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Reducing Interns' Hours May Harm Patient Safety
Date: Mar-26-2013A new study suggests new national regulations to further restrict the duty hours of first year resident medical trainees (interns) in the US may be harming patient safety and physicians' training. On 1 July 2011, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) brought in further restrictions of its 2003 regulations on duty hours and supervision. The ACGME is the body responsible for accrediting the majority of graduate medical training programs for physicians in the United States...
New DNA Test To Detect Mutations Across 46 Genes In NHS Patients With Solid Tumour (UK)
Date: Mar-26-2013The first multi-gene DNA sequencing test that can help predict cancer patients' responses to treatment has been launched in the National Health Service (NHS), thanks to a partnership between scientists at the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. The test uses the latest DNA sequencing techniques to detect mutations across 46 genes that may be driving cancer growth in patients with solid tumours. The presence of a mutation in a gene can potentially determine which treatment a patient should receive...
News From The Journal Of Clinical Investigation: March 25, 2013
Date: Mar-26-2013A new therapeutic target in iron overload disorders Iron is required for multiple cellular functions, including the synthesis of hemoglobin, but a buildup of excess cellular iron can be toxic. Hepcidin is a circulating molecule produced by the liver that triggers the degradation of iron transporters in the intestine and certain immune cells. In response to rising iron stores, increased hepcidin levels lead to reduced iron absorption from the diet...
Negative NICE Decision For Avastin® (Bevacizumab) Highlights Challenges Facing UK Access To Medicines
Date: Mar-26-2013Roche is disappointed that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has published a negative final recommendation (FAD) for the use of Avastin (bevacizumab) in combination with paclitaxel and carboplatin for women with newly-diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer*.(1) This negative decision means that women will continue to rely on their clinicians' successful application to the Cancer Drug Fund (CDF) to access this treatment for advanced ovarian cancer in England...
Accurately Predicting Disease Outbreaks
Date: Mar-26-2013A team of scientists from The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) has developed a novel method to accurately predict dengue fever outbreaks several weeks before they occur. The new method, known as PRedicting Infectious Disease Scalable Model (PRISM), extracts relationships between clinical, meteorological, climatic and socio-political data in Peru and in the Philippines. It can be used in any geographical region and extended to other environmentally influenced infections affecting public health and military forces worldwide...
Multiple ACL Surgery Techniques Effective In Helping Athletes Return To Play
Date: Mar-26-2013Orthopaedic surgeons have debated the effectiveness of the single versus double-bundle method of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) repair for years. However new data shows both techniques lead to similarly effective outcomes for patients, according to researchers presenting their work at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's Specialty Day in Chicago, IL...
Early Warning Signs For Schizophrenia In Childhood
Date: Mar-26-2013Research from the University of North Carolina has shown that children at risk of developing schizophrenia have brains that function differently than those not at risk. Brain scans of children who have parents or siblings with the illness reveal a neural circuitry that is hyperactivated or stressed by tasks that peers with no family history of the illness seem to handle with ease...
How Cells Interact With Surroundings: Computer Simulations Have Implications For Cancer, Atherosclerosis Research
Date: Mar-26-2013Your cells are social butterflies. They constantly interact with their surroundings, taking in cues on when to divide and where to anchor themselves, among other critical tasks. This networking is driven in part by proteins called integrin, which reside in a cell's outer plasma membrane. Their job is to convert mechanical forces from outside the cell into internal chemical signals that tell the cell what to do. That is, when they work properly. When they misfire, integrins can cause diseases such as atherosclerosis and several types of cancer...
Improved Understanding Of How Nerve Cells Are Repaired At Their Farthest Reaches After Injury
Date: Mar-26-2013One molecule makes nerve cells grow longer. Another one makes them grow branches. These new experimental manipulations have taken researchers a step closer to understanding how nerve cells are repaired at their farthest reaches after injury. The research was recently published in the Journal of Neuroscience. "If you injure a peripheral nerve, it will spontaneously regenerate, but it goes very slowly. We're trying to speed that up," said Dr...
Production Of Toxic Shock Toxin Suppressed By Certain Bacteria
Date: Mar-26-2013Certain Streptococci increase their production of toxic shock syndrome toxin 1, sometimes to potentially dangerous levels, when aerobic bacteria are present in the vagina. But scientists from the University of Western Ontario have discovered certain strains of lactobacillus bacteria are capable of dampening production of that toxin according to research published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. "The risk of potentially fatal toxic shock syndrome appears to be influenced by the types of bacteria present in the vagina," says principal investigator Gregor Reid...
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