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Prostate screenings could be used to encourage colon checks

Colon cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death in men, but according to a new University of Michigan Health System study, fewer than half of men surveyed were up-to-date with colon cancer screenings.

3 Mar 2005

Mutations in newly discovered gene, NPHP5 cause Senior-Loken syndrome

Scientists at the University of Michigan Medical School have discovered a gene called NPHP5 and found mutations in this gene that cause a rare genetic disease called Senior-Loken syndrome. Children with this syndrome develop a type of cystic kidney disease called nephronophthisis, as well as a form of blindness called retinitis pigmentosa.

3 Mar 2005

Freezing tumors is an effective way to treat a cancer patient's pain

The study, which appears in the March 2005 issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology, found that cryoablation relieved the pain of four patients who had very advanced disease.

3 Mar 2005

Meditation may reduce heart disease risk

Black adolescents with high normal blood pressure who practice transcendental meditation improve the ability of their blood vessels to relax and may reduce their risk of becoming adults with cardiovascular disease, researchers say.

3 Mar 2005

Visual cortex contains neurons that are sensitive to viewing angle

Mistakes made by human subjects in identifying the facing direction of faces, cars or meaningless objects have yielded evidence that the brain contains nerve cells, or neurons, whose job is to encode the viewing angle of objects. It is well known that certain neurons respond to color, motion, edges and other aspects of our environment.

3 Mar 2005

Discovery gives clinicians new targets for making existing therapies more effective and developing drugs to inhibit the growth of cancers

A team of researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute in Toronto have discovered how a key enzyme involved in repairing DNA is put together and how it works--a development that opens up new therapies for making cancer cells more vulnerable to attack.

3 Mar 2005

Important advance in our understanding of colorectal cancer

An international team of medical scientists has made an important advance in our understanding of the second most fatal form of cancer in the industrialized world. Professor Jeremy R. Jass, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Gastrointestinal Pathology at McGill University in Montreal

3 Mar 2005

Abnormal brain structure tied to spatial, numerical thinking problems when children lack part of chromosome

Certain genetic diseases affect children's educational abilities in a distinctive pattern: impairing their numerical abilities more than their verbal skills. New research sheds light on this split in abilities by investigating how differences in brain structures may influence how the mind works.

3 Mar 2005

Genetic cause of dyslexia

A gene which is likely to be one of the causes of dyslexia in children has been discovered by researchers at Cardiff University.

3 Mar 2005

CAD can effectively detect breast cancers

A computer-aided detection system (CAD) can effectively detect breast cancers a radiologist is more apt to initially miss, a new study shows.

3 Mar 2005

Inflammation is a strong risk factor for cardiovascular disease among rheumatoid arthritis patients

Mayo Clinic epidemiologists have found that the systemic inflammation characterizing rheumatoid arthritis may be to blame for the increased risk of cardiovascular death in patients with the disease.

3 Mar 2005

Expected revolution in medicine, telemedicine, has simply not happened

Despite high expectations, telemedicine and telehealthcare systems, which enable doctors to interact with patients many miles away via video, digital imaging and electronic data transmission, have had only limited impact on the National Health Service, according to a study sponsored by the ESRC.

3 Mar 2005

Medical interventions during pregnancy and childbirth may not be the best way to improve newborn survival

In Brazil neonatal mortality declined in the 1980’s but rates have virtually remained unchanged since the 1990’s. Fernando Barros (Hospital de Clinicas, Montevideo, Uruguay) and colleagues studied births in 1992, 1993, and 2004 in the Brazilian city of Pelotas. They found that important changes in maternal characteristics occurred over the 22 years covered by the study.

3 Mar 2005

Increases in macronutrient consumption during pregnancy can lead to increased birthweight

Giving pregnant women in the developing world a daily supplement containing 10 vitamins and five minerals could help increase the birthweight of their babies, concludes a study published online by The Lancet.

3 Mar 2005

Massage with sunflower seed oil helps low birth weight babies

Massaging low birth weight babies with sunflower seed oil is a low cost intervention that can protect them from infections, concludes a study published online by The Lancet.

3 Mar 2005

Lancet neonatal survival series

Three million of the four million newborn babies who die worldwide each year could be saved by low-tech and low-cost interventions, concludes a landmark series of articles published online by The Lancet (Thursday March 3, 2005).

3 Mar 2005

Possible errors in treatment of depression

A new study documenting the treatment of late-life depression by Canadian health professionals will be presented today at the American Psychosomatic Society Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada.

3 Mar 2005

Smoking prevention programs in junior high or high school have little influence on whether teens choose to light up

"Our study shows there is little evidence to suggest that existing school-based smoking prevention programs produce long-term reductions in smoking prevalence among youth," says the study's first author, Sarah Wiehe, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of pediatrics, Division of Children's Health Services Research at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

3 Mar 2005

Gender discrepancies in who gets bypass surgery

A study published in the latest issue of Psychology of Women Quarterly found gender biases and long-standing gender discrepancies in who gets bypass surgery. In 1988, twelve percent of female patients who had profiles consistent with the bypass surgery received it-- as compared to twenty-four percent of men.

3 Mar 2005

Important player in the development of colon cancer

Cancer growth is a long, complex, multi-stage process involving a variety of different "players." This complexity is part of the difficulty facing cancer researchers. Meanwhile, each discovery or identification of a new "player," or previously unknown stage in the process, offers new opportunities for blocking the disease.

3 Mar 2005