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New peritoneal dialysis diagnostic discovered

Thanks to a discovery by scientists at Robarts Research Institute and The University of Western Ontario, patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis may soon be able to worry less about the risks of infection and lessen their hospital stays.

18 Oct 2007

New model helps explain rules governing the transmission of microbes

Many of the most successful microbes are those that inhabit but do not kill their host. Cheaters lose. Tuberculosis settles into the lungs. Helicobacter pylori, the microbe causing ulcers, burrows into the stomach where it thrives on acids. And Salmonella typhi takes up residence in the gallbladder. All of these organisms can persist in our bodies for decades. What explains their success?

18 Oct 2007

Massive microRNA scan uncovers leads to treating muscle degeneration

Researchers have discovered the first microRNAs - tiny bits of code that regulate gene activity - linked to each of 10 major degenerative muscular disorders, opening doors to new treatments and a better biological understanding of these debilitating, poorly understood, often untreatable diseases.

18 Oct 2007

Massage could put you at risk for nerve injury

Massage is commonly regarded as a therapy associated with relieving muscle tension and pain.

18 Oct 2007

Intra-arterial combination chemotherapy induces long-term survival for hepatocellular carcinoma

Portal venous tumor thrombus (PVTT) is a crucial factor that can worsen the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

18 Oct 2007

Insulin levels affect the brain's dopamine systems

Insulin, long known as an important regulator of blood glucose levels, now has a newly appreciated role in the brain.

18 Oct 2007

Study looks at inhaled corticosteroid use post 9/11 in NYC firefighters

Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), anti-inflammatory treatments often prescribed for asthma, may be beneficial in preventing respiratory illness, according to a new study.

18 Oct 2007

Infrared imaging for sleep apnea diagnosis shows promise

Sleep apnea is commonly diagnosed by way of measuring airflow by nasal pressure, temperature, and/or carbon dioxide, through sensors placed in the nose.

18 Oct 2007

In vitro models will minimize animal use in arthritis studies

It's hard to think of scientists in laboratories working toward solutions for medical problems without mice or other laboratory animals, but animals' roles in at least one major research laboratory may soon be minimal.

18 Oct 2007

HIV linked to increased risk of end-stage renal disease in African-Americans

For African Americans infected with HIV, the risk of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is six times higher than for whites with HIV - and similar to the ESRD risk associated with diabetes, reports a study in the November Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

18 Oct 2007

Height linked to how good a person thinks their health is

Your height in adult life significantly affects your quality of life, with short people reporting worse physical and mental health than people of normal height.

18 Oct 2007

Health Discovery receives notice of allowance of U.S. patent application covering kernel selection methods

Health Discovery Corporation has announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a notice of allowance of HDC's patent application covering methods for selection of kernels, i.e., functions or algorithms that are used to transform input data into a different configuration, known as "feature space", which allows for easier recognition of patterns within the data.

18 Oct 2007

Defects in Jhdm2a gene could be the cause for some cases of male infertility

Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have identified a gene crucial to the final step of the formation of a functional sperm cell.

18 Oct 2007

Connection between expression of clock genes and sleep

Genes responsible for our 24 hour body clock influence not only the timing of sleep, but also appear to be central to the actual restorative process of sleep, according to research published in the online open access journal BMC Neuroscience.

18 Oct 2007

Elderly Medicare, Medicaid patients not receiving quality care

If the care received by vulnerable older people concurrently enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid was evaluated on a grading scale, it would squeak by with a barely passing mark, a new UCLA study has found.

18 Oct 2007

New mechanism discovered that mammalian cells employ to fight infections of the Hepatitis C virus

A team of researchers led by biologists at the University of California, San Diego has discovered a completely new mechanism that mammalian cells employ to fight infections of the Hepatitis C virus, which affects approximately 2.7 million Americans and 170 million people worldwide.

18 Oct 2007