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Researchers make case for standardized analysis of cardiac imaging

For accuracy's sake, medical professionals should use the same software for comparing and analyzing diagnostic heart images taken from different time periods and laboratories, a team of researchers has concluded.

14 Mar 2008

Cancer drug allergies

Cancer patients from the Southeastern United States who are treated with the drug cetuximab, known commercially as Erbitux, are far more likely to suffer severe allergic reactions than patients in other regions of the country.

14 Mar 2008

Pain receptor in brain may be linked to learning and memory

Scientists have long known that the nervous system receptor known as TRPV1 can affect sensations of pain in the body.

14 Mar 2008

New research provides dynamic visualization of simplest circadian clock

Scientists have acquired a more dynamic picture of events that underlie the functions of a bacterial biological clock.

14 Mar 2008

Memory on trial - implications for legal proceedings

The U.S. legal system has long assumed that all testimony is not equally credible, that some witnesses are more reliable than others.

14 Mar 2008

Call for all cigarettes to be sold in plain cardboard packs

Cigarettes should be sold in plain, dull cardboard packs, with nothing but the health warning and the brand name allowed, researchers at the University of Sydney School of Public Health have argued in a major review published in the international research journal, Addiction.

13 Mar 2008

Just a 10% reduction in bad cholesterol could save 3,000 Australian lives each year

New research has revealed that a ten percent lowering of 'bad' LDL cholesterol could save nearly 3,000 Australian lives each year.

13 Mar 2008

The yin and yang of genes for mood disorders

Individual genes do not cause depression, but they are thought to increase the probability of an individual having a depression in the face of other accumulating risk factors, such as other genes and environmental stressors.

13 Mar 2008

Researchers find way to increase cells' energy consumption

With obesity still on the increase, it appears that the main weapon in the fight against it - reducing energy consumption by eating less - is ineffective.

13 Mar 2008

Researchers find cause of severe allergic reaction to cetuximab

Clinicians have been perplexed by the fact that some patients given the drug cetuximab - an immune-based therapy commonly used to treat persons diagnosed with head and neck cancer, or colon cancer - have a severe and rapid adverse reaction to the drug.

13 Mar 2008

Genomic tool helps select best eggs for IVF

A research team supervised by Universite Laval scientist Marc-Andre Sirard has identified genetic markers that allow the selection of eggs with the best chance of leading to successful pregnancy after in vitro fertilization (IVF).

13 Mar 2008

Obesity bottlenecks cellular power plant

The machinery responsible for energy production in fat cells is working poorly as a result of obesity.

13 Mar 2008

Discovery could lead to much-needed kidney failure treatment

The unwanted activation of an important cell-signaling pathway may play a role in two kidney problems that are major causes of end-stage renal disease, scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found.

13 Mar 2008

Increased level of magnetic iron oxides found in Alzheimer's disease

A team of scientists, led by Professor Jon Dobson, of Keele University in Staffordshire, UK, have found, for the first time, raised levels of magnetic iron oxides in the part of the brain affected by Alzheimer's Disease (AD).

13 Mar 2008

Genomics researchers fine-tune marker for common obesity gene

Genomics researchers, seeking to replicate another group's discovery of an important gene associated with obesity, have further refined the signal to a particular variant in DNA that may be more helpful in identifying this gene's role in obesity in various human populations worldwide.

13 Mar 2008

Caring for a family member with a serious heart ailment may increase your risk of cardiac disease

Researchers examined heart risk factors in family members of cardiac patients and found that those who provided all or most of a patient's care had higher levels of risk factors for heart disease than non-caregivers and those who reported higher caregiver strain after six months were more likely to be depressed than those who provided less or no care.

13 Mar 2008

Researchers model emotional impact of cocaine in rats

Cocaine addicts often suffer a downward emotional spiral that is a key to their craving and chronic relapse.

13 Mar 2008

DNA detectives find genetic markers for lung cancers most likely to recur

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have uncovered clearly recognizable genetic alterations in tumors and tissue removed from patients with early-stage lung cancers that look like good predictors of which of these cancers are more likely to recur.

13 Mar 2008

Different use of brain areas may explain memory problems in schizophrenics

The enduring memory problems that people with schizophrenia experience may be related to differences in how their brains process information, new research has found.

13 Mar 2008

Caspase-12: MUHC researcher finds new defense mechanism against intestinal inflammation

The body's first line of defence against pathogenic bacteria that we ingest may not be the immune system but rather the cells that line the intestine.

13 Mar 2008