Feature Channels: All Journal News

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A study led by a Loyola University Medical Center ENT physician provides a case study of a simple action that can reduce healthcare costs, without compromising care.

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Investigators at Massachusetts Eye and Ear have published the most thorough description of gene expression in the human retina reported to date.

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A new study co-authored by Boston University astronomers indicates that a bow shock (a dynamic boundary between sun’s heliosphere and the interstellar medium) is highly likely. These findings challenge recent predictions that no such bow shock would be encountered.

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Scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have developed a new way to measure the cumulative effect of impacts to the head incurred by football players.

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Using an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system to automate the immunization data shared between health providers and public health agencies enables physicians to assist individual patients faster and more effectively, while also providing more immediate, cohesive community data to the agencies tasked with promoting public health. Those are the findings of a new study conducted by researchers from Columbia University School of Nursing and partner institutions. The researchers also found that automated reporting reduced the lag time historically associated with data submitted on vaccinations and, in some cases, reduced the paperwork and staff time traditionally devoted to managing these required submissions.

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Most professional athletes are able to return to competition within a year after vertebral fusion surgery on the upper (cervical) spine, reports a study in the July issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

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For patients with cancer, "prehabilitation"— interventions given between the time of diagnosis and the start of treatment—has the potential to reduce complications from treatments and improve physical and mental health outcomes, according to a report in the August American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (AJPM&R). AJPM&R, the official journal of the Association of Academic Physiatrists, published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

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A research project at Kansas State University has the potential to treat human deafness and loss of balance.

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Duke Medicine researchers have identified biochemical changes in people taking antidepressants – but only in those whose depression improves. These changes occur in a neurotransmitter pathway that is connected to the pineal gland, the part of the endocrine system that controls the sleep cycle, suggesting an added link between sleep, depression and treatment outcomes.

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Black students who attend predominantly white universities struggle to acclimate to what they perceive as a different culture from their own, where they feel a lack of intercultural understanding, a new study finds. The study, “Understanding the African-American Student Experience in Higher Education through a Relational Dialectics Perspective,” was published online today in the National Communication Association’s journal Communication Education.

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University of Adelaide research has shown new evidence that dinosaurs were warm-blooded like birds and mammals, not cold-blooded like reptiles as commonly believed.

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Researchers have identified a genetic mutation that causes congenital malformations of the kidney and urinary tract, a common form of birth defect and the most common cause of kidney failure in children. It is the first time that a specific genetic mutation has been linked to a non-syndromic form of urinary tract malformation. The findings were published in the July 17 online issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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In an editorial accompanying the new results of a trial of Radium-223 in the New England Journal of Medicine, Neha Vapiwala, MD, an associate professor and chief of the Genitourinary service in the department of Radiation Oncology in the Perelman School of Medicine and Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, revisits the discovery of radium by Madame Marie Curie more than 115 years ago and traces its path to modern-day cancer care.

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Rapid tooth replacement by sauropods, the largest dinosaurs in the fossil record, likely contributed to their evolutionary success, according to a research paper by Stony Brook University paleontologist Michael D’Emic, PhD, and colleagues. Published in PLOS ONE, the study also hypothesizes that differences in tooth replacement rates among the giant herbivores likely meant their diets varied, an important factor that allowed multiple species to share the same ecosystems for several million years.

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Networks of spherical nanoparticles embedded in elastic materials may make the best stretchy conductors yet, engineering researchers at the University of Michigan have discovered.

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An international team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has determined and analyzed the three-dimensional atomic structure of the human glucagon receptor, which helps regulate glucose levels in the bloodstream and is the target of potential therapeutic agents for type 2 diabetes.

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Vitamin D-deficient older individuals are more likely to struggle with everyday tasks such as dressing or climbing stairs, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

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Exposure to perfluorinated chemicals is linked to changes in thyroid function and may raise the risk of mild hypothyroidism in women, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

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Genomic imprinting maintains a reserve pool of blood-forming stem cells in mouse bone marrow

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Analyzing the maize trade among 217 nations suggests that if U.S. maize exports are disrupted due to environmental or other factors, supplies and food security in many nations could be jeopardized due to the bilateral nature of trade patterns.

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Kansas State University researchers are defeating persistent bacteria known for causing infections in hospitals. They have discovered how a regulatory system helps this bacteria resist a host's innate immune defense -- a finding that may help develop novel drug compounds to fight the bacteria.

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A five-year study gives new hope to some of the world’s most endangered primates by establishing a roadmap to protect all 27 species in Tanzania – mainland Africa's most primate-diverse country.

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A new Johns Hopkins research report says emergency room visits for severe dizziness have grown exponentially in recent years, with costs topping $3.9 billion in 2011 and projected to reach $4.4 billion by 2015. The investigators say roughly half a billion a year could be saved immediately if emergency room physicians stopped the routine and excessive use of head CT scans to search for stroke in dizzy patients, and instead used simple bedside physical exams to identify the small group of patients that truly needs imaging.

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The information carried by the electrical activity of neurons is a mixture of stored memories, environmental circumstances, and current state of mind, scientists have found in a study of laboratory rats. The findings offer new insights into the neurobiological processes that give rise to knowledge and memory recall.

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UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center is ranked among the top 12 cancer centers in the nation, according to a U.S. News & World Report survey of board-certified physicians from across the country. The survey reviewed patient outcomes, the cancer center’s reputation among physicians, mortality rates and other care-related factors.

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Researchers have identified a self-perpetuating signaling circuit inside connective tissue cells that allows these cells to propel themselves in a particular direction, just as tumor cells do when invading healthy tissue during cancer metastasis.

