Breaking News: Embargoed Feed - hidden

• share
• favorite_border

In an examination of the appropriateness of the widespread use of percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs), researchers found that of more than 500,000 PCIs included in the study, nearly all for acute indications were classified as appropriate, whereas only about half of PCIs performed for nonacute indications could be classified as appropriate, according to a study in the July 6 issue of JAMA.

• share
• favorite_border

In an analysis of data from more than 4,500 hospitals that serve Medicare beneficiaries, critical access hospitals (CAHs; no more than 25 acute care beds, located more than 35 miles from the nearest hospital) had fewer clinical capabilities, worse measured processes of care and higher rates of death for patients with heart attack, congestive heart failure or pneumonia, compared to non-CAHs, according to a study in the July 6 issue of JAMA.

• share
• favorite_border

Adhering to a healthy lifestyle, including not smoking, exercising regularly, having a low body weight and eating a healthy diet, appears to lower the risk of sudden cardiac death in women, according to a study in the July 6 issue of JAMA.

• share
• favorite_border

Infants of human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) infected mothers who were treated before and after birth with the protease inhibitor lopinavir-ritonavir were more likely to experience adrenal dysfunction, including life-threatening adrenal insufficiency in premature infants, compared with a zidovudine-based regimen, according to a preliminary report in the July 6 issue of JAMA.

• share
• favorite_border

Excess nutrients, such as fat and sugar, don’t just pack on the pounds but can push some cells in the body over the brink. Unable to tolerate this “toxic” environment, these cells commit suicide. Now, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered three unexpected players that help a cell overloaded with fat initiate its own demise.

• share
• favorite_border

When researchers at the Buck Institute dialed back activity of a specific mRNA translation factor in adult nematode worms they saw an unexpected genome-wide response that effectively increased activity in specific stress response genes that could help explain why the worms lived 40 percent longer under this condition. The study highlights the importance of mRNA translation in the aging process.

• share
• favorite_border

Long-term exposure to air pollution can lead to physical changes in the brain, as well as learning and memory problems and even depression, new research in mice suggests.

• share
• favorite_border

Mammograms should not be done on a one-size fits all basis, but instead should be personalized based on a woman’s age, the density of her breasts, her family history of breast cancer and a number of other factors including her own values. That’s the conclusion of a new study in the July 5 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

• share
• favorite_border

Smoking cigarettes is a dangerous habit that many are struggling to break, but for the smokers who choose to use one of the most popular smoking cessation drugs on the market, new warnings about the risk of serious cardiovascular events are on their way.

• share
• favorite_border

Healthy, middle-aged smokers who take the most popular smoking cessation drug on the market have a 72 percent increased risk of being hospitalized with a heart attack or other serious heart problems compared to those taking a placebo, a Johns Hopkins-led study suggests.

• share
• favorite_border

The children most likely to walk or cycle to school live in urban areas, with a single parent, and in an economically disadvantaged home, according to survey results that were published in Pediatrics.

• share
• favorite_border

Generally healthy patients who undergo total hip replacement (THR) can be fast tracked to be discharged in two days compared with the standard three to six days, according to a new study by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have found clues to the functioning of an important damage response protein in cells. The protein, p53, can cause cells to stop dividing or even to commit suicide when they show signs of DNA damage, and it is responsible for much of the tissue destruction that follows exposure to ionizing radiation or DNA-damaging drugs such as the ones commonly used for cancer therapy. The new finding shows that a short segment on p53 is needed to fine-tune the protein’s activity in blood-forming stem cells and their progeny after they incur DNA damage.

• share
• favorite_border

A study by a global consortium of physician-scientists has identified a genetic variation that may predispose people to double the risk of having a sudden cardiac arrest, a disorder that gives little warning and is fatal in about 95 percent of cases. Although previous, smaller studies have identified some genes with a potential association with sudden cardiac arrest, this is the first study large enough to enable scientists to apply results to the general population.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at Johns Hopkins have provided more clues to one of the least understood phenomena in some cancers: why the “ends caps” of cellular DNA, called telomeres, lengthen instead of shorten.

• share
• favorite_border

The discovery that a bacterial species in the Australian Tammar wallaby gut is responsible for keeping the animal’s methane emissions relatively low suggests a potential new strategy may exist to try to reduce methane emissions from livestock, according to a new study.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have found that areas near commercial airports sometimes experience a small but measurable increase in rain and snow when aircraft take off and land under certain atmospheric conditions.

• share
• favorite_border

In a study of 31 Boston offices, polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants now banned internationally by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants were detected in every office tested. The research, published online June 30 ahead of print in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP), links concentrations of PBDEs in office dust with levels of the chemicals on the hands of the offices’ occupants.

• share
• favorite_border

Current or heavy smokers who were screened with low-dose spiral computed tomography (CT) scanning had a 20 percent reduction in deaths from lung cancer than did those who were screened by chest X-ray, according to results from a decade-long, large clinical trial that involved more than 53,000 people.

• share
• favorite_border

1) Findings represent a critical step in personalizing cancer treatments; 2) Some early aberrations are required for development of later abnormalities.

• share
• favorite_border

Using a combination of genetic engineering and laser technology, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have manipulated brain wiring responsible for reward-seeking behaviors, such as drug addiction.

• share
• favorite_border

Palaeontologists have uncovered half-a-billion-year-old fossils demonstrating that primitive animals had excellent vision. An international team led by scientists from the South Australian Museum and the University of Adelaide found the exquisite fossils, which look like squashed eyes from a recently swatted fly.

• share
• favorite_border

A landmark editorial in the nation's leading spine journal is challenging the integrity of published industry-sponsored research involving a bone-growth product. The unusually blunt editorial notes that in 13 trials involving 780 patients, industry-funded researchers did not report a single adverse advent involving Medtronic's Infuse® Bone Graft.

