Medical News

RSS

New York City mortality rate at all-time low in 2006

The death rate in New York City reached an all-time low in 2006, the Health Department reported today, as the number of deaths fell to 55,391 - down from 57,068 in 2005 and 60,218 in 2001.

10 Jan 2008

Drug deferoxamine boosts bone healing and re-growth

A drug originally used to treat iron poisoning can significantly boost the body's own ability to heal and re-grow injured bones, according to researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

10 Jan 2008

Morphotek announces agreement for development of antibodies to treat prostate cancer

Morphotek, Inc., a subsidiary of Eisai Co., Ltd., has announced that it has signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for the development of therapeutic antibodies to a cancer-associated protein identified by NCI researchers.

10 Jan 2008

microRNA molecules block breast cancer's ability to spread

Researchers have identified a specific group of microRNA molecules that are responsible for controlling genes that cause breast cancer metastasis.

10 Jan 2008

Methadone and rare ventricular arrhythmia link

Methadone is a possible cause of sudden cardiac death even when it isn't overdosed but is taken at therapeutic levels primarily for relief of chronic pain or drug addiction withdrawal, a new study by Oregon Health & Science University researchers suggests.

10 Jan 2008

Living with nut allergies

The incidence of nut allergy is on the increase in Western societies, as is the attention it receives from the public and from the media, yet little research has been carried out on the impact of living with the condition.

10 Jan 2008

Women wait longer to pursue knee-replacement surgery than men do

Is getting new knees on your list of New Year's resolutions? Research at the University of Delaware indicates that women wait longer to pursue knee-replacement surgery than men do.

10 Jan 2008

Life savers in the gut

Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) have discovered that proteins that regulate the body's iron household play a vital role in making sure enough nutrients and water are absorbed in the intestine.

10 Jan 2008

New insight into the mechanisms underlying amnesia

Brain scans of hypnotized people that are taken as they forget and are triggered to remember have revealed neural circuitry that is key to the memory suppression and recall process.

10 Jan 2008

Huntington's disease problem starts early

The damaging effects of the mutated protein involved in Huntington's disease take place earlier in cell life than previously believed, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in a report that appears in the current edition of the journal Neuron.

10 Jan 2008

Radical and partial nephrectomy for kidney cancers

A new Mayo Clinic study suggests that removing the entire kidney from younger patients with small kidney tumors may lead to decreased overall survival compared with an operation that removes the tumor but leaves the kidney intact.

10 Jan 2008

New phenylketonuria (PKU) treatment offered at Hayward Genetics Center

No pizza. No ice cream. No hotdogs and definitely no hamburgers. What sounds like a list of banned food for someone trying to lose weight is actually a way of life for children with a rare metabolic disorder, phenylketonuria (PKU), which prevents digestion of an essential amino acid found in most meats, eggs, dairy products, nuts and breads.

10 Jan 2008

Intensity modulated radiation therapy

Newly diagnosed cancer patients should spend as much time researching a radiation treatment facility as they would spend picking out a new car or a home.

10 Jan 2008

Bio-identical hormone replacement therapies targeted by FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent letters warning seven pharmacy operations that the claims they make about the safety and effectiveness of their so-called "bio-identical hormone replacement therapy," or "BHRT" products are unsupported by medical evidence, and are considered false and misleading by the agency.

10 Jan 2008

Help with getting off the couch

It's only been a few weeks since you made that New Year's resolution to exercise more, but already you're finding reasons to skip days - maybe even weeks.

10 Jan 2008

Evolution of the sexes: What a fungus can tell us

Fungi don't exactly come in boy and girl varieties, but they do have sex differences.

10 Jan 2008

Eating out can have both positive and negative impact on obesity

Eating out instead of cooking at home continues to increase as a factor impacting the American diet. Americans face a large variety of food options and food establishments when choosing to eat out.

10 Jan 2008

Divorce may hinder father-child closeness

The typical distancing from parents by adolescents is exacerbated by divorce for fathers, but not for mothers, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family.

10 Jan 2008

Cynosure files patent infringement against CoolTouch

Cynosure, Inc., a developer and manufacturer of a broad array of light-based aesthetic treatment systems, and its largest shareholder, El.En. S.p.A., today filed a patent infringement lawsuit against CoolTouch Inc. in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

10 Jan 2008

Real concerns over the ethics of a DNA database

The inventor of DNA fingerprinting, Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, of the University of Leicester, has voiced his concerns over the ethics of a DNA database.

10 Jan 2008