Researchers Create Model Of A Mammal Lung In 3D

Amidst the extraordinarily dense network of pathways in a mammal lung is a common destination. There, any road leads to a cul-de-sac of sorts called the pulmonary acinus. This place looks like a bunch of grapes attached to a stem (acinus means "berry" in Latin). Scientists have struggled to understand more specifically what happens in this microscopic, labyrinthine intersection of alleys and dead ends. To find out, a research team led by the University of Iowa created the most detailed, three-dimensional rendering of the pulmonary acinus...
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New Handheld Imaging Tool, A 3-D Medical Scanner For Primary Care Diagnosis

In the operating room, surgeons can see inside the human body in real time using advanced imaging techniques, but primary care physicians, the people who are on the front lines of diagnosing illnesses, haven't commonly had access to the same technology - until now...
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Population-Based Breast Cancer Screening Improved By Digital Mammography

New research from the Netherlands shows that the switch from screen film mammography (SFM) to digital mammography (DM) in large, population-based breast cancer screening programs improves the detection of life-threatening cancer without significantly increasing detection of clinically insignificant disease. Results of the study are published online in the journal Radiology...
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Epigenetic Changes Identified That Occur In Adult Stem Cells To Generate Different Tissues Of The Human Body

The team led by Manel Esteller, director of the Cancer Epigenetics and Biology Program in the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Professor of Genetics at the University of Barcelona and ICREA researcher, has identified epigenetic changes that occur in adult stem cells to generate different body tissues. The finding is published this week in The American Journal of Pathology. The genome of every single cell in the human body is the same, regardless of their appearance and function...
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50-Hour Whole Genome Test Could Reduce Deaths In Critically Ill Babies

Many babies requiring critical care have genetic diseases that can progress rapidly, and the sooner doctors can diagnose them, the sooner the infants get the treatment they need, which can often be life-saving. Currently it takes weeks to test just one gene, but US researchers reporting in Science Translational Medicine this week describe how they have developed a prototype whole genome sequencing test that only takes 50 hours from blood sample in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to doctors seeing the results...
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In Gene Expression, Length Matters

Gene ends communicate Human genomes harbour thousands of genes, each of which gives rise to proteins when it is active. But which inherent features of a gene determine its activity? Postdoctoral Scholar Pia Kjolhede Andersen and Senior Researcher Soren Lykke-Andersen from the Danish National Research Foundation's Centre for mRNP Biogenesis and Metabolism have now found that the distance between the gene start, termed the 'promoter', and the gene end, the 'terminator', is crucial for the activity of a protein-coding gene...
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Tenth Birthday Of Life-saving TAVI Heart Implant - UK Lags Behind Europe In Patient Use

Over the span of a lifetime, the human heart beats more than two billion times. With each beat, flexible valves within the heart's chambers open and shut to prevent blood flowing backwards. With advancing age these valves can start to fail; the opening can become narrowed or the valve may leak. Narrowing of the aortic valve - known as aortic stenosis - is one of the most common forms of heart disease...
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Study Examines Newly Proposed DSM-5 Criteria For Autism Spectrum Disorder

Parents should not worry that proposed changes to the medical criteria redefining a diagnosis of autism will leave their children excluded and deemed ineligible for psychiatric and medical care, says a team of researchers led by psychologists at Weill Cornell Medical College...
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NF1 Linked To More Than 25% Of Breast Cancers

Cancerous tumors contain hundreds of mutations, and finding these mutations that result in uncontrollable cell growth is like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. As difficult as this task is, it's exactly what a team of scientists from Cornell University, the University of North Carolina, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York have done for one type of breast cancer. In a report appearing in the journal GENETICS, researchers show that mutations in a gene called NF1 are prevalent in more than one-quarter of all noninheritable or spontaneous breast cancers...
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Rural Colon Cancer Patients Are More Likely To Receive Late-Stage Diagnosis And Inferior Treatment

Colon cancer patients living in rural areas are less likely to receive an early diagnosis, chemotherapy, or thorough surgical treatment when compared with patients living in urban areas. Rural residents are also more likely to die from their colon cancer than urban patients, according to new research findings from surgeons at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The study was presented at the American College of Surgeons 2012 Annual Clinical Congress...
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Study Sheds Light On Bone Marrow Stem Cell Therapy For Pancreatic Recovery

