Health News

Food allergy in infants may be related to eczema

Date: Jul-22-2013
A breakdown of the skin barrier and inflammation in the skin that occurs in eczema could play a key role in triggering food sensitivity in babies, a new study reveals. Scientists say this finding indicates that food allergies may develop via immune cells in the skin rather than the gut, highlighting eczema as a potential target for preventing food allergy in children...

Insect movement without muscles could inspire development of prosthetic limbs

Date: Jul-22-2013
Neurobiologists from the University of Leicester have shown that insect limbs can move without muscles - a finding that may provide engineers with new ways to improve the control of robotic and prosthetic limbs. Their work helps to explain how insects control their movements using a close interplay of neuronal control and 'clever biomechanical tricks,' says lead researcher Dr Tom Matheson, a Reader in Neurobiology at the University of Leicester...

Mouse Genetics Project reveals new genes and pathways linked to human disease

Date: Jul-22-2013
Researchers have created a large new resource of more than 900 genes switched off one-at-a-time in mice to discover which genes are important for a wide range of biological functions such as fertility or hearing. This resource, known as the Mouse Genetics Project, screens for characteristics and early signs of disease, revealing many new functions for well-known genes, as well as for genes with no previously-known role in disease. Many of these variations in body function are likely to underlie human diseases...

Combined therapy effective for infantile spasms

Date: Jul-22-2013
Adrenocorticotropic hormone is recommended worldwide as an initial therapy for infantile spasms. However, infantile spasms in about 50% of children cannot be fully controlled by adrenocorticotropic hormone monotherapy, seizures recur in 33% of patients who initially respond to adrenocorticotropic hormone monotherapy, and side effects are relatively common during adrenocorticotropic hormone treatment...

The marriage rate has declined by almost 60 percent since 1970

Date: Jul-22-2013
Fewer women are getting married and they're waiting longer to tie the knot when they do decide to walk down the aisle. That's according to a new Family Profile from the National Center for Family and Marriage Research (NCFMR) at Bowling Green State University. According to "Marriage: More than a Century of Change," the U.S. marriage rate is 31.1, the lowest it's been in over a century. That equals roughly 31 marriages per 1,000 married women. Compare that to 1920, when the marriage rate was a staggering 92.3. Since 1970, the marriage rate has declined by almost 60 percent...

Patients with major depressive disorder exhibit abnormal activation of the occipital lobes

Date: Jul-22-2013
A recent study published in the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 8, No. 18, 2013) combined cognition tasks and functional MRI, and designed multiple repeated event-related tasks; additionally, using the International Affective Picture System-based event-related tasks, this study investigated brain functional characteristics of major depressive disorder patients exhibiting, negative bias brain imaging changes and cognitive dysfunction, as well as their relationship based on biased quantitative data...

Genetic link discovered between obesity and asthma

Date: Jul-22-2013
Genes linked to chronic inflammation in asthma may be more active in people who are obese, according to new research that uncovers several biological ties between obesity and asthma. "Our findings point the way to the management of asthma in the obese through simple weight reduction," said first author Paresh Dandona, MD, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Chief of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the University at Buffalo...

A simple way to reduce healthcare costs

Date: Jul-22-2013
A study led by a Loyola University Medical Center ENT physician provides a case study of a simple action that can reduce healthcare costs without compromising care. Matthew Kircher, MD, and colleagues examined one of the costs associated with surgery to remove a type of cyst, called a cholesteatoma, from the middle ear. Otologists routinely send specimens to the pathology lab, but the study found this doesn't appear to be necessary...

Automated reporting via electronic health records helps fight vaccine-preventable diseases

Date: Jul-22-2013
Using an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system to automate the immunization data shared between health providers and public health agencies enables physicians to assist individual patients faster and more effectively, while also providing more immediate, cohesive community data to the agencies tasked with promoting public health. Those are the findings of a new study conducted by researchers from Columbia University School of Nursing and partner institutions...

All aspects of paediatric arrhythmias included in consensus statement

Date: Jul-22-2013
A joint consensus statement on the treatment of paediatric arrhythmias has been released by the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the Association for European Paediatric and Congenital Cardiology (AEPC). "Pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapy for arrhythmias in the paediatric population" is published in EP-Europace.1 Consensus statements have been published on arrhythmias in adults but this is the first European statement concerning the diagnosis and management of paediatric arrhythmias...