Health News

Lilly Terminates Alzheimer's Drug Trial, Citing Abnormal Liver Tests

Date: Jun-16-2013
Eli Lilly's Phase II study for an investigational drug for Alzheimer's disease has been terminated due to abnormal liver biochemical tests. The company says that clinical study investigators have been informed. The compound in question, a beta secretase (BACE) inhibitor called LY2886721, was being tested as a once-daily therapy to slow down Alzheimer's disease progression. Jan M. Lundberg, Ph.D...

South Asian Women Have Higher Breast Cancer Risk Than White Women, UK

Date: Jun-16-2013
South Asian women in Britain have an 8% higher risk of developing breast cancer than British white women, compared to a 45% lower risk ten years ago, researchers from the University of Sheffield reported at the National Cancer Intelligence Network Conference in Brighton on Friday, June 14th. Study leader, Dr. Matthew Day and team are not sure why breast cancer incidence has increased so rapidly among British South Asian females...

Public Health Research Using Geographic Information Systems

Date: Jun-16-2013
The current special issue of Technology and Innovation - Proceedings of the National Academy of Inventors®, is devoted to public health research using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to help provide beneficial data for public health researchers focusing on health risks and food access in rural Alaska; racial disparities in health care and resources in Fort Worth, Texas; and pathways for health care development in remote areas of Nepal. GIS describes a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage and present geographical data...

New Layer In Human Eye Discovered

Date: Jun-16-2013
A new layer in the front layer of the human eye has been discovered by researchers at The University of Nottingham. The findings, published in the journal Ophthalmology, could significantly help doctors carry out corneal grafts or transplants. The layer has been called the "Dua's Layer", named after the researcher who led the study, Professor Harminder Dua. Harminder Dua, Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, said that the discovery means that ophthalmology textbooks will literally have to be re-written...

Engineered Virus Will Improve Gene Therapy For Blinding Eye Diseases

Date: Jun-16-2013
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed an easier and more effective method for inserting genes into eye cells that could greatly expand gene therapy to help restore sight to patients with blinding diseases ranging from inherited defects like retinitis pigmentosa to degenerative illnesses of old age, such as macular degeneration. Unlike current treatments, the new procedure - which takes a little as 15-minutes - is surgically non-invasive, and it delivers normal genes to difficult-to-reach cells throughout the entire retina...

Teaching Versus Non-Teaching Hospitals: Comparing Differences In Outcomes Of Cervical Spine Surgery

Date: Jun-16-2013
For patients undergoing surgery on the cervical (upper) spine, overall rates of complications and death are higher at teaching hospitals than at non-teaching hospitals, reports a study in the journal Spine. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. But the differences are small and are likely explained by the more-complex surgeries performed and higher-risk patients treated at teaching hospitals, according to the report by Dr Kern Singh of Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, colleagues...

The Effectiveness Of Green Coffee Bean Weight-Loss Supplements Questioned

Date: Jun-16-2013
A major ingredient in those green coffee bean dietary supplements - often touted as "miracle" weight-loss products - doesn't prevent weight gain in obese laboratory mice fed a high-fat diet when given at higher doses. That's the conclusion of a first-of-its-kind study published in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. It also linked the ingredient to an unhealthy build-up of fat in the liver. Vance Matthews, Kevin Croft and their team note that coffee is rich in healthful, natural, plant-based polyphenol substances...

Older People May Be Protected From Influenza By Their Saliva

Date: Jun-16-2013
Spit. Drool. Dribble. Saliva is not normally a topic of polite conversation, but it may be the key to explaining the age and sex bias exhibited by influenza and other diseases, according to a new study. Published in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research, it provides new insights into why older people were better able to fight off the new strains of "bird" flu and "swine" flu than younger people. Zheng Li and colleagues explain that saliva does more than start the process of digesting certain foods. Saliva also contains germ-fighting proteins that are a first-line defense against infections...

Survey Results For Mobile Phone And Tablet Usage Among EHR And Non-EHR Users

Date: Jun-16-2013
Two reports from AmericanEHR Partners based on a survey of nearly 1,400 physicians suggests that tablets are of greater use for clinical purposes than smartphones. "Mobile Usage in the Medical Space 2013" and "Tablet Usage by Physicians 2013" reveal that the most common activity of physicians who use an electronic health record (EHR) and use a smartphone or tablet is "sending and receiving emails." The second most frequent activity among tablet users is accessing EHRs (51 percent daily). Just 7 percent of physicians use their smartphone to access EHRs...

Molecular Motors May Become Jammed, Playing A Role In The Development Of ALS

Date: Jun-16-2013
Slowdowns in the transport and delivery of nutrients, proteins and signaling molecules within nerve cells may contribute to the development of the neurodegenerative disorder ALS, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. The researchers showed how a genetic mutation often associated with inherited ALS caused delays in the transport of these important molecules along the long axons of neurons. Their findings were published in the online journal PLOS ONE...