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Implantable defibrillator cuts heart attack risk of sudden death by 31%

Researchers at Loyola University Health System, Maywood, Ill., and the University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, N.Y., found that the previously demonstrated survival benefit of ICDs following a heart attack can last up to 15 years.

5 Apr 2004

GE Healthcare is giving surgeons breakthrough digital mobile imaging system

Surgeons need to clearly see their subject. In the case of minimally invasive surgery, that can be especially challenging because of the small incision or body opening through which they must work. To combat this difficulty, GE Healthcare is giving surgeons "eyes inside the body," with the OEC® FluoroTrak 9800 Plus, a breakthrough digital mobile imaging system.

5 Apr 2004

SkyePharma agreement with Medeus Pharma for marketing and distribution of DepoMorphine

SkyePharma PLC has announced that it has entered into a strategic marketing agreement with Medeus Pharma for the marketing and distribution of DepoMorphine(TM) in Europe. DepoMorphine(TM) is SkyePharma's novel sustained-release injectable formulation of morphine for relief of moderate-to-severe post-operative pain. DepoMorphine(TM) was filed in the US and Europe last year and approvals are anticipated to commence in the second half of 2004.

5 Apr 2004

Online, web-based system for ordering total parenteral nutrition (TPN)

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center have designed an online, Web-based system for ordering total parenteral nutrition (TPN) that identifies and pre-emptively eliminates potentially serious calculation errors.

5 Apr 2004

Sheepskin reduces the incidence of pressure ulcers by 58 per cent.

A major cause of patient pain and suffering and additional healthcare costs in hospitals and aged care facilities - pressure ulcers (bed sores)- can be more than halved by using a simple but effective bedding overlay product developed by CSIRO.

5 Apr 2004

MIT scientists are reporting new insights into how the human brain recognizes objects

MIT scientists are reporting new insights into how the human brain recognizes objects, especially faces, in work that could lead to improved machine vision systems, diagnostics for certain neurological conditions and more.

4 Apr 2004

New Study Links Passive Smoke to Heart Attacks

A study published in today's British Medical Journal suggests that banning smoking in a community can result in an almost immediate drop-off in the number of heart attacks in that community. The study, which was originally presented at the 52nd Annual College of Cardiology Scientific Session in 2003, examined the number of people in Helena, Mont., who were admitted to the hospital for a heart attack before, during and after a local ordinance banned smoking in public and workplaces.

3 Apr 2004

New treatment for Tourette Syndrome, patients experience significant resolution of symptoms following brain surgery

A neurosurgical team at University Hospitals of Cleveland (UHC) has, for the first time in North America, applied a new surgical approach to the treatment of Tourette syndrome, resulting in the immediate and nearly complete resolution of symptoms for the patient, who has suffered from this neurologic disorder since he was a child.

1 Apr 2004

Gene of immune system linked to severe adverse drug reaction called Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS)

In a study of Han Chinese patients, researchers have for the first time directly linked a gene of the immune system to a severe adverse drug reaction called Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS), according to a Duke University Medical Center medical geneticist and collaborators in Taiwan.

1 Apr 2004

Sheffield University pioneers osteoporosis research

A leading osteoporosis expert from Sheffield has been awarded the prestigious Society for Endocrinology Medal and the Kohn Foundation Award for his 25-year commitment to revolutionising the treatment and diagnosis of osteoporosis.

31 Mar 2004

Oxford Biomedica to win Department of Health gene funding

Oxford spinout Oxford Biomedica was yesterday awarded £0.5 million by the Department of Health to conduct the first British gene therapy haemophilia trial.

31 Mar 2004

How rat's genetic blueprint stacks up against those of mice and humans

An international research team, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today announced it has completed a high-quality, draft sequence of the genome of the laboratory rat, and has used that data to explore how the rat's genetic blueprint stacks up against those of mice and humans.

31 Mar 2004

Gene-rich human Chromosome 19 sequence completed

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and Stanford University report today the completion of the sequencing of human chromosome 19, the most gene-rich of all the human chromosomes.

31 Mar 2004

FDA has approved Zyprexa, injectable anti-psychotic drug

Physicians have a new fast-acting option for controlling the potentially crippling effects of acute agitation in patients suffering with schizophrenia and bipolar mania. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Zyprexa® IntraMuscular (olanzapine for injection), an injectable form of Lilly's top-selling medication.

30 Mar 2004

New research suggest that steroid treatment for osteoarthritis knee suffers may not progress disease as previously thought

Steroid treatment for osteoarthritis knee suffers was thought to progress the disease, but that belief has been overturned following a review of the literature by researchers at The University of Auckland. Associate-Professor Bruce Arroll, from the School of Population Health at the University, says that osteoarthritic knee pain is one of the leading causes of disability amongst older people.

30 Mar 2004

Removal of thyroid glands may be unnecessary for most patients

An unpleasant postoperative procedure for thyroid cancer patients who have had their thyroid glands surgically removed may be unnecessary for most patients, according to Washington University researchers at Siteman Cancer Center and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

30 Mar 2004

First Canadian therapeutic HIV vaccine trial

Clinicians from the McGill University Health Centre and the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM) are participating in the first Canadian therapeutic HIV vaccine trial. Funded by a number of public and private institutions, including the Canadian Network for Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics (CANVAC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, this project will begin in April.

30 Mar 2004

Extraction of RNA from Archived Formalin-Fixed, Paraffin-Embedded Tissue

For the first time, Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers have demonstrated the ability to extract RNA from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue samples archived for up to five years. What's more, the technology used retrieves high-quality samples, allowing researchers to identify cancer-related genetic changes. Accepted as a "late-breaking" abstract, the research was presented today at the 95th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research by Renata Coudry, M.D., a research pathologist at Fox Chase Cancer Center.

30 Mar 2004

First North American sales of Raycell X-ray blood irradiator

The Indiana Blood Center in Indianapolis, Indiana, and SMDC Laboratory in Duluth, Minnesota have both chosen to purchase MDS Nordion's Raycell(TM) blood irradiator as a means of eliminating delays in receiving irradiated blood and blood products from external suppliers and improving the service they provide to physicians and patients.

30 Mar 2004

Trial of new drug that may halt progression of Type I Diabetes

The results of a long-term clinical trial on a new drug designed to inhibit the progression of type I diabetes was announced at the International Diabetes Society meeting in Cambridge, England, March 29. The findings of the 18-month long clinical trial confirm the drug's efficacy in improving a diabetic's ability to produce insulin.

30 Mar 2004