Researchers at Cedars-Sinai's Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute have found that a blood vessel-building gene boosts the ability of human bone marrow stem cells to sustain pancreatic recovery in a laboratory mouse model of insulin-dependent diabetes. The findings, published in a PLOS ONE article of the Public Library of Science, offer new insights on mechanisms involved in regeneration of insulin-producing cells and provide new evidence that a diabetic's own bone marrow one day may be a source of treatment...
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Elderly Patients With Colorectal, Bladder Cancers May Benefit From Advanced Surgical Approaches

Advanced surgical techniques such as robotic-assisted operations and minimally invasive surgical procedures may extend survival and improve recovery in octogenarians with bladder and colorectal cancers when compared with patients who undergo conventional open operations according to two new studies presented at the 2012 Annual Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons...
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Discovery Provides New Fundamental Knowledge About The Mechanisms Of Hearing

The sensory cells of the inner ear have tiny hairs called stereocilia that play a critical part in hearing. It has long been known that these stereocilia move sideways back and forth in a wave-like motion when stimulated by a sound wave. After having designed a microscope to observe these movements, a research team at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has discovered that the hairs not only move sideways but also change in length...
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Aspirin May Slow Brain Decline In Elderly Women With Heart Risk

Low dose aspirin may ward off cognitive decline in elderly women with a high risk of cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease and stroke, conclude researchers from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden who write about their five-year study in a paper published 3 October in the online journal BMJ Open...
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Phase IIb Data Show Investigational Once-Weekly DPP-4 Inhibitor MK-3102 Significantly Lowers Blood Sugar In Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

New data announced at the 48th European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) annual meeting show Merck Sharp & Dohme's (MSD) investigational once-weekly DPP-4 inhibitor significantly lowers blood sugar compared with placebo in patients with type 2 diabetes. The 12 week study also shows that treatment with MK-3102 is associated with an incidence of symptomatic hypoglycaemia similar to placebo, in patients with type 2 diabetes...
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The Immune System May Be Able To Boost Regeneration Of Peripheral Nerves

Modulating immune response to injury could accelerate the regeneration of severed peripheral nerves, a new study in an animal model has found. By altering activity of the macrophage cells that respond to injuries, researchers dramatically increased the rate at which nerve processes regrew. Influencing the macrophages immediately after injury may affect the whole cascade of biochemical events that occurs after nerve damage, potentially eliminating the need to directly stimulate the growth of axons using nerve growth factors...
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Hypertension During Pregnancy Linked To Low IQ In Offspring

High blood pressure in mothers while they are pregnant can lead to negative effects in her offspring's thinking skills which may carry through until they are much older, according to a study published online in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Katri R?¤ik?¶nen, PhD, from the University of Helsinki in Finland explained: "High blood pressure and related conditions such as preeclampsia complicate about 10 percent of all pregnancies and can affect a baby's environment in the womb...
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Type 2 Diabetes Patients Need More Individualized Care To Avoid Hypoglycemia, International Survey Warns

More than half of type 2 diabetes patients taking part in an international survey reported having had symptoms of hypoglycemia at least once, but only around one-third said they had discussed low blood sugar during routine check-ups with their physician. Researchers reporting the results at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) annual meeting (1-5 October 2012; Berlin, Germany) said the findings underline the need for individualised treatment and advice to take account of patients' lifestyle and risk factors...
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New Expandable Prosthetic Valves For Children With Congenital Heart Disease

Surgeons at Boston Children's Hospital have successfully implanted a modified version of a expandable prosthetic heart valve in several children with mitral valve disease. Unlike traditional prosthetic valves that have a fixed diameter, the expandable valve can be enlarged as a child grows, thus potentially avoiding the repeat valve replacement surgeries that are commonly required in a growing child. The new paradigm of expandable mitral valve replacement has potential to revolutionize care for infants and children with complex mitral valve disease. The surgical team, led by Sitaram M...
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Discovery That Spider Glue Is Tailored With Two Functions Will Likely Lead To Medical Applications

While the common house spider may be creepy, it also has been inspiring researchers to find new and better ways to develop adhesives for human applications such as wound healing and industrial-strength tape. Think about an adhesive suture strong enough to heal a fractured shoulder and that same adhesive designed with a light tackiness ideal for "ouch-free" bandages. University of Akron polymer scientists and biologists have discovered that this house spider - in order to more efficiently capture different types of prey - performs an uncommon feat...
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Cheap, Easy Solution For Paper-Based Diagnostics Offered By Sticky Paper

