Medical Research News

RSS

Nutritious cranberries good for the heart as well

Researchers say that cranberries improve the health of pigs’ hearts and may do the same for humans.

8 May 2005

Chronic kidney disease linked to a single gene mutation

New research in the US has found that a mutation in a single gene causes a form of chronic kidney disease.

5 May 2005

Stem-cell breakthrough gives new hope for IVF treatments

In a scientific first, human eggs have been grown in the laboratory using stem cells scraped from the surface of women's ovaries and the development raises the possibility of delaying menopause and providing a limitless source of donor eggs for in vitro fertilisation treatments and embryonic stem cell research.

5 May 2005

Scientists take aim at virulent bacteria by decoding machinery of key control enzyme

By deciphering the ingenious mechanism used by a particular enzyme to modify bacterial chromosome chemistry, scientists have come a step closer to designing a new kind of drug that could stop virulent bacterial infections in their tracks. Their research will be published in the May 6 issue of the journal Cell.

5 May 2005

Research is first to test effectiveness of a new patch for treating ADHD

A new University at Buffalo study of treatments for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has found that combining behavior modification therapy with medication is the most effective way to improve the behavior of many ADHD children.

5 May 2005

Tollbooth ventilation system effective in protecting workers from traffic air pollution

Although there is the potential for tollbooth workers at the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel to be exposed to high levels of cancer-causing air toxins emitted from the thousands of vehicles that pass under their nose, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that the tollbooth ventilation system was effective in keeping air toxins out of the tollbooth and away from the workers.

5 May 2005

Drug safety in the doctor’s office - nearly half of patients have lapses in monitoring

According to research published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, only slightly more than half of patients taking chronic medications received the recommended laboratory tests to monitor drug side effects.

5 May 2005

Cranberries good for the heart

Compounds that occur naturally in cranberries may be good for the heart, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found.

5 May 2005

Serious concerns about the use of morphine in heart patients

While patients hospitalized for a heart attack have long been treated with morphine to relieve chest pain, an analysis by researchers from the Duke Clinical Research Institute has shown that these patients have almost a 50 percent higher risk of dying.

5 May 2005

Does clinical depression bring about chronic pain? Or does pain lead to depression?

Does clinical depression bring about chronic pain? Or does pain lead to depression? Because these two conditions frequently co-exist--30 to 54 percent of patients with major depressive disorder also suffer persistent physical pain--there has been much speculation about whether one causes the other or whether a common underlying factor provokes both. Results of studies into the precise nature of this relationship, however, have been inconsistent.

5 May 2005

RADAR may have already saved hundreds of thousands of lives

As many as hundreds of thousands of lives may have saved by a program that identifies serious, sometimes fatal medication reactions.

4 May 2005

Penn researchers demonstrate that a metabolic enzyme works through the tumor-suppressor protein p53 to control cellular replication

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified in normal cells that a common metabolic enzyme, which acts as a rheostat of cellular conditions, also controls cell replication.

4 May 2005

Different consultants mean different lengths of stay in hospitals

Patients may enjoy shorter stays in hospitals depending on which consultant looks after them, according to new research published this week in Postgraduate Medical Journal.

4 May 2005

New GP contract may not improve treatment for heart failure patients

The new contract for GPs may improve identification and diagnosis of chronic heart failure, but there is a danger that it may fall short of ensuring optimal treatment for these patients, says research published this week in Postgraduate Medical Journal.

4 May 2005

Pharmacogenomics used to treat inherited kidney disorder of children

Mayo Clinic researchers have used pharmacogenomics to develop a test and treatment for an inherited kidney disorder that can cause organ failure in children and young adults.

4 May 2005

Specific variants of genes predict bleeding after heart surgery

Duke University Medical Center researchers have found that the presence of specific variants of genes that control clotting and the contractility, or "tone," of blood vessels can double the ability of physicians to predict those heart surgery patients at greatest risk of bleeding after surgery.

4 May 2005

Scalpel-free surgery could reduce risk of HIV and Hepatitis exposure for health care workers in city hospitals

While the incidence of disease from HIV and hepatitis is increasing in the United States, little is known about their prevalence in patients undergoing surgery. Now, researchers have shown that nearly 40 percent of surgeries at The Johns Hopkins Hospital occur in patients who tested positive for a bloodborne germ.

4 May 2005

Impact of acupuncture goes beyond the acknowledged placebo effect

Researchers at the University of Southampton and University College London have shown for the first time that the impact of acupuncture goes beyond the acknowledged placebo effect caused by the patient's own expectation of feeling benefit from the treatment.

4 May 2005

Researchers unravel how nature releases the torque built up in DNA at the molecular level

A Dutch led international team of researchers has unravelled how nature releases the torque built up in DNA at the molecular level. The researchers from Delft University of Technology, the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris and the Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York published their findings in the 31 March 2005 issue of Nature. An artistic impression of the enzyme at work is featured on the cover of this issue.

4 May 2005

Newly identified fly genes provide clue to tumour growth

Researchers from the Oxford University Department of Human Anatomy and Genetics have found a new class of genes that are critical for cell growth and may be involved in the uncontrolled growth that takes place in cancer. The discovery could provide a key to future tumour therapies.

4 May 2005