A case study using functional magnetic resonance imaging suggests that behaviorally nonresponsive patients can use selective auditory attention to convey their ability to follow commands and communicate, according to a small study by Lorina Naci, Ph.D., and Adrian M. Owen, Ph.D., of Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
Medicare reimburses physicians three to five times more for common procedural care than for cognitive care (the main professional activities of primary care physicians), and these financial pressures may be a contributing factor to the U.S. health care system’s emphasis on procedural care, according to a study by Christine A. Sinsky, M.D., of the Medical Associates Clinic P.C., Dubuque, I.A., and David C. Dugdale, M.D., of the University of Washington, Seattle.
Vitamin D supplementation does not appear to improve blood pressure or markers of vascular health in older patients with isolated systolic hypertension (a common type of high blood pressure), according to a study by Miles D. Witham, Ph.D., of the University of Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom, and colleagues.
A study of Swedish men suggests nine risk factors, most of which can be traced to adolescence, account for most cases of young-onset dementia (YOD) diagnosed before the age of 65 years, according to a report published by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.
Eating a healthy diet and drinking a moderate amount of alcohol may be associated with decreased risk or progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, according to a report published by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.
Breastfeeding appears to be associated with decreased risk of overweight and obesity among school children in Japan, according to a study by Michiyo Yamakawa, M.H.Sc., of the Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama City, Japan, and colleagues.
An analysis of North Carolina birth and educational records suggests that induction (stimulating uterine contractions prior to the onset of spontaneous labor) and augmentation (increasing the strength, duration, or frequency of uterine contractions with spontaneous onset of labor) during childbirth appears to be associated with increased odds of autism diagnosis in childhood, according to a study by Simon G. Gregory, Ph.D., of Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C., and colleagues.
A study using a driving simulator suggests that adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who were distracted while driving demonstrated more variability in speed and lane position than adolescents without ADHD, according to a study published by JAMA Pediatrics, a JAMA Network publication.
Pregnant women whose labors are induced or augmented may have an increased risk of bearing children with autism, especially if the baby is male, according to a large, retrospective analysis by researchers at Duke Medicine and the University of Michigan.
A new study suggests that simple tests that measure the ability to recognize and name famous people such as Albert Einstein, Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey may help doctors identify early dementia in those 40 to 65 years of age. The research appears in the August 13, 2013, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Researchers have probed deep into the cell’s genome, beyond the basic genetic code, to begin learning the “grammar” that helps determine whether or not a gene gets switched on to make the protein it encodes.
New irrigation systems in arid regions benefit farmers but can increase the local malaria risk for more than a decade — which is longer than previously believed — despite intensive and costly use of insecticides, new University of Michigan-led study in northwest India concludes.
Dr. Vittorio Cristini, at the UNM Cancer Center, and his colleagues have just published a paper describing their mathematical model of cancer. The model uses physics and the patient's own tumor information to accurately predict treatment outcomes.
About 20 percent of cardiac arrest survivors report having a near death experience with visions and perceptions, but are the experiences real? A University of Michigan study suggests the dying brain is capable of well-organized electrical activity during the early stages of clinical death. The study in PNAS provides the first scientific framework for the near-death experience.
Scientists have long believed that healthy brain cells, once damaged by radiation designed to kill brain tumors, cannot regenerate. But new Johns Hopkins research in mice suggests that neural stem cells, the body’s source of new brain cells, are resistant to radiation, and can be roused from a hibernation-like state to reproduce and generate new cells able to migrate, replace injured cells and potentially restore lost function.
In a new study, published in the Journal of Ovarian Research, Georgia Tech scientists have direct evidence that EMT takes place in humans, at least in ovarian cancer patients. The findings suggest that doctors should treat patients with a combination of drugs: those that kill cancer cells in primary tumors and drugs that target the unique characteristics of cancer cells spreading through the body.
A recently published CU Cancer Center study shows that beyond the fact of fertility, a young woman's perception of fertility based on regular menstrual cycles after cancer treatment affects her quality of life long after treatment ends.
