Hospital News and Research

RSS

Bone marrow microenvironment can contribute to blood cell disorder

Disorders of blood cells may begin in the biological environment where the cells develop, not just with the cells themselves, according to a study from researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center (Peter Mac) in Melbourne, Australia.

17 Jun 2007

Colitis symptoms 27 years later

The unusual case of a woman whose symptoms of colitis emerged 27 years after she left the country in which she was infected is detailed in a Case Report in the Lancet.

17 Jun 2007

Childbirth-related hospitalizations among adolescent girls

The rate of teenage and younger girls giving birth in U.S. hospitals dropped by a quarter between 1997 and 2004 - from 55 to 41 admissions per 100,000 girls under age 18 - according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

16 Jun 2007

The big donor shortage

Associate Professor Catherine Waldby of the University of Sydney looks at the fraught and often frightening world of organ donation in an opinion piece.

16 Jun 2007

The unexpected connection of two gene regulation mechanisms points to new ways for the fight against leukemia

When the activity of individual genes it is longer required, there are two main mechanisms responsible for the “switching off”, mainly DNA methylation and the Polycomb protein complex. Sometimes, these mechanisms lose their efficiency and some of the genes that should be "switched off" remain active.

16 Jun 2007

Swift system for heart attack care improves treatment

Heart attack patients received lifesaving care up to an hour sooner after an Indiana hospital implemented a novel protocol to rapidly activate the cardiac catheterization lab, researchers reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

16 Jun 2007

Scientists extend life of fruit fly

In a triumph for pests, scientists have figured out how to make the fruit fly live longer.

16 Jun 2007

Sonographically-guided alcohol injections for Morton's neuroma highly successful

Sonographically-guided alcohol injections has a high success rate and is well tolerated by patients with Morton?s neuroma, a common cause of foot pain, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and Kingston Hospital NHS Trust in Middlesex, United Kingdom.

16 Jun 2007

Lack of sleep compromises airport baggage screeners' ability to detect rare targets

A lack of sleep may affect the performance of airport employees, which can, in turn, compromise the safety of airline passengers.

16 Jun 2007

Affluent society faces greater risks for skin cancer

Skin cancer levels have shown a significant increase in Northern Ireland since the early 1990s and are more likely to affect men, older people and those living in more affluent areas, according to a study just published in the June issue of British Journal of Dermatology.

15 Jun 2007

New genetic cause for Joubert syndrome

An international study by researchers at Seattle Children?s Hospital Research Institute, the University of Washington School of Medicine, and Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands has identified a new genetic cause for Joubert syndrome (JS).

15 Jun 2007

In vivo imaging of siRNA delivery and silencing in tumors

Using magnetic nanoparticles labeled with dye molecules, a team of investigators at the Massachusetts General Hospital has developed a delivery vehicle capable of transporting antitumor small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules into cells.

14 Jun 2007

Trial shows nanoparticle-enabled thermal therapy safe for treating cancer

Several types of metal nanoparticles are capable of converting energy, such as that carried by near-infrared light or an oscillating magnetic field, into heat at a level high enough to kill tumors.

14 Jun 2007

Double-duty nanoparticles overcome drug resistance in tumors

Cancer cells, like bacteria, can develop resistance to drug therapy. In fact, research suggests strongly that multidrug resistant cancer cells that remain alive after chemotherapy are responsible for the reappearance of tumors and the poor prognosis for patients whose cancer recurs.

14 Jun 2007

Patient care improves when medical residents work fewer hours

When medical residents work shorter hours, fewer patients are transferred to intensive care and there are not as many interventions by pharmacists to avoid errors in medication, according to a Yale School of Medicine study in Annals of Internal Medicine.

14 Jun 2007

Nurses who work the night shift more likely to have poor sleep habits

Nurses who work the night shift are more likely to have poor sleep habits, a practice that can increase the likelihood of committing serious errors that can put the safety of themselves as well as their patients at risk, according to research presented at SLEEP 2007, the 21st Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS).

14 Jun 2007

Newly found antibodies may be body's natural defense against Alzheimer's

In an important advance in the battle against Alzheimer's disease, physician-scientists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center have identified naturally occurring antibodies in human blood that may help to defend against this form of dementia as well as other neurodegenerative diseases.

14 Jun 2007

Mild cognitive disorder often an early symptom of Alzheimer's disease

Using new MRI techniques to analyze tissue composition and structure in the brain, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the National Institute on Aging successfully detected mild cognitive disorder (MCI), a condition in which patients suffer mild memory problems and is often an early symptom of Alzheimer's disease (AD).

14 Jun 2007