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UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have unlocked some of the mysteries of West Nile virus outbreaks and shown that use of a mosquito vector-index rating system works well to identify the best time for early intervention.

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“Multiple hospitalizations for complications from a terminal illness may be burdensome for elderly patients and reflect poor quality care,” write Joan M. Teno, M.D., M.S., of the Warren Alpert School of Medicine of Brown University, Providence, R.I., and colleagues, who conducted a study to examine whether the occurrence of multiple hospitalizations for the complications of infections or dehydration was associated with survival.

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In a study that included more than 10,000 men with nonmetastatic prostate cancer, use of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) was associated with a significantly increased risk of acute kidney injury, with variations observed with certain types of ADTs, according to a study in the July 17 issue of JAMA.

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Among patients who experienced in-hospital cardiac arrest requiring vasopressors (drugs that increase blood pressure), use of a combination therapy during cardiopulmonary resuscitation resulted in improved survival to hospital discharge with favorable neurological status, according to a study in the July 17 issue of JAMA.

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Lyle R. Petersen, M.D., M.P.H., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Public Health Service, Department of Health and Human Services, Fort Collins, Colo., and colleagues conducted a review of the medical literature and national surveillance data to examine the ecology, virology, epidemiology, clinical characteristics, diagnosis, prevention, and control of West Nile virus.

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An analysis of West Nile virus epidemics in Dallas County in 2012 and previous years finds that the epidemics begin early, after unusually warm winters; are often in similar geographical locations; and are predicted by the mosquito vector index (an estimate of the average number of West Nile virus-infected mosquitoes collected per trap-night), information that may help prevent future outbreaks of West Nile virus-associated illness, according to a study in the July 17 issue of JAMA.

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In a study of adults recruited and followed up over the past 3 decades in the United States, longer duration of overall and abdominal obesity beginning in young adulthood was associated with higher rates of coronary artery calcification, a subclinical predictor of coronary heart disease, according to a study in the July 17 issue of JAMA.

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The protein TAp73 is a relative of the well-known, tumor-suppressor protein p53, yet it is still not known whether TAp73 enhances tumor cell growth and, if so, exactly how. Penn researchers found that TAp73 supports the proliferation of human and mouse tumor cells. They also identify an important mechanism by which TAp73 gives tumor cells a growth advantage: it activates the expression of an enzyme important for cell replications and anti-oxidant protection.

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins have coaxed stem cells into forming networks of new blood vessels in the laboratory, then successfully transplanted them into mice. The stem cells are made by reprogramming ordinary cells, so the new technique could potentially be used to make blood vessels genetically matched to individual patients and unlikely to be rejected by their immune systems, the investigators say.

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A drug already approved to treat multiple sclerosis may also hold promise for treating cardiac hypertrophy, or thickening of the cardiac muscle--a disorder that often leads to heart failure, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine report.

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Obesity and its related health problems impacts far more people with a disability than previously reported, according to new research in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

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Long-term success in college may be better predicted with Advanced Placement (AP) exams and personality traits in combination with standard admission practices, according to new research from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Rice University.

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People with pre-diabetes who lose roughly 10 percent of their body weight within six months of diagnosis dramatically reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes over the next three years, according to results of research led by Johns Hopkins scientists.

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Knowing what type of lung cancer a patient has is critical to determine which drug will work best and which therapies are safest in the era of personalized medicine. Key to making that judgment is an adequate tumor specimen for the pathologist to determine the tumor’s histology, a molecular description of a tumor based on the appearance of cells under a microscope. But not all specimens are perfect, and are sometimes so complex that a definitive diagnosis presents a challenge.

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Two beachfront communities in New Jersey were hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, but one fared much better than the other thanks to a long-forgotten seawall buried beneath the sand, according to Virginia Tech researchers.

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After switching to high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) in the US, men make fewer emergency department visits for even severe problems—which may lead to a later increase in hospitalization rates, suggests a study in the July issue of Medical Care, published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

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Research using electronic clinical data (ECD) has the potential to make major contributions to health care research and improve patient outcomes. However, many complex issues remain unanswered. A special August supplement to Medical Care presents an update from the Electronic Data Methods (EDM) Forum, with a commissioned set of papers discussing "challenges and innovations from the research and QI community using ECD." Medical Care is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

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New areas of extragalactic study may emerge from research by University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) astrophysicists using data from the Chandra Space Telescope to conclude that baryons making up all visible matter – once thought to be missing from clusters – are present in the expected ratios in large, luminous clusters.

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Scientists have found a way to sneak nanoparticles carrying tumor-fighting drugs past the immune system.

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Successful prosecutions of crimes against humanity must occur at the International Criminal Court if it is to succeed in its mandate to punish perpetrators of atrocities and deter others from committing such crimes, argues Leila Sadat, JD, international law expert and WUSTL professor. Her research, arguments and analysis are published in the latest issue of the American Journal of International Law.

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Researchers from UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered that specific types of bacteria that live in the gut are major contributors to lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells that are part of the human immune system.

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Use of electronic health records can reduce the costs of outpatient care by roughly 3 percent, compared to relying on traditional paper records.

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Prosthetic valve endocarditis (inflammation and infection involving the heart valves and lining of the heart chambers) remains associated with a high one-year mortality rate and early valve replacement does not appear to be associated with lower mortality compared with medical therapy.

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A new study suggests that Chinese people may be at higher risk for stroke than Caucasians. The research is published in the July 16, 2013, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.