Health News

Psychoactivity Of HIV Antiretroviral Drug Leads To Recreational Use

Date: Apr-22-2013
More than 1 in 270 people in the US are living with HIV and every 9.5 minutes someone is else is infected. The economic cost estimates associated with HIV/AIDS exceed 36 billion dollars a year. The development of effective drug treatments have allowed people with HIV to live longer with federal health officials now predicting that by 2015 one-half of the population with HIV in the US will be older than 50. Efavirenz (tradenames: Sustiva®, Stocrin®) is an antiretroviral (ARV) drug commonly used to treat HIV...

Inflammatory Factors In The Brain May Hold The Key To Depression/Cardiovascular Disease Comorbidity

Date: Apr-22-2013
Depression is the leading cause of disability with more than 350 million people globally affected by this disease. In addition to debilitating consequences on mental health, depression predisposes an individual to physiological disease such as heart disease, and conversely heart disease increases the risk of depression. According to the World Health Organization by the year 2020 heart disease and depression will be the number one and number two leading causes of disability in developed countries...

Digital Anatomical Library Created By Scientists Scanning The Human Heart

Date: Apr-22-2013
JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments) is publishing a new video article by Dr. Paul A Iaizzo demonstrating the anatomical reconstruction of an active human heart. The research uses contrast-computed tomography (CT) to allow in-depth 3-D computer modeling of hearts that can be used for prolonged archiving. Computational technology, when combined with advanced imaging techniques like CT, gives researchers extensive insight to the structure and function of human organs...

Research May Lead To Better Treatment For Liver Disease

Date: Apr-22-2013
A certain number of patients hospitalised for cirrhosis complications soon develop a syndrome characterised by acute liver failure and/or the failure of other vital organs (ACLF). This syndrome had no specific diagnostic criteria hitherto. In this prospective study, led by Dr Richard Moreau, INSERM Research Director (Mixed Research Unit 773 "Centre de Recherche biomedicale Bichat-Beaujon"; INSERM/Universite Paris Diderot) who is also a practitioner attached to the Hepatology Department of the Beaujon Hospital (AP-HP), researchers studied a cohort of 1343 patients from 12 European countries...

In Women With Dense Breasts, Screening Breast Ultrasound Detects Cancers Missed On Mammography

Date: Apr-22-2013
Screening breast ultrasound performed after mammography on women with greater than 50% breast density detects an additional 3.4 cancers or high risk lesions per one thousand woman screened, a detection rate just under that of screening mammography alone for women with less dense breasts, a new study shows. Screening mammography detects 4-5 cancers per thousand women screened. The study, conducted in conjunction with seven Connecticut radiology practices, included 19,745 women who had dense breasts and "normal" mammograms. Sixty-seven cancers were found, said Dr...

Evolving Genes

Date: Apr-22-2013
Researchers have designed a method that can universally test for evolutionary adaption, or positive (Darwinian) selection, in any chosen set of genes, using re-sequencing data such as that generated by the 1000 Genomes Project. The method identifies gene sets that show evidence for positive selection in comparison with matched controls, and thus highlights genes for further functional studies. The method was employed to test whether any of the genes directly regulated by FOXP2 may themselves have undergone positive selection following the known selection at the FOXP2 genetic region...

Research Suggests Transmission Of Respiratory Viruses In Utero And Offers Understanding Of Asthma Development

Date: Apr-22-2013
The most common cause of lower respiratory tract infections in infants and young children, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), can be transferred during pregnancy to an unborn baby, according to Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital research published online in the journal PLOS ONE. In animal models, the study shows that RSV is able to spread across the placenta from the respiratory tract of the mother to the fetus, and is present in the lungs after birth, throughout development and into adulthood...

Best Practices To Improve Safety And Effectiveness Of Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT)

Date: Apr-22-2013
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has issued a new white paper, "Assuring Safety and Quality in Image Guided Delivery of Radiation Therapy," that recommends best practices to improve the safety and effectiveness of image guided radiation therapy (IGRT), according to the manuscript published as an article in press online in Practical Radiation Oncology (PRO), the official clinical practice journal of ASTRO. The executive summary and supplemental material are available online* as open-access articles and will be published in a 2013 print edition of PRO...

Improved Understanding Of DNA Copying Process

Date: Apr-22-2013
Research led by a scientist at the University of York has thrown new light on the way breakdowns in the DNA copying process inside cells can contribute to cancer and other diseases. Peter McGlynn, an Anniversary Professor in the University's Department of Biology, led a team of researchers who have discovered that the protein machines that copy DNA in a model organism pause frequently during this copying process, creating the potential for dangerous mutations to develop...

Inexpensive Tactile Sensing Technology Leads To Robots With A Gentler Touch

Date: Apr-22-2013
What use is a hand without nerves, that can't tell what it's holding? A hand that lifts a can of soda to your lips, but inadvertently tips or crushes it in the process? Researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a very inexpensive tactile sensor for robotic hands that is sensitive enough to turn a brute machine into a dextrous manipulator...