Boston, MA -- Chemical compounds found in skin creams and other personal care products can cause an allergic reaction in the skin, a common condition known as allergic contact dermatitis (ACD).
Investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital have found that eating a healthy diet may reduce the risk of acquired hearing loss.
Despite their wishes, many patients die in hospitals or other facilities. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death both globally and in the U.S., yet little is known about where patients with CVD die.
Severe bacterial infections are a leading cause of death globally. Delays in effective treatment can increase the chance that a patient dies but treating a patient before blood cultures are drawn may make it impossible to identify the bacteria
Everyone feels tired at times, but up to 20 percent of U.S. adults report feeling so sleepy during the day that it interferes with daily activities, including working, having meals or carrying on conversations.
Boston, MA -- Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death in the U.S., and African Americans are disproportionately affected. Prior studies have investigated how limited access to material resources due to financial hardship may influence health, but the association between that stress caused by financial hardship and coronary heart disease in African Americans has not previously been examined.
A homeless individual is one who lacks fixed and reliable housing, and it is estimated that 553,000 people fit that description on any given night in the United States. A new retrospective cohort study by investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center examines patterns, causes and outcomes of acute hospitalizations between 2007 and 2013 for homeless individuals and non-homeless control groups in three populous and diverse U.S. states: Florida, California and Massachusetts. Data suggest a rise in acute hospital use among homeless individuals for mental illness and substance use disorder. The results were published in the journal Medical Care on Dec. 11.
A series of scientific reports from the Personal Genomics study reveal insights into patient perceptions and experiences with direct-to-consumer genetic testing
Special Communication examines sources of high drug prices in the U.S. and possible solutions to reduce unnecessary burdens on patients while maintaining innovation
Though mortality from heart disease is decreasing, some groups are at increased risk for developing heart disease, including African Americans in the southeastern U.S. Nearly 44 percent of all African American men, and 48 percent of African American women have some form of cardiovascular disease, including heart disease or stroke.
In a retrospective study analyzing patients' medical records, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital found that patients' race significantly affected their longevity by increasing the likelihood of death after receiving androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). ADT was used to reduce the size of the prostate to make a patient eligible for prostate brachytherapy. These findings are published in the August 4, 2016 issue of Cancer.
Investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital have found that "non-functional" adrenal tumors can increase a person's risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Benign adrenal tumors that don't appear to secrete hormones are labeled as "non-functional" and are currently considered by physicians to pose no health risks, but these new results challenge that assumption.
A new study, which followed 180 pre-term infants from birth to age seven, found that babies who were fed more breast milk within the first 28 days of life had had larger volumes of certain regions of the brain at term equivalent and had better IQs, academic achievement, working memory, and motor function.
Water supply contamination has become a global issue, affecting communities in both the United States and around the world. Exposure to environmental toxins - such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead and other heavy metals - early in life via contaminated water or other sources can have long-term health consequences as children grow. Investigators at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard Program in Therapeutic Sciences at Harvard Medical School have assessed environmental exposure to multiple toxins in children living in a region of Mexico with a high incidence of chronic kidney disease, especially among young adults. Not only did the team detect high levels of the arsenic and chromium in urine samples from the children, they also were able to detect elevated levels of KIM-1, a biomarker that is being studied as an early sign of kidney injury. The team's findings are published this week in Environmental Research.
A connection between the bacteria living in the gut and immunological disorders such as multiple sclerosis have long been suspected, but for the first time, researchers have detected clear evidence of changes that tie the two together. Investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have found that people with multiple sclerosis have different patterns of gut microorganisms than those of their healthy counterparts. In addition, patients receiving treatment for MS have different patterns than untreated patients. The new research supports recent studies linking immunological disorders to the gut microbiome and may have implications for pursuing new therapies for MS.
A team of investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital and the University of Massachusetts have developed a suite of computer algorithms that can accurately predict the behavior of the microbiome - the vast collection of microbes living on and inside the human body. In a paper published in Genome Biology, the authors show how their algorithms can be applied to develop new treatments for serious diarrheal infections, including Clostridium difficile, and inflammatory bowel disease. The team also shows how to identify bacteria most crucial for a healthy and stable microbial community, which could inform the development of probiotics and other therapies.
Low dose aspirin is recommended by clinicians as a preventive measure for patients who have already had a heart attack or stroke, but the risk of taking low-dose aspirin to prevent or delay a first heart attack or stroke is less clear, as the benefit for reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) must be balanced with the increased risk of gastrointestinal or other bleeding. To help clinicians and patients make informed decisions about aspirin use, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital have developed a new, free, mobile app, "Aspirin-Guide" that calculates both the CVD risk score and the bleeding risk score for the individual patient, and helps clinicians decide which patients are appropriate candidates for the use of low-dose aspirin (75 to 81 mg daily).
The microbiome is like a fingerprint: every person's community of microbes is complex and unique. But the underlying dynamics, the interactions between the microbes that shape these microbial ecosystems, may have something in common. To investigate, researchers from the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, led by Amir Bashan, PhD, and Yang-Yu Liu, PhD, analyzed data from large metagenomic datasets (e.g. the Human Microbiome Project and Student Microbiome Project) to look at the dynamics of the gut, mouth and skin microbiomes of healthy subjects.
Rehabilitation is an essential component of high-quality health care. Several studies have shown that insurance status is a key factor in determining a patient's access to rehab, but little is known about how recent policy changes have affected insurance coverage and therefore access to rehab. Using regression discontinuity (RD) models, researchers at the Center for Surgery and Public Health at Brigham and Women's Hospital found that becoming Medicare eligible at age 65 (as compared to age 64) was associated with an abrupt 6.4 percentage-point decline in the number of people who were uninsured and a 9.6 percentage-point increase in rehabilitation. In other words, Medicare coverage was associated with a significant gain in access, allowing an additional one-in-ten patients to take advantage of rehabilitative care.
Study pinpoints four factors that account for sex disparity in statin therapy.
High-density lipoprotein (HDL) is often referred to as good cholesterol: high levels of HDL are associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease. But many clinical outcome trials for drugs that raise HDL levels have failed to show significant benefits for trial participants. However, current HDL detection methods usually measure only total HDL cholesterol - a more sensitive detection method could allow investigators to measure the subfractions of HDL, and more precisely pinpoint which of these subfractions should be raised to help protect against cardiovascular events.
New research finds improvement in overall survival rates among men with aggressive prostate cancer who were treated with radiation at a facility that frequently performs that treatment.
Obesity, which is associated with low-grade inflammation, is an important contributor in the development of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. While the role of several organs including adipose tissue have been implicated in this process, the cell types and factors driving this process have not been clear. Using a pre-clinical model of obesity, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have discovered that a small, non-coding RNA molecule called miR-181b is an important determinant of obesity-induced changes in adipose tissue by controlling the function of the vessels in adipose tissue.
New research from Brigham and Women's Hospital finds many women choosing to remove a healthy breast are at low risk for developing cancer in that breast.
New project will investigate the events leading to multiple sclerosis in at at-risk individuals.
RSS
Medicine keyboard_arrow_right
Sciencekeyboard_arrow_right
Life keyboard_arrow_right
Business keyboard_arrow_right
Journal News keyboard_arrow_right
By Location keyboard_arrow_right
Meetings, Grants, and Events keyboard_arrow_right