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First gene mutation associated with Tourette syndrome

Researchers have identified the first gene mutation associated with Tourette syndrome - opening a new avenue for understanding the complex disorder that causes muscle and vocal tics.

13 Oct 2005

Cancer survivors have unique and long-term cancer-specific side effects.

Patients surviving childhood Hodgkin disease suffer strokes later in life at rates about four times that of the general population, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.

13 Oct 2005

Gel made from a patient's own blood reduces pain and may improve wound healing

The study, published in the September issue of the Annals of Otology, Rhinology and Laryngology, found that patients who received platelet gel reported an easier recovery than patients who received traditional packing to stop bleeding.

13 Oct 2005

Relationship between drinking early in adolescence and later negative outcomes

Alcohol experimentation in late childhood or early adolescence is a common event. An early age of first drink (AFD), however, is associated with a variety of negative outcomes.

13 Oct 2005

Moderate drinking has effects on blood coagulation, primarily as a "blood thinner"

Population studies have shown that moderate drinkers tend to have lower rates of heart disease but higher rates of bleeding-type strokes than abstainers. A potential mediator of these two contrasting effects of alcohol may be platelet function.

13 Oct 2005

Complementary medicine represents an additional cost to usual care with questionable clinical benefit

The cost-effectiveness of using complementary treatments in the United Kingdom has been the subject of much speculation and controversy.

13 Oct 2005

Study examines the relation between infant size and growth and later obesity

Large infants, and those who grow rapidly during the first two years of life, are at increased risk of obesity in childhood and adulthood, a study published online by the British Medical Journal today (14 October 2005) has found.

13 Oct 2005

Kenneth Clarke needs to quit tobacco industry for party leadership

Prospective candidate for the Tory party leadership, Kenneth Clarke, is "unfit" for the role because of his continued connection with the tobacco industry, says a contributor to this week's British Medical Journal.

13 Oct 2005

Canadian adolescents and complementary or alternative medical treatment

While the study does not look at the effectiveness of these treatments, "what's concerning is that young people across the country have different levels of access to alternative therapies as publicly-funded services," says Dr. McColl. "There are noticeable differences in access and utilization based on education, income and geographic location."

13 Oct 2005

SLITRK1 gene appears to contribute to some cases of Tourette's Syndrome

In what may be a major milestone in Tourette's Syndrome (TS) research, scientists at Yale School of Medicine and their colleagues have identified a gene called SLITRK1 that appears to contribute to some cases of TS, according to a report in the October 14 issue of Science.

13 Oct 2005

No shred of evidence that HIV-positive men who lose fat in their legs reciprocally gain fat in their bellies

There is no syndrome that causes increased belly fat and decreased facial and limb fat among HIV-positive men who take antiretroviral drugs, according to a study by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco.

13 Oct 2005

Russian moonshine contributes to very high death rate among Russians

Heavy alcohol consumption contributes to numerous problems in Russia, not the least of which is a very high death rate.

13 Oct 2005

Nanobombs to eradicate cancer

University of Delaware researchers are opening a new front in the war on cancer, bringing to bear new nanotechnologies for cancer detection and treatment and introducing a unique nanobomb that can literally blow up breast cancer tumors.

13 Oct 2005

Liver services in the United Kingdom need better funding and better staffing

Mortality from liver disease is increasing in the UK. In 2000 liver disease killed more men than Parkinson's disease and more women than cancer of the cervix. Deaths from alcoholic liver disease has doubled in the past 10 years, while liver disease arising from hepatitis C infection is expected to treble by 2020.

13 Oct 2005

Infants and adolescents vaccinated against hepatitis B are protected for over 10 years after immunisation

...concludes a study in this week’s issue of The Lancet. The authors state that booster doses of vaccine do not seem necessary to ensure long-term protection.

13 Oct 2005

Single-dose of Japanese encephalitis vaccine protects children for over a year

A single-dose of a live vaccine against Japanese encephalitis can give children in Nepal high levels of protection for over a year, according to an article in this week's issue of The Lancet.

13 Oct 2005

Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG) vaccination can protect children from tuberculosis infection as well as active TB disease

There are about 10 million cases of TB globally each year and 1 in 3 people are infected with the TB bacterium. BCG is the most widely used vaccine worldwide, but its mechanism of protection is poorly understood. It is thought to prevent progression of infection to active TB but whether it protects against the acquisition of infection itself has not been investigated in humans.

13 Oct 2005

Whooping cough vaccine 90 percent effective

A vaccine to protect adults and adolescents against illness due to Bordetella pertussis infection--or whooping cough--has proved more than 90 percent effective in a national, large-scale clinical study, according to research results published in this week's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

12 Oct 2005

Why breast black cancer patients experience lower survival rates than other women

Black women with stage I or II breast cancer are more likely than their counterparts of other races to abandon chemotherapy before completing their full course of treatment, according to a recent Columbia University Medical Center study.

12 Oct 2005

Innovative therapy lowering body temperature slows down the injury process caused by birth asphyxia

Infants born with oxygen loss who are given an innovative therapy that lowers their entire body temperature by four degrees within the first six hours of life, have a better chance of survival and lower incidence of brain injury

12 Oct 2005