Health News

Human brain tumor cells destroyed in mouse model

Date: Sep-25-2013
Working with mice, Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered that weeks of treatment with a repurposed FDA-approved drug halted the growth of - and ultimately left no detectable trace of - brain tumor cells taken from adult human patients. The scientists targeted a mutation in the IDH1 gene first identified in human brain tumors called gliomas by a team of Johns Hopkins cancer researchers in 2008. This mutation was found in 70 to 80 percent of lower-grade and progressive forms of the brain cancer...

Guideline: ACP recommends weight loss and CPAP therapy for obstructive sleep apnea

Date: Sep-25-2013
People diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) should not consider surgery, according to new recommendations from the American College of Physicians (ACP). Instead, ACP recommends that patients lose weight and use continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) as initial therapy. More than 18 million American adults have sleep apnea, which increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, heart failure, and diabetes and increases the chance of driving or other accidents. Sleep apnea is a leading cause of excessive daytime sleepiness...

Dextrose gel could treat hypoglycemia in newborns

Date: Sep-25-2013
A new study suggests that dextrose gel should be used to treat low blood sugars in newborn babies (neonatal-hypoglycemia) - a common and preventable cause of brain damage. Dextrose gel is an oral glucose gel, already used as form of treatment for reversal of hypoglycemia in diabetics. But researchers from New Zealand say the gel could be a cheap, effective and easy-to-use treatment for hypoglycemic newborn infants...

Combined diet and exercise beneficial for knee osteoarthritis

Date: Sep-25-2013
Overweight and obese adults suffering from knee osteoarthritis may benefit more from combined intensive diet and exercise regimes, rather than undertaking diet or exercise regimes separately, according to a study published in JAMA. Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common degenerative joint disease and the most common form of arthritis. Knee OA is the most common cause of mobility dependency and diminished quality of life, and obesity is a major contributing factor to the disorder...

Real-time imaging technique offers first direct measurement of spinal cord myelin in multiple sclerosis

Date: Sep-25-2013
Researchers have made an exciting breakthrough - developing a first-of-its-kind imaging tool to examine myelin damage in multiple sclerosis (MS). An extremely difficult disease to diagnose, the tool will help physicians diagnose patients earlier, monitor the disease's progression, and evaluate therapy efficacy. Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine scientists have developed a novel molecular probe detectable by positron emission tomography (PET) imaging...

Marijuana use has little measurable effect on self-reported health or healthcare utilization in adults using drugs

Date: Sep-25-2013
Researchers from Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found frequency of marijuana use was not significantly associated with health services utilization or health status. These findings currently appear online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. As marijuana's legal status changes across the US, its impact on health has become of great interest. Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug, yet its impact on health and healthcare utilization has not been studied extensively...

Avoiding specific region of brain during whole-brain radiotherapy prevents memory loss

Date: Sep-25-2013
Limiting the amount of radiation absorbed in the hippocampal portion of the brain during whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) for brain metastases preserves memory function in patients for up to six months after treatment, according to research presented at the American Society for Radiation Oncology's (ASTRO's) 55th Annual Meeting. The single-arm, phase II study was a multi-institutional, international clinical trial in the U.S. and Canada, conducted through the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG)...

Stronger sexual impulses make men cheat, study shows

Date: Sep-25-2013
A study suggests that men are more likely to cheat than women, not because they have weaker self-control, but because they have stronger sexual impulses. Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University say previous studies have suggested men are more likely than women to pursue romantic partners that are "off limits," but that the explanation for this difference has been unexplored on a large scale. For their study, published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, the researchers conducted two separate experiments...

In intermediate risk prostate cancer, fewer weeks of hormone therapy before radiation reduces side effects

Date: Sep-25-2013
A shorter course of androgen suppression therapy prior to radiation therapy, when compared to a longer course of androgen suppression therapy, yields favorable outcomes and fewer adverse effects for intermediate-risk prostate cancer patients, according to research presented today at the American Society for Radiation Oncology's (ASTRO) 55th Annual Meeting. The study confirmed a disease-specific-survival (DSS) rate of 95 percent when patients received fewer weeks of neoadjuvant (NEO) total androgen suppression (TAS)...

Children's heart infection risk may be increased by some heart birth defects

Date: Sep-25-2013
Children with certain heart birth defects may have an increased risk for bacterial infection of their heart's lining and valves, according to new research in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. The risk for infection may also be increased in children with congenital heart defects who are under 3 or who've had cardiac surgery within the last six months. Using a large Canadian database, researchers looked at the occurrence of infective endocarditis between 1988 and 2010 in 47,518 children with heart defects. On average the risk of infection by age 18 was 6...