example, those of crooked nasal septum or injured intervertebral disks, – with the help of infrared laser radiation.

So far, the problem of crooked nasal septum has been solved only th

Scan finds problems often missed by other tests, helps high-risk patients get help early

A single 15-minute CT scan may be all it takes to find tiny cancers, stones and other problems in the kidneys, bladders and urinary tracts of high-risk patients — potentially saving them from many additional tests, and from delayed detection and treatment. And the detailed imaging scan can be done using modern CT (computed tomography) machines now found in many large hospitals.

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Today 200 scientists meet in Rome at the EU conference on “The Role of Research in Combating Antibiotic Resistance”. It was organised by the European Commission together with the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID). Antibiotics, once hailed as a panacea to combat bacterial infections, seem to be more and more ineffective. The human body is responding less and less to antibiotics. New, more dangerous diseases, stubbornly resisting their power, are developing. The

A breakthrough in the fight against infections acquired in hospital could be achieved thanks to pioneering new research.

The project is investigating the use of ionisers to eradicate airborne infections in hospitals – a technique that could deliver major health benefits and financial savings.

Starting in December, the 3-year initiative will be carried out by engineers at the University of Leeds with funding from the Swindon-based Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (

Many drugs cannot be administered orally since they cannot be taken up by the intestines. All attempts to solve this problem have thus far resulted in unacceptable risks of side-effects, mainly because the intestinal wall is so severely impacted that not only the drug but other substances, including toxins, can be absorbed. Now a team of scientists from Uppsala University in Sweden have made a major discovery that may solve the problem.

The intestinal wall functions as an effective obstacle

A genetic pathway whose activity was suspected to advance heart disease by increasing inflammation in the blood vessels and arteries feeding the heart may actually protect against it at least in laboratory mice, reports a team of Rockefeller University scientists led by Jan Breslow, M.D., in the Nov. 25 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Rockefeller scientists’ findings that blocking the NFkB pathway actually contributes to heart disease in the lab animals, o

Aspirin and blood pressure lowering drugs can prevent heart disease at a fraction of the cost of cholesterol lowering drugs (statins) and clopidogrel (an anti-clotting drug), finds a study in this week’s BMJ.

Estimates of cost and effectiveness were obtained for aspirin, antihypertensive drugs, statins and clopidogrel. Cost per coronary event was calculated for treatments individually and in combination for patients at various levels of risk.

The most cost effective preventive treat

Any older athlete can attest that aging muscles don’t heal as fast as youthful ones. Now researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine have found a molecular link between older muscles and slow healing. This work could lead to ways of preventing atrophy from immobilization, space flight or simply due to aging.

“What you really want to do is maintain the youthfulness of the regeneration pathway,” said Thomas Rando, MD, PhD, associate professor of neurology and neurological scien

Fair-skinned people – who traditionally burn the most in the sun – benefited most from an anti-sunburn drug which has finished Phase II human trials, the Professor of Dermatology at Sydney University said today.

Professor Ross Barnetson – a world authority in the field of photobiology, ultraviolet skin damage and the immunology of skin tumours – ran the Phase II human trials at Sydney University, alongside a concurrent trial at Royal Adelaide Hospital. Eighty volunteers took part in the tri

Global AIDS epidemic shows no sign of abating; highest number of HIV infections and deaths ever. Rapid Increases in Newer HIV Epidemics in Asia and Eastern Europe.

Despite Improvements, Current Prevention and Care Efforts are Inadequate

The global AIDS epidemic shows no signs of abating. Five million people became infected with HIV worldwide and 3 million died this year alone – the highest ever. The findings are featured in “AIDS Epidemic Update 2003,” a comprehensive new

Researchers from Germany have identified a gene that is associated with an increased risk of suffering from skin cancer. The research, published this month in Journal of Carcinogenesis, could also explain why men are more likely to suffer from malignant melanoma than women.

Although most people associate melanoma with exposure to UV light, through excessive sunbathing for example, the disease can be inherited – indicating that faulty genes are also partly to blame. Genetic risk factors also

Results of a national clinical trial confirm that simultaneous treatment with chemotherapy and radiation preserves the voice of patients with advanced larynx cancer without compromising survival rates. The findings, reported in the November 27, 2003 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine are compelling enough to have the combination treatment become the standard of care for such patients, the study’s authors report.

“Chemotherapy and radiation together are recommended for advance

Low doses of inhaled nitric oxide can decrease the risk of chronic lung disease and death by nearly one-fourth in premature infants who have respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), report researchers from the University of Chicago in the Nov. 27, 2003, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Nitric oxide also can cut the risk of severe bleeding into the brain and loss of brain tissue – devastating complications of prematurity – by almost half.

The combination of prematurity and

Millions of men stand to benefit from new method of treatment for enlarged prostate

Millions of men stand to benefit from a discovery by UCL scientists that could provide a breakthrough in the treatment of enlargement of the prostate (BPH). The UCL team has developed a new drug, Rho-kinase inhibitor that, in preliminary tests, has been found to treat the condition by both relaxing the prostate and stopping the growth of cells within it. Their findings are set out in the current issue

Today 200 scientists meet in Rome at the EU conference on “The Role of Research in Combating Antibiotic Resistance”. It was organised by the European Commission together with the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID).

Antibiotics, once hailed as a panacea to combat bacterial infections, seem to be more and more ineffective. The human body is responding less and less to antibiotics. New, more dangerous diseases, stubbornly resisting their power, are devel

Despite widely publicized reports about the sheep, Dolly and Polly, cloning is still not considered successful in the scientific community. Only two percent of clones succeed and they are sometimes unhealthy. To understand exactly where cloning goes wrong, researchers at Temple University School of Medicine (TUSM) examined and compared the earliest stages of development in normal embryos and cloned embryos.

“First, we mapped out some of the early steps an egg and sperm take to become an embr