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New study points to heart disease risk factor in menopausal women that could be caught early.

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In a landmark trial, researchers have demonstrated that when treating children between 9 and 23 months of age with antibiotics for ear infections, a shortened course has worse clinical outcomes without reducing the risk of antibiotic resistance or adverse events.

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The chronic lung inflammation that is a hallmark of cystic fibrosis, has, for the first time, been linked to a new class of bacterial enzymes that hijack the patient’s immune response and prevent the body from calling off runaway inflammation, according to a laboratory investigation led by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

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People living with serious illness who receive palliative care have better quality of life.

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A multidisciplinary international team of scientists solved the mystery of a recently discovered type of controlled cell death, mapping the path to potential therapies for conditions ranging from radiation injury to cancer. The study, led in part by the University of Pittsburgh, is reported today in two papers in Nature Chemical Biology.

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Specific brain regions, including those involved in awareness of self and tendency to ruminate, show altered activity in patients with insomnia when compared to good sleepers, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine published this week in the journal SLEEP.

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A study led by researchers from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Pitt Department of Psychology has identified a possible link between adolescent sleep habits and early substance abuse. The study, published today in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, found that both sleep duration and sleep quality during late childhood predict alcohol and cannabis use later in adolescence.

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Watercress extract taken multiple times a day significantly inhibits the activation of a tobacco-derived carcinogen in cigarette smokers, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI), partner with UPMC CancerCenter, demonstrated in a phase II clinical trial presented today at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

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In the three years following bariatric surgery, the majority of patients experienced an improvement in pain and walking ability, as well as a lessening of the degree to which back or leg pain interfered with work, according a University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health-led analysis of a multi-site clinical study published today (April 5) in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Magee-Womens Research Institute (MWRI) have devised a cell-based model of the human placenta that could help explain how pathogens that cause birth defects, such as Zika virus, cross from mother to unborn child. The findings were published today in Science Advances.

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Bone marrow-derived cells give rise to fully functional liver cells, states a University of Pittsburgh study published May 14 in Science, yielding the first report that bone marrow-derived cells provide a lineage for cells of solid organs.

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Changes in levels of LDLc from pre- to post-menopausal examinations are less good at predicting coronary artery disease in post-menopausal women than measures taken pre-menopausally at age 47, the University of Pittsburgh reports.

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Using electron beam computed tomography (EBCT) to visualize early heart disease, a University of Pittsburgh team has found that pre-menopausal risk factors strongly predict which women will develop coronary artery disease five to eight years after menopause. This report is being presented March 26 at the Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention in Orlando, Fla.

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A University of Pittsburgh research team is reporting March 25, at the 39th annual conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention in Orlando, Fla. that HbA1 predicts coronary artery disease deaths in women with Type 1 diabetes, but not in men with this disease.

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Electron beam computed tomography could help identify older adults with heart disease who otherwise appear healthy when evaluated using standard non-invasive ways, according to a University of Pittsburgh report.

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Using a patented gene vector developed by the University of Pittsburgh, a University of South Carolina-led team is the first to show that gene therapy blocks certain pain responses in animals, they published in the March 16 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Results of a study published in the February 16 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine suggest that in the near future a simple blood test to detect levels of sex hormones could predict which women are at the highest risk of developing breast cancer.

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Simultaneous infusion of donor bone marrow at the time of lung transplantation significantly reduced the incidence of obliterative bronchiolitis, the telltale marker for chronic rejection that prevents air exchange in the lung's bronchioles, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh report at the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Annual Meeting.

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Highlights of clinical findings being presented by University of Pittsburgh Medical Center researchers at the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Thirty-Fifth Annual Meeting Jan. 25-27, in San Antonio.

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Although it is widely believed that lungs cannot safely be preserved beyond four to six hours until transplanted, a review of more than 350 cases at the University of Pittsburgh suggests otherwise. Results are being reported at the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Annual Meeting.

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Researchers now can definitively predict which women in their 40s and 50s without clinical signs of atherosclerosis will inevitably develop life-threatening heart disease. Presented at the American Heart Association meeting, the University of Pittsburgh study will help physicians determine which women should receive aggressive therapy to avoid heart attack and stroke.