• share
• favorite_border

1) Flu vaccine could be used to test immune response; 2) Patients presented with metastatic renal cell cancer; 3) Implications beyond quality of life and patient management.

• share
• favorite_border

A recent study from scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies suggests that a strawberry a day (or more accurately, 37 of them) could keep not just one doctor away, but an entire fleet of them, including the neurologist, the endocrinologist, and maybe even the oncologist.

• share
• favorite_border

New research provides the best evidence to date that the late-day anxiety and agitation sometimes seen in older institutionalized adults, especially those with dementia, has a biological basis in the brain.

• share
• favorite_border

Columbia engineers develop new bioengineering approach to study stem cell function and factors that could lead to birth defects and disease.

• share
• favorite_border

A meta-analysis of bacteria-virus infections reveals a nested structure, with hard-to-infect bacteria infected by generalist viruses and easy-to-infect bacteria attacked by generalist & specialist viruses. These findings could provide insights into strategies for viral-based antimicrobial therapies.

• share
• favorite_border

Using the latest gene sequencing tools to examine so-called epigenetic influences on the DNA makeup of colon cancer, a Johns Hopkins team says its results suggest cancer treatment might eventually be more tolerable and successful if therapies could focus on helping cancer cells get back to normal in addition to strategies for killing them.

• share
• favorite_border

Using an innovative, precise gene therapy tool called genome editing, scientists treated the blood clotting disorder hemophilia in mice. It's the first time in vivo genome editing has achieved clinically meaningful results.

• share
• favorite_border

By accounting for the floppy, fickle nature of RNA, researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of California, Irvine have developed a new way to search for drugs that target this important molecule. Their work appears in the June 26 issue of Nature Chemical Biology.

• share
• favorite_border

The 25.8 million Americans who have diabetes may soon be free of finger pricks and daily insulin dosing.

• share
• favorite_border

Buck Institute research in mice moves into preclinical stage; Buck working toward human trials.

• share
• favorite_border

Psychosocial stress appears to enhance the lung-damaging effects of traffic-related pollution (TRP) in children, according to new research from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles.

• share
• favorite_border

In a step toward personalized genomics, a research team has identified the disease-causing mutation in a newly characterized rare genetic disease, by analyzing DNA from just a few individuals.

• share
• favorite_border

UT Southwestern Medical Center-led findings, in a mouse study, suggest that ghrelin – the so-called “hunger hormone” – is involved in triggering the urge for "comfort foods."

• share
• favorite_border

Self-conscious about your age? Careful where you spit. UCLA geneticists now can use saliva to reveal how old you are. The June 22 advance online edition of the Public Library of Science ONE publishes the findings, which offer a myriad of potential applications. A newly patented test, for example, could offer crime-scene investigators a new forensic tool for identifying a suspect’s age.

• share
• favorite_border

The drug Incivek, when given in combination with two other medications, can dramatically increase the chances of people chronically infected with untreated genotype 1 hepatitis C virus achieving a viral cure.

• share
• favorite_border

A study led by researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center suggests that adding the amino acid leucine to their diets may help those with pre-diabetes or metabolic syndrome.

• share
• favorite_border

The drug telaprevir (Incivek) provides a dramatic improvement in the treatment of the most common form of hepatitis C infection, says an international team of investigators led by Dr. Ira M. Jacobson of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

• share
• favorite_border

A new biomarker may help identify which people with mild memory deficits will go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study published in the June 22, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The biomarker may be more accurate than the currently established biomarkers.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at the University of Michigan Health System have for the first time demonstrated how memory circuits in the brain refine themselves in a living organism through two distinct types of competition between cells.

• share
• favorite_border

In a novel imaging study of sleeping toddlers, scientists at the University of California, San Diego Autism Center of Excellence report that a diminished ability of a young brain’s hemispheres to “sync” with one another could be a powerful, new biological marker of autism, one that might enable an autism diagnosis at a very young age.

• share
• favorite_border

New research suggests that, in the Athabasca Oil Sands in northern Alberta, human activity related to oil production and the timber industry could be more important than wolves in the decline of the caribou population.

• share
• favorite_border

A team of scientists studying the galaxy cluster Abell 2744, nicknamed Pandora's Cluster, have pieced together the cluster's complex and violent history using telescopes in space and on the ground, including Hubble, VLT, Subaru, and Chandra.

• share
• favorite_border

A review published online June 22 ahead of print in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) reports the conclusions of an international workshop on ways to improve chemicals safety testing for effects on the breast. The studies reviewed by workshop scientists indicate that chemical exposures during critical periods of development may influence breast growth, ability to breastfeed, and cancer risk. The scientists recommend that future chemical testing evaluate effects on the breast after prenatal and early-life exposure.

• share
• favorite_border

An analysis of data from previously published studies indicates that intensive-dose statin therapy is associated with an increased risk of new-onset diabetes compared with moderate-dose therapy, according to a study in the June 22/29 issue of JAMA.

• share
• favorite_border

Only about 10 percent of patients with a certain type of heart attack who need to be transferred to another hospital for a PCI (procedures such as balloon angioplasty or stent placement used to open narrowed coronary arteries) are transferred within the recommended time of 30 minutes, according to a study in the June 22/29 issue of JAMA.

• share
• favorite_border

Men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer and who are also smokers have an associated increased risk of all-cause, cardiovascular and prostate cancer-specific death, according to a study in the June 22/29 issue of JAMA. These patients also had an increased likelihood of prostate cancer recurrence.

• share
• favorite_border

Over the past 2 decades the prevalence of diabetic kidney disease in the U.S. increased in direct proportion to the prevalence of diabetes itself, according to a study in the June 22/29 issue of JAMA.