A current focus in global health research is to make medical tests that are not just cheap, but virtually free. One such strategy is to start with paper - one of humanity's oldest technologies - and build a device like a home-based pregnancy test that might work for malaria, diabetes or other diseases. A University of Washington bioengineer recently developed a way to make regular paper stick to medically interesting molecules. The work produced a chemical trick to make paper-based diagnostics using plain paper, the kind found at office supply stores around the world...
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Administrative Assistant Inspires Creation Of Trojan Horse Drug Therapy For Treating Breast Cancer

When Linda Tuttle was diagnosed with breast cancer, she never imagined her experience would inspire her colleagues to design new treatments to tackle the disease. An administrative assistant in the Department of Chemistry at Wake Forest University, Tuttle was more accustomed to talking to faculty and staff about meetings and course loads - not doctors' appointments and treatment plans...
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Excellent Interim Results Reported From Phase I/II Study With Anti-IL-6R Nanobody, ALX-0061, In Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Ablynx [Euronext Brussels: ABLX] has announced that its anti-IL-6R Nanobody, ALX-0061, met the efficacy endpoint of a significant improvement in key indicators of disease activity at the 12 week interim analysis of the Phase I/II study in patients with moderate to severe active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) on a stable background of methotrexate. Final 24 week results are expected in the first quarter of 2013. In this Phase I/II study, 37 RA patients were recruited to the multiple dose Phase II part...
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The Balance Between Fertility And Child Survival In The Developing World

Children in smaller families are only slightly more likely to survive childhood in high mortality environments, according to a new study of mothers and children in sub-Saharan Africa seeking to understand why women, even in the highest fertility populations in world, rarely give birth to more than eight children...
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The Nutrition Of HIV-Infected Africans' Improves When Antiretroviral Therapy Starts

Starting HIV-infected patients on antiretroviral therapy reduces food insecurity and improves physical health, thereby contributing to the disruption of a lethal syndemic, UCSF and Massachusetts General Hospital researchers have found in a study focused on sub-Saharan Africa. The study was published this week in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes...
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New Study Indicates Possible Usefulness Of IGF-1 In Alzheimer's Disease Treatment

Low serum levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) are associated with Alzheimer's Disease in men, but not women, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 are involved in longevity and could be beneficial to cognition, especially in Alzheimer's disease where experimental studies have shown that IGF-1 opposes the main pathological processes of Alzheimer's disease...
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Microbial Exposure Is Crucial To Regulating The Immune System But It Must Be The 'Right Kind Of Dirt'

A new scientific report from the International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene (IFH) dismantles the myth that the epidemic rise in allergies in recent years has happened because we're living in sterile homes and overdoing hygiene. But far from saying microbial exposure is not important, the report concludes that losing touch with microbial 'old friends' may be a fundamental factor underlying rises in an even wider array of serious diseases...
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Medication Use Twice As Likely For Overweight Kids

Overweight kids are significantly more likely to take prescription medications than their normal-weight peers, increasing the already expensive costs for treating childhood obesity, according to a new study by the University of Alberta. Over 2,000 Canadian children's medication use were analyzed from the 2007 through 2009 Canadian Health Measures Survey. The team of experts, from the School of Public Health, discovered that overweight and obese kids (ages 12 to 19) were 59% more likely to take prescription drugs than kids of average weight...
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Green Veggies Reduce The Risk Of Oral Cancer

The risk of developing mouth cancer can be reduced by consuming cruciferous vegetables at least once a week, suggests new research published in Annals of Oncology. Prior research has indicated that women who eat plenty of cruciferous vegetables have better breast cancer survival rates, when compared to those who do not. The current research supports the link between poor diet and mouth cancer, the British Dental Health Foundation explained, not eating healthy is a major risk factor for developing the disease...
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Circassia Initiates Pivotal Phase 3 ToleroMune® Trial In Cat Allergen-Induced Rhinoconjunctivitis

Circassia Ltd, a specialty biopharmaceutical company focused on allergy, has announced the start of a pivotal phase 3 trial of its investigational ToleroMune(R) cat allergy treatment for cat allergen-induced rhinoconjunctivitis...
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Restoring Sight Would Save Global Economy US$202 Billion Each Year