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An influx of calcium into mitochondria triggers the death of neurons exposed to glutamate, which proves toxic when overproduced in traumatic brain injury and stroke. This finding, by University of Pittsburgh scientists, is in the Sept. issue of Nature Neuroscience.

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Genetically altered dendritic cells could significantly improve the body's acceptance of a transplanted organ, according to University of Pittsburgh researchers in reports made at the 17th World Congress of the Transplantation Society held July 12-17 in Montreal.

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On June 23, 1998, doctors at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) performed the world's first cell transplant to reverse brain damage from stroke on a 62-year old woman with paralysis of the right leg and arm and loss of most speech.

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Physicians at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) are evaluating the use of LBS-Neurons in the world's first clinical human neuron transplant into a patient's brain. This is the first effort to treat stroke patients with an intracerebral graft of cells.

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Findings that tissue levels of two proteins correlate closely with the prognosis of head and neck cancer may significantly alter the detection, staging and treatment of this disease, according to a scientific article published in the June 3 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

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Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh have discovered how a novel form of vitamin K exerts its cancer-killing effects in primary liver cancers, which are notoriously resistant to chemotherapy. The research results, published in the May issue of The Journal of Biological Chemistry, describe an important new way to treat, and possibly prevent, cancer by triggering programmed cell death.

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University of Pittsburgh researchers have made the unprecedented and totally unexpected finding that localized gene therapy for arthritis produces healing effects on distant joints affected with the disease. Results of this landmark study, conducted in a rabbit model of rheumatoid arthritis, appear in the April 15 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It is a major advance in the quest to bring arthritis gene therapy into widespread clinical use.

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University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute researchers are reporting at the annual American Association for Cancer Research meeting in New Orleans that they have found the first specific marker that distinguishes tissues from individuals with bladder cancer from those without disease and that can be easily isolated from urine.

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Certain mothers who smoke while pregnant are at high risk of passing along genetic damage to their babies, according to study results presented by University of Pittsburgh scientists on Tuesday, March 31, at the annual American Association for Cancer Research meeting in New Orleans.

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At the annual American Association of Cancer Research meeting in New Orleans, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute researchers are presenting exciting evidence from animal models that blocking two cellular growth pathways causes tumor cells to die.

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A naturally produced enzyme, bleomycin hydrolase, whose only known function is to detoxify a widely used cancer agent, has now been linked to a four-fold increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, according to an article by University of Pittsburgh researchers in the March issue of Nature Genetics.

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A steroid drug enhances the ability of a vitamin D analogue to kill cancer in animals while reducing a lifethreatening buildup of blood calcium associated with this treatment, according to University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute researchers, who are now using a steroid with 1,25-D3 to treat advanced cancer in patients.

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University of Pittsburgh researchers have constructed the first prototype of a delivery system for genes called a reconstituted chylomicron remnant (RCR) that has resulted in the extended production of therapeutic proteins in an animal model, according to a report published in the Dec. 23 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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The serotonin system, an aspect of the brain's neurochemical structure associated with behavior and mood, has been shown to substantially decline with age, according to research with living humans ages 18-76 at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health and presented this morning at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans.

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University of Pittsburgh researchers found no difference in homocysteine levels between men who suffered heart attacks and men who had not experienced heart attacks or stroke. These findings suggest that homocysteine more likely indicates the extent of atherosclerosis or inflammation rather than promotes the processes that lead to heart attacks or stroke.

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Smoking for at least 25 years appears to trigger a biological switch that drives the growth of lung cells. Once set in motion, this process could lead to cancer, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) in a report published in the August issue of the Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. EMBARGOED FOR 6 P.M., EDT, AUG. 21

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A $1.9 million federal grant will support training of professionals at the University of Pittsburgh in the emerging field of biomedical informatics.

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Embargoed for 5 p.m. EDT, June 14 -- In the Annals of Internal Medicine multicenter AIDS cohort study researchers report that a concise decision tree using two tests in combination -- viral load measurements and CD4 T cell counts -- determine progression to AIDS and death from AIDS in HIV-infected individuals.

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University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) researcher Chandra Belani, M.D., announced today that his novel treatment using combination chemoradiation for regionally advanced, surgically unremovable Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) appears promising and could lead to the development of a new standard of care for this disease. The treatment uses TAXOL (paclitaxel) and PARAPLATIN (carboplatin for injection), in conjunction with thoracic radiotherapy.