Health News

Non-Medically Indicated Delivery Prior To 39 Weeks In United States Hospitals

Date: May-08-2013
A national movement to eliminate non-medically indicated (NMI) delivery before 39 weeks has prompted nearly two-thirds of all U.S. hospitals handling non-emergency births to adopt specific policies against the practice, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The results of the nationwide survey represent a strong step in promoting maternal and perinatal health, and reducing the number of infants requiring admission to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)...

Over A Million Babies Die The First Day They Are Born

Date: May-08-2013
According to a new report released by "Save the Children's State of the World's Mothers", more than 1 million babies die the first day they are born (each year). A newborn's first day is the most dangerous day of his/her life and a lot of these deaths can be avoided if more health safety measures are implemented, says Save The Children. The data come from the world's first global analysis of the prevalence of newborns dying the first day they are born. In addition to these findings the report also includes data about which country is the best place to be a mother...

Researchers Discover How Breast Cancer Spreads

Date: May-08-2013
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered why breast cancer patients with dense breasts are more likely than others to develop aggressive tumors that spread. The finding opens the door to drug treatments that prevent metastasis. It has long been known that women with denser breasts are at higher risk for breast cancer. This greater density is caused by an excess of a structural protein called collagen...

Nerve Protecting Agents May Help Prevent Chemotherapy-Induced Anemia

Date: May-08-2013
Cancer chemotherapy can cause peripheral neuropathy - nerve damage often resulting in pain and muscle weakness in the arms and legs. Now, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered that chemo also induces an insidious type of nerve damage inside bone marrow that can cause delays in recovery after bone marrow transplantation...

Brain Cells Cure Epilepsy In Mouse Model

Date: May-08-2013
UCSF scientists controlled seizures in epileptic mice with a one-time transplantation of medial ganglionic eminence (MGE) cells, which inhibit signaling in overactive nerve circuits, into the hippocampus, a brain region associated with seizures, as well as with learning and memory. Other researchers had previously used different cell types in rodent cell transplantation experiments and failed to stop seizures...

New, Less-Invasive Option For Replacement Of Failed Biological Aortic Valve In High Risk Patients

Date: May-08-2013
When a biologic aortic valve prosthesis fails, the patient often faces a high risk valve replacement through repeat open heart surgery. A new technique, known as Valve-in-Valve, uses minimally invasive techniques to introduce a collapsible aortic heart valve into the damaged valve in order to restore function...

HPV Vaccine - Young Women Motivated More By STD Than Cancer Protection

Date: May-08-2013
Young women are more likely to take the HPV vaccine if they are told it protects from a nasty sexually transmitted disease, even though it also protects from potentially deadly cervical cancer, researchers from The Ohio State University and Texas Tech University discovered. Emphasizing the HPV vaccine's STD (sexually transmitted disease) prevention is better at getting more young women to take it. Most health care professionals believe that scaring women about a cancer risk is more effective - this is not so as far as the HPV vaccine is concerned, the researchers found...

In Older People, Traumatic Brain Injury Poses Complex Diagnostic, Management And Treatment Challenges

Date: May-08-2013
Each year more than 1.7 million people in the United States sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The incidence of TBI in older adults poses special diagnostic, management and treatment challenges, say experts in a special collection of papers on TBI in the elderly in NeuroRehabilitation: An Interdisciplinary Journal. "As our understanding of TBI increases, it is becoming clear that its impact is not uniform across the lifespan and that the response of a young brain to a TBI is different from that of an old brain," writes Guest Editor Wayne A...

Study Findings Could Lead To Treatments In Cancer, Neurological Diseases

Date: May-08-2013
Kansas State University scientists helped discover new details about an intricate process in cells. Their finding may advance treatments for cancer and neurological diseases. Kansas State University researchers Jeroen Roelofs, assistant professor, and Chingakham Ranjit Singh, research assistant professor -- both in the Division of Biology -- led part of the study. Both also are research affiliates with the university's Johnson Cancer Research Center. They worked with colleagues at Harvard Medical School, the University of California-San Francisco and the University of Kansas...

Study Finds Flu Vaccine Safe For Children With IBD

Date: May-08-2013
Influenza immunization rates in children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are low despite its safety according to a new study by researchers at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI), and the University of Ottawa. Yearly influenza immunization is recommended in patients with IBD, including sub-types of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. However, concern about vaccine-related adverse events may limit uptake...