Endocrinology News and Research

Latest Endocrinology News and Research

Little difference in risk rates for angioplasty, bypass procedures

Patients with heart disease who undergo coronary angioplasty have an equivalent risk of death and heart attack as patients who undergo coronary bypass surgery, according to Stanford University School of Medicine researchers.

17 Oct 2007

Severely mentally ill at high risk for cardiovascular disease

A psychiatrist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis writes in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that although mortality from cardiovascular disease has declined in the United States over the past several decades, patients with severe psychiatric illness are not enjoying the benefits of that progress.

17 Oct 2007

Discovery of new antibody that helps detect type 1 diabetes

Researchers at the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes and University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center's School of Medicine have discovered a fourth antibody in human blood which will help more accurately predict who is predisposed to type 1 diabetes.

17 Oct 2007

Mental disorders are disorders of the brain

Depression, anxiety disorders such as panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorders, alcohol and drug dependence, dementia and Parkinson's disease are just a few examples of "disorders of the brain".

17 Oct 2007

Insulin signaling and amphetamines

Abuse of psychostimulants such as amphetamine remains a serious public health concern.

17 Oct 2007

Dietary advice for reducing cardiovascular risk

Diet is an important part of coronary heart disease prevention, and a new review of studies finds that dietary advice leads to modest improvement in risk factors such as high cholesterol and blood pressure, especially in people at higher risk.

17 Oct 2007

Weight loss before bariatric surgery linked to shorter hospital stay

High-risk morbidly obese patients who lose 5 to 10 percent of their excess body weight before undergoing gastric bypass surgery appear to have shorter hospital stays and more rapid postoperative weight loss, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Surgery, a theme issue on bariatric surgery.

16 Oct 2007

Low levels of testosterone may increase risk of death in older men

Older men with low levels of testosterone may have an increased long-term risk of death compared to men with normal testosterone, according to a new study accepted for publication in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) .

16 Oct 2007

Risk of death following bariatric surgery

Approximately 1 percent of Pennsylvania residents who underwent bariatric surgery between 1995 and 2004 died within one year of the surgery and nearly 6 percent died within five years, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Surgery, a theme issue on bariatric surgery.

16 Oct 2007

Surgical treatment of morbid obesity increases likelihood of patients returning to work

Obese Medicaid patients who undergo Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery may be more likely to return to work than obese Medicaid patients who do not undergo the surgery, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Surgery, a theme issue on bariatric surgery.

16 Oct 2007

Blood levels of progesterone may impact blood vessel function

Blood levels of progesterone, a major female sex hormone, may play an important role in modifying vascular function in postmenopausal women, according to a new study accepted for publication in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

16 Oct 2007

Over 2 decades experiences shows that ultrasound-guided liver biopsy is the procedure of choice

Liver biopsy is a widely used tool in the investigation of liver diseases. It is invasive and has a mortality risk ranging between 0.01% and 0.17%. A liver biopsy should therefore only be performed in patients who would potentially benefit from it.

16 Oct 2007

Homocysteine appears to be play a part in retinal damage and vision loss

Homocysteine, an amino acid believed to contribute to heart attack, stroke and dementia, likely also is a player in retinal damage and vision loss, researchers say.

16 Oct 2007

A tumor marker Ca 19-9 in diabetics can lead to misdiagnosis of pancreatic cancer

Diabetes is increasing all over the world along with the increase of obesity and associated diseases and is a well-known risk factor for pancreatic cancer. The incidence of pancreatic cancer is also increasing and has one of the lowest survival rates of all cancers.

16 Oct 2007

Enzyme TPPII may contribute to obesity

The enzyme TPPII may contribute to obesity by stimulating the formation of fat cells, suggests a study in EMBO reports this week.

15 Oct 2007

Pioneering approach to cardiovascular care

Thousands of heart patients in the Greater New York region will receive top quality, comprehensive cardiac care in an innovative cardiovascular program in which physicians at a major academic medical center will receive incentive payments based on 60 performance measures for outpatient and inpatient care.

12 Oct 2007

New research may show why some prostate cancer recurs after treatment

Cancer researchers have long worked to understand why some prostate cancers recur after the use of therapies designed to stop the production of testosterone and other androgens that fuel cancer cell growth.

12 Oct 2007

Researchers reveal repressor protein blocks neural stem cell development

A protein known to repress gene transcription at the molecular level in a variety of processes also blocks embryonic neural stem cells from differentiating into neurons, according to a study by University of California, San Diego and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers published online October 10 in Nature.

10 Oct 2007

New device ensures nuclear medicine safer than ever

Hospitals are now able to ensure that the correct dose is administered to the 670,000 patients that undergo nuclear medicine procedures every year due to a new device developed by scientists at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL).

10 Oct 2007

Women with high or increasing blood pressure more likely to develop diabetes

One of the largest studies to investigate the relationship between blood pressure and type 2 diabetes has found that women who have high blood pressure levels are three times more likely to develop diabetes than women with low blood pressure levels.

10 Oct 2007