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A common antibiotic used to treat arthritis and acne shows promise for limiting the severity of spinal cord and brain injuries

When a fall, car crash, bullet, or knife crushes or cuts a spinal cord, the injury does not stop there. Rather, tissues continue to discharge toxic chemicals for hours, even days and weeks. These chemicals kill and disable nerve cells some distance away from the core injury, compounding the damage and making rehabilitation more difficult or impossible.

26 Mar 2004

New computerized tool to assist surgeons in planning cryosurgery

Carnegie Mellon University's Yoed Rabin is leading an interdisciplinary research team in developing a new computerized tool to assist surgeons in planning cryosurgery, now being used to freeze undesired tissues in prostate cancer patients.

26 Mar 2004

Growth factor protein succeeds in growing new coronary arteries

Three patients of the UC Heart & Vascular Center have grown new coronary artery branches to increase blood flow to the heart after receiving a new growth factor protein (FGF1) in November 2003. All three patients showed improved blood flow to the heart twelve weeks following the injection.

26 Mar 2004

Super glue and vascular graft surgery

Got a broken teacup, an art project, or a leaky blood vessel? “Super glue” it. Surgeons at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston are studying whether a liquid sealant, similar to common household “super glue,” forms a tight seal around blood vessels used in vascular graft surgery.

25 Mar 2004

Researchers turn off individual human genes to study their function

Researchers have produced vast libraries of short segments of ribonucleic acid (RNA) that can be used to turn off individual human and mouse genes to study their function. The libraries will be made widely available to laboratories studying human biology and disease. The researchers are optimistic that the libraries will become a powerful research tool for gene analysis and discovery.

25 Mar 2004

Alfuzosin, new treatment for Acute Urinary Retention

The results of the ALFAUR (ALFuzosin in Acute Urinary Retention) study, announced today at the XIXth European Association of Urology (EAU) Congress in Vienna, Austria, indicate that the uroselective alpha1-blocker alfuzosin 10 mg once daily (OD) may have a beneficial effect in the management of male patients suffering from acute urinary retention (AUR), a sudden inability to pass urine that results in a painful distension of the bladder, requires immediate management with urethral catheterization and could necessitate surgical intervention.

25 Mar 2004

Discovery of new gene sheds light on human brain development

With the identification of the gene responsible for a newly recognized type of mental retardation, researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have also discovered what appears to be the key target in the evolution of the frontal lobes of the brain's cerebral cortex. The findings offer a key insight into the complex puzzle of human brain development - and the evolution of human behavior.

25 Mar 2004

Asthma study turns up new information on viral infections

Researchers know that viral infections can exacerbate asthma and, in turn, make people with the condition more sensitive to environmental exposures such as endotoxin. But how viral infections contribute to this sensitivity in airway cells has not been clear. A recent study led by investigators from the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in Iowa City shows, for the first time, that viral infections may increase environmental sensitivity in lung epithelial (surface) cells by changing expression of receptors on those cells.

25 Mar 2004

British company to launch "super bug tester" into UK hospitals

MRSA is the first test to be developed from Acolyte’s BacLite® testing platform. BacLite reduces the time for identifying both the type of bacteria and, more importantly, the antibiotic sensitivity of the bacteria from the current 3-4 day standard to just 2-5 hours. This time advantage will mean clinicians will be able to treat, much more effectively, serious bacterial infections and prevent potentially fatal complications, such as sepsis and septic shock, from developing.

24 Mar 2004

WHO meets in New Delhi on challenge of treating an additional one million patients a year

The number of tuberculosis patients diagnosed and treated under DOTS, the internationally recommended strategy for TB control, is now rising much faster than at any time since DOTS expansion began in 1995, according to a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO). Indeed, the past two years have witnessed accelerated growth in the implementation of DOTS programmes worldwide.

24 Mar 2004

Levonorgestrel-Releasing Intrauterine System Lessens Decrease Hysterectomy Rates in Finland

In the treatment of heavy menstrual bleeding, levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system (LNG-IUS) or hysterectomy improves equally health related quality of life, but the costs after 5 years are significantly lower in women whose treatment was started with IUS.

23 Mar 2004

Walnuts prevent heart disease

A new clinical study shows that substituting walnuts for monounsaturated fat in a Mediterranean diet improves, and even restores, endothelial function (the property of arteries to dilate in order to meet an increased demand of blood, for instance due to a physical effort). Walnuts also reduce harmful cell adhesion molecules which are associated with atherosclerosis, commonly known as hardening of the arteries. These dual effects enhance the circulatory system, therefore aiding in the prevention of heart disease.

23 Mar 2004

Stem cell research that could help diabetics

University of Florida adult stem cell experts have restored normal blood sugar levels in diabetic mice for three months by chemically coaxing bone marrow cells to produce insulin, a hormone normally made in the pancreas.

22 Mar 2004

New computer program accurately estimates chance of developing breast cancer

CANCER Research UK scientists have devised a user-friendly computer program, called the IBIS risk evaluator, which can give the most accurate estimate yet of a woman's chance of developing breast cancer.

22 Mar 2004

Researchers discover new form of the Rett syndrome protein

Adrian Bird and Skirmantas Kriaucionis of the University of Edinburgh have discovered a novel form of the protein MeCP2. This alternate form, coined MeCP2 alpha, differs from the original only in the first 19 amino acids. Interestingly, Adrian Bird, Director of the Welcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology at Edinburgh University, found that MeCP2 alpha, is ten times more prevalent not only in the brain but also in other tissues. These findings are currently reported online in Nucleic Acids Research. Similar findings were reported yesterday in Nature Genetics online by Berge Minassian, a neurologist and scientist at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children.

22 Mar 2004

Decreased collagen may make women more susceptible to pelvic organ prolapse

Decreased collagen levels might make some women more susceptible to pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence, according to a new study by physicians at Temple University School of Medicine and Temple University Hospital. The study, “Collagen content of nonsupport tissue in pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence,” appears in a recent issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

22 Mar 2004

Study suggests cigarette smoking increases likelihood of death by prostate cancer

Although cure rates for prostate cancer patients who smoke cigarettes are about the same as patients who do not smoke, researchers have found that smokers were more likely to die of other causes than non-smokers, according to a new study in the March 15, 2004, issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology•Biology•Physics, the official journal of ASTRO, the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology.

22 Mar 2004

New Treatment for Chronic Head Pain

Dr. Levy pioneered a procedure known as supraorbital nerve stimulation or SOS, in which neurotransmitters are implanted into the forehead to block head pain. Tiny wires are burrowed under the skin until the precise location of pain is marked by a tingling response to electrical charge. The wires are kept in place for a week, and if pain is lessened and the patient is comfortable with the technology, neurotransmitters are surgically implanted under local anesthesia. The patient is able to control pain relief by manually adjusting the level of electrical stimulation through a hand held device.

22 Mar 2004

New research may help treatment of Norrie disease and familial exudative vitreoretinopathy (FEVR)

Researchers have discovered that genetic mutations underlying two inherited eye disorders arise in different components of a single intracellular signaling pathway that is responsible for development of blood vessels in the eye.

22 Mar 2004

New surgical glove alleviates need for "double gloving"

A unique, high-sensitivity, double surgical glove that saves time and money will be debuted at the Association of Operating Room Nurses (AORN) Congress in San Diego, March 20-25. The glove was developed by Bio-Barrier Inc., an infection control technology company based in Los Angeles. The new glove features two separate layers originating from a single cuff at the wrist.

22 Mar 2004