Feature Channels: Story Ideas: Medicine

• share
• favorite_border

A Rowan University professor is hoping homing pigeons hold the key to Alzheimer's and other human diseases.

• share
• favorite_border

Routine ultrasounds show that heavy drinkers who continue to imbibe after learning they are pregnant may carry fetuses with reduced skull and brain growth compared to those of abstainers or quitters, says a new study.

• share
• favorite_border

A high dietary intake of polyunsaturated fat and vitamin E seems to halve the risk of developing motor neurone disease, suggests research published ahead of print in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

• share
• favorite_border

Variations in a gene seem to be linked to brain (cerebral) aneurysms, suggests research published ahead of print in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

• share
• favorite_border

Around the world, inexpensive antibiotics known as aminoglycosides are inexpensive and widely used, but they have been linked to irreversible hearing loss. Now, researchers at the University of Michigan's Kresge Hearing Research Institute and their Chinese colleagues have found that the hearing loss can be prevented in many people with the use of aspirin.

• share
• favorite_border

Diabetes is the #6 killer of Americans. It cost Americans $132 billion in 2002 alone. That's one in every 10 dollars spent on healthcare. And that number is going up. While more than 21 million Americans are diabetic, as many as seven million are undiagnosed. And more than another 40 million are considered prediabetic. Diabetes Mellitus will be one of the main topics at the AACE 15th Annual Meeting & Clinical Congress, April 26-30 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

• share
• favorite_border

Women who have experienced temporary amenorrhea at the time of their spinal cord injury (SCI) may achieve a successful pregnancy particularly if they were injured at a younger age, according to new research that will be presented at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) Fifteenth Annual Meeting.

• share
• favorite_border

Novel and important benefits of vitamin D and the problems associated with vitamin D deficiency will be discussed at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) Fifteenth Annual Meeting and Clinical Congress, April 26-30, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

• share
• favorite_border

Preliminary findings suggest that patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) currently being treated with angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors benefit from a low dose of spironolactone as an effective and safe method of decreasing albuminuria, a first sign of diabetic kidney disease.

• share
• favorite_border

U.S. Hispanics lag behind whites in meeting key health goals established by a large, national public health initiative, a new analysis shows.

• share
• favorite_border

A new analysis commissioned by the World Health Organization found that chronic illnesses like heart disease and diabetes are on the rise across Africa.

• share
• favorite_border

Although pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) sustain and save many lives and have a low malfunction rate, their performance should be monitored, especially ICDs, which have a significantly higher malfunction rate than pacemakers, according to two studies in the April 26 issue of JAMA.

• share
• favorite_border

Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) generator replacement in Canadian patients with devices that were recalled was associated with an 8 percent rate of complications, according to a study in the April 26 issue of JAMA.

• share
• favorite_border

Receiving care at a hospital with higher adherence to guidelines for treatment of patients with acute coronary syndromes is associated with a decreased likelihood of in-hospital death, according to a study in the April 26 issue of JAMA.

• share
• favorite_border

Wake Forest University School of Medicine studies of Hispanic farmworkers in North Carolina found that more than three out of four workers had skin disease and that workers need more information about how to prevent common skin conditions, as well as potentially deadly diseases such as skin cancer.

• share
• favorite_border

A novel vaccine has significantly increased life expectancy in patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most dangerous type of brain tumor, a researcher from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center is reporting at the annual meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS).

• share
• favorite_border

Injuries related to wearing glasses sent an estimated 27,000 people to the emergency department in 2002 and 2003, a new study suggests. But the researchers say that such injuries could be avoided if people would wear protective eyewear during activities that put them at high risk of eye injury.

• share
• favorite_border

Vulnerability to measles infection has risen sharply among nursery school children in Scotland since 1998, despite recent increases in MMR uptake, reveals research published ahead of print in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

• share
• favorite_border

Probiotics may help to reduce gut symptoms caused by long term stress, indicates research published ahead of print in the journal Gut.

• share
• favorite_border

Taking the "triple therapy" of aspirin, cholesterol drugs, and blood pressure drugs to prevent stroke also reduces stroke severity if one occurs, according to a new study published in the April 25, 2006, issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Columbus Children's Research Institute (CCRI) Center for Injury Research and Policy (CIRP) and The Ohio State University are seeking U.S. cheerleading teams to participate in a one-year study to test an unprecedented national internet-based reporting system for cheerleading-related injuries. This study is designed to help researchers identify risk factors for cheerleading injuries and determine the injury rate.

• share
• favorite_border

Raised intracranial pressure (ICP), along with hypotension and hypoxia, can increase the mortality rate in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients by 70 percent. Controlling ICP is an essential component of effectively treating TBI patients, and one viable solution is hypertonic saline.

• share
• favorite_border

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a devastating brain cancer that typically results in death in about one year. Patients have few treatment options, and nearly all available therapies have had minimal impact on survival. A therapeutic vaccination offers future promise for GBM patients.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have located the cause of fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) - a gene that, when damaged, causes the body's skeletal muscles and soft connective tissue to undergo a metamorphosis into a "second skeleton."

• share
• favorite_border

Increased self-monitoring of blood glucose (BG) levels leads to better control of diabetes "“ but why are patients so lax about checking their levels?

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the University of Virginia Health System have made an exciting discovery: a combination of treatments reversed the course of Type 1 diabetes in mice using human-safe drugs. Using this model, the researchers found that a combined therapy of lisofylline (LSF) and exendin-4 (Ex-4) effectively reversed newly acquired Type 1 diabetes, also called autoimmune diabetes.

