Health News

St. Michael's reports second known case of patient developing synesthesia after brain injury

Date: Aug-01-2013
About nine months after suffering a stroke, the patient noticed that words written in a certain shade of blue evoked a strong feeling of disgust. Yellow was only slightly better. Raspberries, which he never used to eat very often, now tasted like blue - and blue tasted like raspberries. High-pitched brass instruments - specifically the brass theme from James Bond movies - elicited feelings of ecstasy and light blue flashes in his peripheral vision and caused large parts of his brain to light up on an MRI...

Lessons from combat care helped save lives and limbs after Boston bombing, reports

Date: Aug-01-2013
Collaboration across surgical specialties and lessons from combat casualty care - especially the use of tourniquets and other effective strategies to control bleeding - helped mount an effective surgical response to aid victims of the Boston Marathon bombings, according to a special editorial in the July issue of The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, which is led by Editor-in-Chief Mutaz B. Habal, MD, and published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health...

Full body illusion is associated with a drop in skin temperature

Date: Aug-01-2013
Researchers from the Center for Neuroprosthetics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Switzerland, show that people can be "tricked" into feeling that an image of a human figure - an "avatar" - is their own body. The study is published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. Twenty-two volunteers underwent a Full Body Illusion when they were stroked with a robotic device system while they watched an avatar being stroked in the same spot...

How vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) spreads among regional hospitals

Date: Aug-01-2013
A moderate increase in vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) at one hospital can lead to a nearly 3 percent increase in VRE in every other hospital in that county, according to a study in the August issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). VRE is one of the most common bacteria that cause infections in healthcare facilities...

BPA may be linked to infertility in women

Date: Aug-01-2013
A new study from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) recently analyzed the effects of Bisphenol-A (BPA) on human eggs, and it may reveal why some couples are unable to conceive. The study, published recently online in the journal Human Reproduction, is the first of its kind to show the direct effects of BPA on egg maturation in humans. BPA is a chemical that is used to make certain plastics and resins, and it can be found in some water bottles, food cans, bottle tops or water supply lines. The experiment was led by Dr...

Protein surface defects act as drug targets - new way of designing drug candidates

Date: Aug-01-2013
Drug designers now have a new way of designing drug candidates suitable for dislodging unstable water molecules New research shows a physical characterisation of the interface of the body's proteins with water. Identifying the locations where it is easiest to remove water from the interface of target proteins could constitute a novel drug design strategy. The candidate drugs would need to be engineered to bind at the site of the protein where interfacial water is most easily dislodged...

Placebo effects of different therapies not identical

Date: Jul-31-2013
Not all placebos are equal, and patients who respond to one placebo don't always respond to others, according to research published July 31 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Jian Kong from Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and colleagues from other institutions.  The researchers tested the analgesic effects of genuine acupuncture, sham acupuncture and a placebo pill on healthy participants' pain sensitivity...

Lunch with company reduces cognitive control, may increase social harmony

Date: Jul-31-2013
Lunch at a restaurant with friends reduces cognitive control more than lunch eaten alone at a desk does, according to research published July 31 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Werner Sommer from the Humboldt University at Berlin, Germany, and colleagues from other institutions.  Participants in the study either ate a solitary meal alone at their desk in a restricted amount of time, or took a short walk to a restaurant for an hour-long lunch with a friend. All meals were identical in the kind and amounts of food consumed...

Nonsentinel lymph node positivity appears to be significant prognostic factor in patients with melanoma

Date: Jul-31-2013
Nonsentinel lymph node (NSLN) positivity appears to be a significant prognostic factor in patients with stage III melanoma, according to a study by Anna M. Leung M.D., of the John Wayne Cancer Institute at Saint John's Health Center, Santa Monica, California, and colleagues. Regional lymph node metastasis in patients with primary cutaneous melanoma is the most important prognostic factor for tumor recurrence and survival...

Report describes malignant melanoma that developed on a pigmented skin lesion within a tattoo underlying laser removal

Date: Jul-31-2013
A case report from Germany describes a young man who developed malignant melanoma on a pre-existing nevus (skin lesion known as a mole or birthmark) within a tattoo during and between the phases of laser tattoo removal, according to a report by Laura Pohl, M.D., of Laserklinik Karlsruhe, Germany, and colleagues. "Pigmented lesions in decorative tattoos cause diagnostic difficulties at a clinical and dermoscopic level. In cases of laser removal of tattoos, hidden suspicious nevi may be revealed gradually," the researchers stated...