A routine blood test that measures kidney function can be a valuable predictor of short-term outcomes for stroke patients, according to a study led by a neurologist at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
“Not only is the current older population more active, they’re not as willing as people once were to live in pain and tolerate it,” said Mark Shields, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. “And the current technology for hip and knee replacements is simply better than it was.”
Often called the suicide headache because of the excruciating intensity of the pain, cluster headaches are three times more likely to strike men than women.
Roughly 86 million Americans have prediabetes, and the vast majority of them don’t even know they have it. But the progression from prediabetes to type 2 diabetes is not inevitable, and there’s a simple blood test that can determine whether a person’s blood glucose levels need attention.
Therapies designed to help the body's immune system attack cancer cells are proving to be effective for some patients with advanced cases of the disease.
More than 3.8 billion controlled medications, such as hydrocodone, oxycodone, Valium and Adderall, are dispensed by pharmacies annually in the United States. It has been estimated that only about 30 percent of these drugs are used by the people for whom they were prescribed. The remaining 70 percent represent a large surplus of controlled medications that could be abused or sold to others for abuse.
If you’re trying to lose weight, what are your chances of success? Your brain may hold the key.
Scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center believe they may have found a way to predict who will be successful in their weight-loss efforts with a quick, non-invasive brain scan.
Women experience a notable decline in sexual function approximately 20 months before and one year after their last menstrual period, and that decrease continues, though at a somewhat slower rate, over the following five years, according to a study led by a researcher at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
A research team at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has been awarded a three-year grant for $2 million by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to compare the effectiveness of cognitive-behavior therapy and yoga on anxiety in older adults.
Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among women, with estrogen-receptor-positive (ER+) being the most common type. Drugs used to treat this cancer, such as tamoxifen and Faslodex, block the hormone estrogen receptor that ER+ cancer cells need to grow. One problem with these treatments is that many tumors initially responsive to the drugs develop resistance, making the medicines less effective.
Hot flashes – the bane of existence for many women during menopause – can be reduced in frequency by almost half for about 50 percent of women over eight weeks of acupuncture treatment, according to scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center a grant worth an estimated $8.7 million over five years for the establishment of a new center for research into Alzheimer’s disease.
Supported by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant worth a projected $3.3 million over five years, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center investigators have expanded their research into the cumulative effects of head impacts in young football players to the high school level.
The dreaded finger exam to check for prostate cancer used to be a mainstay of check-ups for older men. With its value now in question, some doctors share the risks and benefits with their patients and let them decide. So, should they or shouldn’t they? Research suggests that in most cases, it is time to abandon the test, says Wake Forest Baptist urologist Ryan Terlecki, M.D.,
“The evidence suggests that in most cases, it is time to abandon the digital rectal exam (DRE),” said Ryan Terlecki, M.D., a
A post-marketing safety study mandated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has shown that a combination drug therapy for the treatment of asthma is safe and effective.
Since the isolation of morphine from opium in the 19th century, scientists have hoped to find a potent opioid analgesic that isn’t addictive and doesn’t cause respiratory arrest with increased doses.
Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have successfully tested a prototype conducted electrical weapon (CEW) capable of recording a subject’s heart rate and rhythm while still delivering incapacitating electrical charges.
People with serious weight problems who are not interested in or candidates for bariatric surgery can turn to physician-supervised weight-loss programs go beyond diet and exercise to tackle obesity from multiple angles.
Medical researchers, policymakers and providers are paying greater attention to race, national origin, immigration status and a wide range of cultural and socioeconomic factors in addressing the health of the country's large, growing and diverse Hispanic population.
Acupuncture treatments can reduce the number of hot flashes and night sweats associated with menopause by as much as 36 percent, according to researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
Intensive therapies to reduce high blood pressure can cut the risk of heart disease in older adults without increasing the risk for falls, according to doctors at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
A transitional stroke clinic developed by doctors and nurse practitioners at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center reduced 30-day readmission rates by 48 percent, according to a study published in the April 28 online issue of the journal Stroke.
A quick, reliable and cost-effective mobility assessment tool may help to identify elderly patients at risk for adverse post-surgery outcomes, according to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center researchers.
Mobility is a major issue for older adults, and Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center researchers are working with colleagues across the country to help keep seniors on their feet.
According to doctors at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, medications and treatments long considered safe to treat pregnant women with migraines may not be.
Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and the student-athletes and trainers from all men’s and women’s teams at Wake Forest University and Winston-Salem State University will be contributing to the largest-ever study of concussion in sport.
Scientists at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine have invented a “metastasis-on-a-chip” system believed to be one of the first laboratory models of cancer spreading from one 3D tissue to another. They hope the technology can one day be used to see how an individual patient’s tumor responds to potential treatments and to learn if and where the tumor is likely to spread.
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is the first medical center in the United States to offer the FDA-cleared DigniCap scalp cooling system to patients undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer.
Using a sophisticated, custom-designed 3D printer, regenerative medicine scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have proved that it is feasible to print living tissue structures to replace injured or diseased tissue in patients.
Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have developed a new technology to detect disease biomarkers in the form of nucleic acids, the building blocks of all living organisms.
Scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have found that a daily dose of beetroot juice significantly improved exercise endurance and blood pressure in elderly patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFPEF).
Bradycardia – a slower than normal heartbeat – does not increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, according to a study conducted by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. The study is published in the Jan.19 online edition of the Journal of American Medical Association Internal Medicine.
Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have found an association between obesity and the formation of blood clots in the veins of children and adolescents.
From horny goat weed to ginseng and maca, over-the-counter dietary supplements sold to improve male sexual health contain a wide variety of “natural” ingredients. A review of the scientific evidence for the most common ingredients to determine if they are effective – and most importantly – safe. The results are published online ahead of print in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.
The screening is recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and numerous other organizations for people 55 and over with no symptoms of lung cancer who have smoked the equivalent of one pack of cigarettes a day for 30 years and who still smoke or have quit within the past 15 years.
Researchers have been working for years to develop an artificial pancreas in the lab to help the millions of people with type 1 diabetes. But what if the answer is to “recycle” the more than 300 human pancreata from organ donors that aren’t currently being used?
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center today announced Robert J. “Bob” Gfeller Jr. will assume additional responsibility at the medical center. Adding to his role as executive director for the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma (CIPT), Gfeller was named Vice President of Communications, Marketing & Media and Chief Marketing Officer, effective October 27.
Lowering systolic blood pressure below the currently recommended target can reduce the risk of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), the most common complication of high blood pressure, according to new research.
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center today announced the creation of a Technology Development Program, a $15 million program to develop the ideas, discoveries and inventions of the faculty and staff of the Medical Center into life science technologies having the potential to benefit patients in the community and worldwide.
More than 3 million children in the United States who are severely obese may be at a higher risk of developing heart disease and diabetes than overweight children, according to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.