• share
• favorite_border

Doctors in this week's BMJ express concern over the apparent increase in preterm births.

• share
• favorite_border

UK targets to reduce health inequalities could end up improving the health of the richest fastest, warn researchers in this week's BMJ.

• share
• favorite_border

Feeling hot flashes? If you are a woman in your 50s, hormone replacement therapy may have an added benefit that goes beyond just treating menopause symptoms.

• share
• favorite_border

Before people with sinusitis resort to having a balloon put up their nose as an alternative to surgery, they need to know that balloon sinusplasty requires actual surgery and the use of radiation and is appropriate only for 5 to 10 percent of patients, according to Loyola University Health System's Nasal Sinus Center, one of the hospitals in the Chicago area to offer the procedure.

• share
• favorite_border

Hypnotherapy seems to relieve severe chest pain that is not caused by a heart condition, known as non-cardiac chest pain, suggests a small study published ahead of print in Gut.

• share
• favorite_border

Seven cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) associated with transplanted human tissue have occurred in the UK over a period of 33 years, reveals a study published ahead of print in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

• share
• favorite_border

A unique music therapy study, funded by the GRAMMY Foundation, is underway at the Methodist Neurological Institute (NI) in Houston. Dr. Ron Tintner, a neurologist at the NI and a participating physician in Methodist's Center for Performing Arts Medicine program, is studying music as a way to help treat Parkinson's disease patients.

• share
• favorite_border

A team of scientists and surgeons is developing a series of standard procedures for the care of severely injured patients. The clinical guidelines aim to improve patient care and to help the team identify genetic factors that correlate with particular outcomes.

• share
• favorite_border

Novel and important benefits of vitamin D and the problems associated with vitamin D deficiency will be discussed at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) Fifteenth Annual Meeting and Clinical Congress, April 26-30, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

• share
• favorite_border

Commercial fishermen do not face significant health risks from routine occupational exposure to Pfiesteria in estuaries. According to a study, researchers found no correlation between specific human health effects in "watermen" (commercial fishermen) and low-level exposure to the dinoflagellate Pfiesteria in areas of the Chesapeake Bay.

• share
• favorite_border

Rasheda Ali-Walsh, author, actor, and daughter of Muhammad Ali, is partnering with the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) to help educate the public about Parkinson disease by lending her voice to Public Service Announcements promoting the AAN's new clinical guidelines.

• share
• favorite_border

A new Northeastern University study found that white girls become less depressed as they reach early adulthood, while depression rate among black girls holds steady. NU professor Debra L. Franko and her fellow researchers examined self-reported symptoms of over 2,000 girls of both ethic groups during a recent study. Reasons for the difference between the two groups may include health disparities.

• share
• favorite_border

A rare form of Alzheimer's disease has been discovered in a resident of Camelford, the town in south west England which bore the brunt of the accidental discharge of 20 tonnes of aluminium sulphate into the local water supply almost 20 years ago.

• share
• favorite_border

The 58th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology scientific highlights gave new insight into the risk factors for Alzheimer's disease, improvements in the treatment of multiple sclerosis and neuropathy, and advances in treatments for spinal cord injury and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

• share
• favorite_border

Training surgeons with computer-based "surgery simulators" may create better surgeons and safer surgeries, according to a new study by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. The study found that surgical residents trained with the device -- a mannequin-like model with a lifelike interactive anatomy -- scored uniformly higher than their peers in performing an interventional technique to repair blockages in the legs.

• share
• favorite_border

Most people won't need them "” but travelers who pull on a pair of elastic support hose before boarding a long flight can cut their risk of blood clots, according to a new review of research.

• share
• favorite_border

Therapies to bolster a woman's immune system response during pregnancy do not reduce the risk of miscarriage in women who have already had multiple miscarriages, according to a new review of recent studies.

• share
• favorite_border

A new review of recent studies suggests two popular laser-assisted surgeries to correct nearsightedness are equally effective at restoring 20/20 vision six months to a year after the surgery.

• share
• favorite_border

Medication is the best, first choice to treat pain following surgery, but music may be a good complement to pain-relief drugs, according to a new review of clinical studies. Patients who listened to music after surgery reported less pain than other patients who were not exposed to music, the review found. Music also reduced the patients' need for morphine-like drugs.

• share
• favorite_border

Pulmonary complications, including pneumonia and respiratory failure, are a common "“ and dangerous "“ problem for patients following major surgery. To address this issue, a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis in the April 18, 2006 issue of The Annals of Internal Medicine provides clinicians with new guidelines to use prior to surgery in assessing a patient's risk of developing pulmonary problems postoperatively.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers in the West African country of Guinea have discovered the first African hantavirus, a type of rodent-borne virus that can cause life-threatening infections in humans.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists have used a powerful molecular imaging technique to see inside living cells infected with the most pervasive and potentially fatal childhood respiratory virus known to medicine -- respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

• share
• favorite_border

For the first time, scientists have documented an organ-specific innate immune system. In research published in the April 18 edition of the journal Immunity, scientists at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine outline the unique mechanism by which the lung shapes its defensive strategies against microbial invasion.

• share
• favorite_border

Diabetes is the #6 killer of Americans. It cost Americans $132 billion in 2002 alone. That's one in every 10 dollars spent on healthcare. And that number is going up. While more than 21 million Americans are diabetic, as many as seven million are undiagnosed. And more than another 40 million are considered prediabetic. Diabetes Mellitus will be one of the main topics at the AACE 15th Annual Meeting & Clinical Congress, April 26-30 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.