Pain is the most common reason a patient sees a physician but few physicians have received adequate training to help their patients, according to a Henry Ford Hospital article published in the Journal of American Osteopathic Association. An estimated 100 million people in the United States are living with chronic pain, which accounts for up to $635 billion annually in health care costs and lost productivity. A 2011 study found that for every medical specialist, there are more than 28,500 patients with chronic pain.
Loss of a gene required for stem cells in the brain to turn into neurons may underlie the most severe forms of neuroblastoma, a deadly childhood cancer of the nervous system, according to a Ludwig Cancer Research study published in Developmental Cell today.
Some time around 37,000 BCE a massive volcano erupted in the Campanian region of Italy, blanketing much of Europe with ash, stunting plant growth and possibly dooming the Neanderthals. While our prehistoric relatives had no way to know the ash cloud was coming, a recent study provides a new tool that may have predicted what path volcanic debris would take.
An anonymous stranger you encounter on websites like Yelp or Amazon may seem to be just like you, and a potential friend. But a stranger on a site like eBay is a whole different story.
A drug recently approved for use in multiple myeloma is now being tested for its ability to fight central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma, a deadly cancer of the immune system that can affect the brain, spinal cord and fluid, and eyes. The clinical trial, now open at the three campuses of Mayo Clinic — in Florida, Minnesota and Arizona — follows successful testing of the drug, pomalidomide, in mouse models of CNS lymphoma.
Neurologists and epilepsy researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center were among scientists who have 329 random genetic mutations associated with two of the most severe forms of epilepsy, according to a paper published today in Nature. Though well-known that many forms of epilepsy are strongly influenced by genetics, there has been relatively little progress in identifying the genetic differences that contribute to most forms of epilepsy.
A team of neuroscientists has identified a modification to a protein in laboratory mice linked to conditions associated with Alzheimer’s Disease. Their findings also point to a potential therapeutic intervention for alleviating memory-related disorders.
Georgia Tech researchers want to put your signature up in lights. Using thousands of nanometer-scale wires, the researchers have developed a sensor device that converts mechanical pressure – from a signature or a fingerprint – directly into light signals that can be captured and processed optically.
Researchers have identified two new genes and implicated 25 distinct mutations in serious forms of epilepsy, suggesting a new direction for developing tailored treatments of the neurological disorders. The findings by an international research collaboration, which includes investigators from Duke Medicine, appear Aug. 11 in the journal Nature.
A decade ago, gene expression seemed so straightforward: genes were either switched on or off. Not both. Then in 2006, a blockbuster finding reported that developmentally regulated genes in mouse embryonic stem cells can have marks associated with both active and repressed genes, and that such genes, which were referred to as “bivalently marked genes”, can be committed to one way or another during development and differentiation.
A large-scale international study on the genes involved in epilepsy has uncovered 25 new mutations on nine key genes behind a devastating form of the disorder during childhood. Among those were two genes never before associated with this form of epilepsy, one of which previously had been linked to autism and a rare neurological disorder, for which an effective therapy already has been developed.
A unique nanoscale drug that can carry a variety of weapons and sneak into cancer cells to break them down from the inside has a new component: a protein that stimulates the immune system to attack HER2-positive breast cancer cells.
Children born with non-chromosomal birth defects have a twofold higher risk of cancer before age 15, compared to children born without birth defects.
Researchers have long been aware of a phenomenon in speech called coarticulation, in which certain sounds are produced differently depending on the sounds that come before or after them. A new study suggests that piano paying also involves coarticulation, with hand muscle contractions differing depending on the sequence of notes played.
We’ve known for well over a century that low blood oxygen causes altitude sickness. The origin of this idea has long been attributed to French researcher Paul Bert. But it’s really Bert’s benefactor, Denis Jourdanet, who deserves the credit, according to a new review article.
With its ever-escalating pursuit of high efficiency and low cost, the electronics industry prizes understanding specific behaviors of polymers. Now there's help in appreciating the polymer mystique related to the emerging field of molecular conduction in which films of charge-transporting large molecules and polymers are used within electronic devices.
