Health News

In Animal Model, Dietary Fructose Found To Cause Liver Damage

Date: Jun-24-2013
The role of dietary fructose in the development of obesity and fatty liver diseases remains controversial, with previous studies indicating that the problems resulted from fructose and a diet too high in calories. However, a new study conducted in an animal model at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center showed that fructose rapidly caused liver damage even without weight gain. The researchers found that over the six-week study period liver damage more than doubled in the animals fed a high-fructose diet as compared to those in the control group...

Staph Bone Infections Have A New Model, And Possibly A New Treatment

Date: Jun-24-2013
Osteomyelitis - a debilitating bone infection most frequently caused by Staphylococcus aureus ("staph") bacteria - is particularly challenging to treat. Now, Vanderbilt microbiologist Eric Skaar, Ph.D., MPH, and colleagues have identified a staph-killing compound that may be an effective treatment for osteomyelitis, and they have developed a new mouse model that will be useful for testing this compound and for generating additional therapeutic strategies. James Cassat, M.D., Ph.D...

Three Important Studies Published In The June Issue Of Neurosurgery

Date: Jun-24-2013
The results of three important studies have been published in the June issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. One study indicates that continuous "machine learning" using artificial neural networks (ANNs) may improve the ability to predict survival in patients with advanced brain cancers...

Researchers Track Cellular Events Leading To Cardiac Regeneration In Zebrafish

Date: Jun-24-2013
In a study published in the online edition of the journal Nature, a scientific team led by researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine visually monitored the dynamic cellular events that take place when cardiac regeneration occurs in zebrafish after cardiac ventricular injury. Their findings provide evidence that various cell lines in the heart are more plastic, or capable of transformation into new cell types, than previously thought...

Vitamin D Levels Significantly Increased By Probiotic Lactobacillus Reuteri NCIMB 30242

Date: Jun-24-2013
A study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism is the first report of an oral probiotic supplement significantly increasing circulating vitamin D levels in the blood. The lead author on the study, Mitchell Jones, MD, PhD, received the Early Career Investigator Poster Presentation Prize from the New York Academy of Sciences and the Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science at Probiotics, Prebiotics, and the Host Microbiome: The Science of Translation conference in New York City(1)...

Stress From 9/11 Linked To Nationwide Resurgence In Smoking Among Americans Who Had Quit

Date: Jun-24-2013
The 9/11 attacks on America appear to have caused about one million former smokers across the country to take up the habit again and maintain it, according to a Weill Cornell Medical College public health study. The analysis, published in the June 20 issue of the journal Contemporary Economic Policy, is the first to look at the net costs to society of terrorism-induced smoking in the United States after 9/11 and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing...

Urban Trees Remove Fine Particulate Air Pollution, Save Lives

Date: Jun-24-2013
In the first effort to estimate the overall impact of a city's urban forest on concentrations of fine particulate pollution (particulate matter less than 2.5 microns, or PM2.5), a U.S. Forest Service and Davey Institute study found that urban trees and forests are saving an average of one life every year per city. In New York City, trees save an average of eight lives every year. Fine particulate air pollution has serious health effects, including premature mortality, pulmonary inflammation, accelerated atherosclerosis, and altered cardiac functions...

Light And Nanoprobes Detect Early Signs Of Infection

Date: Jun-24-2013
Duke University biomedical engineers and genome researchers have developed a proof-of-principle approach using light to detect infections before patients show symptoms. The approach was demonstrated in human samples, and researchers are now developing the technique for placement on a chip, which could provide fast, simple and reliable information about a patient. A diagnostic device based on this chip also could be made portable...

Seriously Burned Patients May Be Saved By Restoring Appropriate Movement To Immune Cells

Date: Jun-24-2013
Advances in emergency medicine and trauma surgery have had a significant impact on survival of patients in the days immediately after major injuries, including burns. Patients who survive the immediate aftermath of their injuries now are at greatest risk from infections - particularly the overwhelming, life-threatening immune reaction known as sepsis - or from inflammation-induced multiorgan failure...

Reports Of Retained Guidewires Draw Attention To 'Never Events' In Anesthesia

Date: Jun-24-2013
Retention of guidewires used to place central venous catheters (CVCs) is a complication that is considered always preventable - but nevertheless still happens, according to a report in the July issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS). Dr Andrea Vannucci and colleagues report their hospital's experience of four patients with retained guidewires, and analyze risk factors for these rare, preventable medical errors...