Governments could add billions of dollars to their economies annually by funding the provision of an eye examination and a pair of glasses to the estimated 703 million people globally that needed them in 2010 according to a new study published this week. The health economics study calculated that there would be a saving of US$202 billion annually to the global economy through a one-off investment of US$28 billion in human resource development and establishing and providing vision care for 5 years...
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Differences In Overall Health Of Latino-American Subgroups Revealed By Study

Despite a shared Latino heritage, there are significant differences in the overall health and the use of health-care services among Cuban-Americans, Mexican-Americans and Puerto Rican-Americans - even between men and women in the same subgroup - according to two recently published studies by Florida State University researchers. The authors, led by College of Social Work Professor and Associate Dean Amy L. Ai, evaluated the physical and behavioral health, as well as the health care service usage, of all three major Latino subgroups in the United States...
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Deprivation Linked To Maternal Mental Health

The issue of perinatal mental illness among women in deprived socio-economic groups is highlighted in the October edition of the British Journal of General Practice (BJGP). The BJGP article highlights a UK-wide study in which researchers studied more than 100,000 women with antenatal and postpartum depression and other mental health problems. They found that the poorest patients, particularly those aged over 35 years, were almost three times as likely to develop depression as women from affluent backgrounds...
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Kidney Failure And Heart Disease In Diabetic Patients May Be Affected By Race

Diabetes is among the ten leading causes of death in both white and African American patients, but the prevalence of diabetic complications are race-specific, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). "This study is one of only a few to assess whether there is a racial difference in the incidence of diabetic complications," said Gang Hu, MD, PhD, of Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and lead author of the study...
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Nonprescription Medication Abuse More Common Than Perceived

Nonprescription drugs are just as probable to cause poisoning as prescription drugs, a new study suggests. Published online in Springer's Journal of Medical Toxicology, Timothy Wiegand, M.D. from the University of Rochester Medical Center, and his colleagues analyzed data from the second annual report of the Toxicology Investigators Consortium (ToxIC). In 2010, ToxIC was established as a case registry, which serves as a real-time hub of present poisoning trends, and is used as an important research device in medical toxicology...
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Botox Can Help Overactive Bladder In Women

Botox (onabotulinum toxin-A) treatments administered to the bladder are just as likely to tackle urinary urgency incontinence problems in women as medications, and are 2 times as effective in eliminating symptoms completely, according to a recent study conducted by Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine (SSOM) and other experts from the National Institutes of Health network. This new report coincides with a 2011 trial, which suggested that botox had been approved to help urinary incontinence in patients with neurological conditions...
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NICE Recommends Lucentis® (Ranibizumab) For Some Patients With Visual Impairment Due To Diabetic Macular Oedema (VI-DMO) In Draft Guidance

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has today issued positive draft guidance on the use of ranibizumab for the treatment of VI-DMO, an eye condition which can occur in people with diabetes that causes blurred vision, severe vision loss and sometimes blindness[1],[2],[3]. This means that some patients (those with a retinal thickness of 400 micrometres or more), could soon benefit from a treatment which can potentially restore vision, prevent vision loss and sustain visual improvement[4]...
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Survey Of Clinicians: Majority Believe Electronic Exchange Of Health Information Will Have Positive Impact On Health Care

Survey results released today reveal that an overwhelming majority of clinicians believe that the electronic exchange of health information will have a positive impact on improving the quality of patient care, coordinating care, meeting the demands of new care models, and participating in third-party reporting and incentive programs...
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Hospitals Not Qualified To Treat Dementia Patients

According to nursing students in the UK, their placement hospitals do not have suitable environments to care for dementia patients. Additionally, certified nurses felt unable to give the proper care and somewhat out of touch with their patients. Students reported that nurses "saw the disease", rather than the patient, resulting in treatment without dignity and difficulties with basic care such as nutrition. The nursing students determined that the cultural and physical habitats of the hospitals were not equipped to care for people with dementia...
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New Evidence On Easing Inflammation Of Brain Cells For Alzheimer's Disease

New research proves the validity of one of the most promising approaches for combating Alzheimer's disease (AD) with medicines that treat not just some of the symptoms, but actually stop or prevent the disease itself, scientists are reporting. The study, in the journal ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters, also identifies a potential new oral drug that the scientists say could lead the way...
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New Approach That May Lead To Possible Cure For Myopia

