Health News

Urine Analyzer IPhone App Concerns FDA

Date: May-27-2013
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has sent a letter to the developer of a mobile app called "uChek Urine analyzer" stating that the company requires regulatory approval of its mobile app which is able to analyze photos of urine samples. The company that developed the app, "Biosense Technologies", is the first to be under scrutiny by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) about a mobile application...

Protein "GATA-3" Crucial For Immune System Regulation

Date: May-27-2013
Researchers at the University of North Carolina have identified the importance of the protein "GATA-3" in regulating and maintaining the immune system. The function that GATA-3 has in cell development and cancer formation isn't quite yet fully understood. However, the investigators were able to discover just how crucial the protein is in regulating T-cell development, in particular its role in CD8+ cells...

Intelligence Linked To Being Able To Block Out Background Distractions

Date: May-27-2013
A new study has found that people with high IQs are better able to block out background distractions because their brains naturally filter out information that is not considered to be important or relevant. Researchers at The University of Rochester developed a brief visual test that measures the brain's ability to "filter out visual movement". It is the first test developed that provides a non-verbal and culturally unbiased tool for evaluating intelligence...

C-Section Babies At High Risk Of Obesity

Date: May-27-2013
Babies who are born through Cesarean section (c-section) are much more likely to become obese when they grow up compared to babies who are delivered vaginally, reveals a new study carried out in the U.K which included more than 10,000 children. Around 33% of births in the U.S. are cesarean births, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the rate of c-sections is rising. The study, led Dr. Jan Blustein, Ph.D., M.D., from the New York University of Medicine, analyzed data on a total of 10,219 British born children between 1991 and 1992...

Aggressive Prostate Cancer Tumors Share The Same Genetic Origins

Date: May-27-2013
Using a new form of genomic analysis, researchers at Mayo Clinic have identified that some of the more aggressive prostate cancer tumors share the same genetic origins, lending more insight into the development of prostate cancer. The finding, published in the journal Cancer Research, could significantly help predict prostate cancer progression. One of the authors of the study, John Cheville, M.D...

Two Gene Mutations Responsible For Infantile Myofibromatosis Identified

Date: May-27-2013
Researchers at Mount Sinai have identified two mutations responsible for the development of infantile myofibromatosis (IM) - a tumor disorder of the skin, bone, and tissue. The finding, published in The American Journal of Human Genetics, is crucial for the development of treatment options for the disease, providing new therapeutic drug targets. Currently, the only treatment option for this disorder is the surgical removal of the tumors. However, this very invasive and painful procedure is often necessary throughout a patient's life...

Identifying Abnormally Activated Genes To Predict Cancer Virulence

Date: May-27-2013
Scientists have found a new way of tackling cancer and predicting the virulence of tumors, an article published in Science Translational Medicine (May 22nd 2013 issue) reported. The researchers, from the Institut Albert Bonniot de Grenoble, CNRS, Inserm and Université Joseph Fourier, all in France, worked together with doctors and anatomopathologists from the CHU de Grenoble. They demonstrated that all aberrant activation of several genes specific to other tissues occur in all cancers...

Understanding The Pathway Of Meningococcal Disease

Date: May-27-2013
"Neisseria meningitidis is an important human pathogen that can cause rapidly progressing, life threatening meningitis and meningococcal sepsis in humans," Professor Jennings said. "Until now we have not known how it attaches to the human host. It has been a long-standing mystery how it attaches to the airway to colonise" People can be carriers of the bug and not get any symptoms, while some people progress to invasive disease. To understand why, we need to know the detail of how the bacterium colonises the airway...

At Initial Screening Exam, Twice As Many Lung Cancers Detected By CT Compared To X-ray

Date: May-27-2013
National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) investigators also conclude that the 20 percent reduction in lung cancer mortality with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) versus chest X-ray (CXR) screening previously reported in the NLST primary paper is achievable at experienced screening centers in the United States. Physicians have more information to share with their patients about the benefits and risks of LDCT lung cancer screening following today's publication in the New England Journal of Medicine of the results of the first (of three planned) annual screening examinations from the NLST...

Worm EEG Developed To Test The Effects Of Drugs

Date: May-27-2013
Scientists from the University of Southampton have developed a device which records the brain activity of worms to help test the effects of drugs. NeuroChip is a microfluidic electrophysiological device, which can trap the microscopic worm Caenorhadbitis elegans and record the activity of discrete neural circuits in its 'brain' - a worm equivalent of the EEG. C. elegans have been enormously important in providing insight into fundamental signalling processes in the nervous system and this device opens the way for a new analysis...