Researchers at the Moffitt Cancer Center have identified four inherited genetic variants in non-small cell lung cancer patients that can help predict survival and treatment response. Their findings could help lead to more personalized treatment options and improved outcomes for patients.
Study: If the science behind a drug shows it to be rationally targeted at a cancer-causing genetic mutation, and if early clinical trials show the drug is safe and happens to be especially effective, should the drug be held to the same time-consuming and expensive testing standards of traditional chemotherapies? Or is the clinical trials process a relic from the time of earlier, highly toxic therapies?
By tracking the previously unknown movements of a set of specialized cells, Whitehead Institute scientists are shedding new light on how the immune system mounts a successful defense against hostile, ever-changing invaders.
• Nephrologists whose dialysis patients had the best survival over six years had a significantly lower patient caseload than nephrologists whose patients had the worst survival. • For every additional 50 patients cared for by a nephrologist, patients had a 2% higher risk of dying within six years.
A faith-based prisoner re-entry program in Minnesota has saved an estimated $3 million by reducing recidivism, according to a Baylor University study published in the International Journal of Criminology and Sociology.
For the first time, scientists have directly observed events that lead to the formation of a chromosome abnormality that is often found in cancer cells. The abnormality, called a translocation, occurs when part of a chromosome breaks off and becomes attached to another chromosome.
A small group of immune-regulating molecules, when overproduced even moderately, can trigger the blood cancers known as lymphomas, according to a new study led by scientists from The Scripps Research Institute.
A person with type 2 diabetes spends on average more than $85,000 treating the disease and its complications over their lifetime, according to a recent study in American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Periodic flooding in Texas—one the most flood-prone states in the nation—cannot be firmly linked to climate change due to numerous dams and other manmade structures introduced over the years, according to a University of Iowa study published in the August 2013 issue of the Journal of the American Water Resources Association.
Scientists are developing a clearer picture of how visual systems develop in mammals. The findings offer important clues to the origin of retinal disorders later in life.
Surgery to relieve the damaging pressure caused by hemorrhaging in the brain is a perfect job for a robot. That is the basic premise of a new image-guided surgical system under development at Vanderbilt University.
A collaborative study at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT initially funded by a Koch Institute Frontier Research Program Award and led by faculty member Doug Lauffenburger reveals that drug resistance to ErbB inhibitors, a type of drug used in the treatment of various cancers, develops because of a protein called AXL. This protein helps cancer cells to circumvent the effects of ErbB inhibitors. The findings, published in Science Signaling, suggest that combining drugs that target AXL and ErbB receptors could offer a better way to fight tumors. Koch Institute faculty member Frank Gertler co-authored the paper.
A little-studied factor known as the Little Elongation Complex (LEC) plays a critical and previously unknown role in the transcription of small nuclear RNAs (snRNA), according to a new study led by scientists at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research and published in the Aug. 22, 2013, issue of the journal Molecular Cell.
For breast cancer screening, there are more clinical practice guidelines available to physicians than for any other medical procedure. A new study in the Journal for Healthcare Quality reports that when different clinical guidelines exist, physicians choose recommendations from multiple, sometimes conflicting, sources.
Tumor cells circulating within a patient’s bloodstream can carry cancer from a primary tumor site to distant sites of the body, spreading the disease. Now a team of researchers in China has developed a new microfluidic chip that can quickly and efficiently segregate and capture live circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from a patient’s blood, with potential applications for cancer screenings and treatment assessments.
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have solved a 40-year mystery on the origin of the Magellanic Stream, a long ribbon of gas stretching nearly halfway around our Milky Way galaxy. New Hubble observations reveal that most of this stream was stripped from the Small Magellanic Cloud some 2 billion years ago, with a smaller portion originating more recently from its larger neighbor.
Results from a clinical trial of eteplirsen, a drug designed to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy, suggest that the therapy allows participants to walk farther than people treated with placebo and dramatically increases production of a protein vital to muscle growth and health. The study, led by a team in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, is the first of its kind to show these results from an exon-skipping drug—a class of therapeutics that allows cells to skip over missing parts of the gene and produce protein naturally.
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