Health News

Phase III Clinical Trial Results For Rotavirus Vaccine Developed In India

Date: May-15-2013
The Government of India's Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Bharat Biotech announced positive results from a Phase III clinical trial of a rotavirus vaccine developed and manufactured in India. Data from the trial, presented at the International Symposium on Rotavirus Vaccines for India -The Evidence and the Promise, showed ROTAVAC® to have an excellent safety and efficacy profile. The clinical study demonstrates for the first time that the India-developed rotavirus vaccine ROTAVAC® is efficacious in preventing severe rotavirus diarrhoea in low-resource settings in India...

Neuroscientists Document Unconscious Processing Of Syntactic Miscues That We Miss

Date: May-15-2013
Your brain often works on autopilot when it comes to grammar. That theory has been around for years, but University of Oregon neuroscientists have captured elusive hard evidence that people indeed detect and process grammatical errors with no awareness of doing so. Participants in the study - native-English speaking people, ages 18-30 - had their brain activity recorded using electroencephalography, from which researchers focused on a signal known as the Event-Related Potential (ERP)...

Inhibiting Powerful Protein With New Agents May Supply Broad Benefit For Lymphoma Patients

Date: May-15-2013
A soon-to-be-tested class of drug inhibitors were predicted to help a limited number of patients with B-cell lymphomas with mutations affecting the EZH2 protein. However, a research team, led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medical College, now report that these agents may, in fact, help a much broader cross section of lymphoma patients. The study, reported in Cancer Cell, found that the EZH2 protein the drug agents inhibited is a powerful regulatory molecule in B-cells, and a key driver of cancer in these immune cells. The study's lead investigator, Weill Cornell Medical College's Dr...

Huge Number Of Infections Prevented In Intensive Care Units

Date: May-15-2013
New research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that as many as 200,000 central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) have been prevented among patients in intensive care units (ICUs) since 1990. The study, published in the June issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, suggests that this progress is likely related to prevention strategies now common in hospitals across the United States...

Emissions From Coal-Fired Electricity Plants May Affect People Suffering From Different Mood Disorders And Impact Suicide Rates

Date: May-15-2013
New research from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center finds that suicide, while strongly associated with psychiatric conditions, also correlates with environmental pollution. Lead researcher John G. Spangler, M.D., M.P.H., a professor of family medicine at Wake Forest Baptist, looked specifically at the relationship between air pollution and emissions from coal-fired electricity plants...

Child Brides At Increased Risk For Maternal And Infant Mortality

Date: May-15-2013
Countries in which girls are commonly married before the age of 18 have significantly higher rates of maternal and infant mortality, report researchers in the current online issue of the journal Violence Against Women. The study, by Anita Raj, PhD, a professor in the Department of Medicine in the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Ulrike Boehmer, PhD, an associate professor in the Boston University School of Public Health, is the first published ecological analysis of child marriage and maternal mortality...

Drug Combo Looks Promising For Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

Date: May-15-2013
Doctors at Dartmouth-Hitchcock's Norris Cotton Cancer Center (NCCC) have found a combination of drugs to potentially treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) more effectively. The research was published online recently, and it will appear as a letter in the journal Leukemia, a publication of the prestigious Nature Publishing Group. The study helps address a basic problem of treating CLL. CLL lives both in the blood in circulation, and in lymph nodes and bone marrow...

Poll Reveals That Majority Of Michigan Parents, Grandparents Prefer Research Hospitals For Pediatric Care

Date: May-15-2013
Four out of five parents and grandparents in Michigan say they'd rather take children to a hospital that does medical research for children than one that does not, according to a new poll from the University of Michigan. A new study from the Michigan Child Health Research Priorities team at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital found that more than 80 percent of parents and grandparents prefer a hospital that does medical research about children - if they can expect the same level of care, the hospital is equally accessible and with no difference in cost...

Significant Variations In Digital Mammography Cancer Detection Rates

Date: May-15-2013
Digital direct radiography (DR) is significantly more effective than computed radiography (CR) at detecting breast cancer, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology. The findings are the first to show a difference between the two types of digital imaging when compared with screen film mammography and suggest that women should be informed of the potential for lower cancer detection with CR, the researchers said...

Cancer Metastasis Promoted By Tumor-Activated Protein

Date: May-15-2013
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center report that cancers physically alter cells in the lymphatic system - a network of vessels that transports and stores immune cells throughout the body - to promote the spread of disease, a process called metastasis. The findings are published in this week's online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...