Nearsightedness, or myopia, affects more than 40 percent of people in the U.S. and up to 90 percent of children in some parts of Asia. The problem begins in childhood and often progresses with age. Standard prescription lenses can correct the defocus but do not cure nearsightedness, and do not slow progression rates as children grow...
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Essential Updates On Evidence-Based Care In Periodontics And Implant Dentistry

What's the latest, research-supported best practice in periodontal care and implant dentistry? Dental specialists and generalists alike can read about it in the first of a new series from The Journal of Evidence-Based Dental Practice (JEBDP), the foremost publication of information about evidence-based dental practice, published by Elsevier. The inaugural edition of the Annual Report on Periodontal and Implant Treatment is now available, containing concise, authoritative reviews based on the evidence about practice-critical topics. Mark A...
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Telestroke Expanded To All Provinces Could Save Lives, Reduce Disability

Widespread use of telestroke - two-way audiovisual linkups between neurologists in stroke centres and emergency rooms in underserved and rural areas - would save lives, reduce disability and cut health-care costs in all parts of Canada, according to a major national report released at the Canadian Stroke Congress. However, despite repeated research that shows telestroke delivers quality stroke care to underserviced areas, few stroke patients in Canada are benefiting from this lifesaving service. "The case for telestroke is compelling and the need is urgent," says Dr...
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Mouse Model Of Debilitating Lung Disease Suggests Potential Treatment Regimen

LAM, short for pulmonary lymphangioleiomyomatosis, affects about 1 in 10,000 women of childbearing age and is characterized by proliferation of smooth muscle-like cells in the lung, destruction of lung tissue, and growth of lymphatic vessels. The disease manifests itself in a wide variety of ways, so it is sometimes difficult to diagnose and there is no cure. The disease is caused by inactivation of either of two genes, TSC1 or TSC2, but to date no animal model has been able to replicate the pathologic features those mutations produce in humans...
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Alternative For Regulating Heart Beat Offered By Innovative New Defibrillator

A new ground-breaking technology was recently used at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) where two cardiologists, Dr. David Birnie and Dr. Pablo Nery, implanted a new innovative leadless defibrillator, the subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator (S-ICD), to a 18 year-old patient. Under Health Canada's special access program, this was only the third time this new type of ICD had been implanted in Canada. Conventional defibrillators, known as transvenous defibrillators, are implanted with wires, called the leads, that snake through veins into the heart...
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Tumors Exploit Microflora And Immune Cells To Fuel Growth

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report the discovery of microbial-dependent mechanisms through which some cancers mount an inflammatory response that fuels their development and growth. The findings are published in the Advanced Online Edition of Nature. The association between chronic inflammation and tumor development has long been known from the early work of German pathologist Rudolph Virchow...
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Cheaper Malaria Treatment For The World's Poor As Chloroquine Makes Comeback

Malaria-drug monitoring over the past 30 years has shown that malaria parasites develop resistance to medicine, and the first signs of resistance to the newest drugs have just been observed. At the same time, resistance monitoring at the University of Copenhagen shows that the previously efficacious drug chloroquine is once again beginning to work against malaria. In time that will ensure cheaper treatment for the world's poor...
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More Access To Video-EEG May Improve Treatment For Epilepsy And Nonepileptic Seizures

Epileptic and psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) may look similar, but actually have different causes and treatments. Up to 20 percent of patients diagnosed with epilepsy actually have PNES, which are not treated by antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). According to a new study by Rhode Island Hospital researcher W. Curt LaFrance Jr., M.D., M.P.H., director of neuropsychiatry and behavioral neurology, increasing access to video electroencephalography (video-EEG) may aid in distinguishing between epilepsy and PNES...
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$430 Million False Billing Medicare Fraud, 91 People Charged

Ninety-one people from seven US cites have been charged with $430 million's worth of Medicare fraud, the Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder and Health announced today. People being charged include nurses, doctors and other certified health care professionals. They are accused of false billing and being involved in fraudulent schemes...
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Hospital Bedsores May Predict Patient Mortality

A new clinical study spearheaded by the dean of UCLA's School of Nursing has found a direct correlation between pressure ulcers - commonly known as bedsores - and patient mortality and increased hospitalization. The research is believed to be the first of its kind to use data directly from medical records to assess the impact of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers on Medicare patients at national and state levels...
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