Health News

IPhone Microscope Helps Diagnose Intestinal Worms

Date: Mar-14-2013
Smart phones are transforming the way that people communicate throughout the world. Now scientists are using them in an innovative way to help diagnose intestinal worm infections in school children living in rural Tanzania. The scientists have developed an inexpensive microscope using a glass lens costing $8 USD, a strip of double-sided tape, and a cheap flashlight - altering an iPhone 4s into a device that can detect intestinal worm infections; parasites that infect two billion people and result in malnutrition...

Simple Blood Test May Help Patients With Risks For Heart Disease

Date: Mar-14-2013
For at-risk patients, a simple screening and management program can be effective in preventing heart failure, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. The five-year STOP-HF study enrolled asymptomatic patients over 40 years of age with risk factors for heart failure and randomized them into an intervention and a control group...

Researchers Predict Unfavorable Outcomes In Surgical Patients With Brain Tumor, Low T3

Date: Mar-14-2013
In a study of 90 patients undergoing surgery for brain tumor, researchers in Lithuania (Lithuanian University of Health Sciences) and the United States (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard University) have discovered that the finding of low T3 (triiodothyronine) syndrome is predictive of unfavorable clinical outcomes and depressive symptoms. Details of this study are furnished in the article "Low triiodothyronine syndrome as a predictor of poor outcomes in patients undergoing brain tumor surgery: a pilot study...

ADP-Ribose Modification And Hereditary Neurodegeneration Linked

Date: Mar-14-2013
Attaching chains of the small molecule ADP-ribose to proteins is important for a cell's survival and the repair of DNA damage, making this process a promising target for the development of new cancer drugs. Researchers have now identified a much sought after enzyme that removes such ADP-ribose modifications from proteins by studying a genetic mutation that causes neurodegenerative disease in humans. These findings, published in The EMBO Journal, suggest that not only addition but also removal of ADP-ribose from proteins is essential for normal cell function...

Study Finds Fewer Complications After Off-Pump Bypass Surgery Versus On-Pump For High-Risk Patients

Date: Mar-14-2013
Bypass surgery done without a heart-lung machine, known as off-pump, may provide better post-operative outcomes than on-pump bypass surgery for high-risk patients, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. In the first study to look specifically at on-pump versus off-pump bypass surgery among patients deemed to be at high operative risk, researchers examined the primary endpoint of patients' combined outcomes of all-cause death, stroke, heart attack or renal failure requiring new hemodialysis within 30 days of their procedure...

Sleep Mechanism Discovered That Is Critical To Memory Consolidation

Date: Mar-14-2013
A team of sleep researchers led by UC Riverside psychologist Sara C. Mednick has confirmed the mechanism that enables the brain to consolidate memory and found that a commonly prescribed sleep aid enhances the process. Those discoveries could lead to new sleep therapies that will improve memory for aging adults and those with dementia, Alzheimer's and schizophrenia. The groundbreaking research appears in a paper, "The Critical Role of Sleep Spindles in Hippocampal-Dependent Memory: A Pharmacology Study," published in the Journal of Neuroscience...

New Technique Enables More Precise Design Of Tissue Architecture

Date: Mar-14-2013
Researchers at Columbia Engineering have developed a new "plug-and-play" method to assemble complex cell microenvironments that is a scalable, highly precise way to fabricate tissues with any spatial organization or interest - such as those found in the heart or skeleton or vasculature. The study reveals new ways to better mimic the enormous complexity of tissue development, regeneration, and disease, and is published in a recent Early Online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)...

Addressing Nutritional Deficiency In Malawi By Adding Fertilizers To Crops

Date: Mar-14-2013
Enriching crops by adding a naturally-occurring soil mineral to fertilisers could potentially help to reduce disease and premature death in the African country of Malawi, researchers have said. An international study led by academics at The University of Nottingham has shown that dietary deficiency of the mineral selenium - which plays a vital role in keeping the immune system healthy and fighting illness - is likely to be endemic among the Malawi population...

Fetal Exposure To Pesticide DDT Linked To Adult High Blood Pressure In Women

Date: Mar-14-2013
Infant girls exposed to high levels of the pesticide DDT while still inside the womb are three times more likely to develop hypertension when they become adults, according to a new study led by the University of California, Davis. Previous studies have shown that adults exposed to DDT (dichlorodiplhenyltrichloroethane) are at an increased risk of high blood pressure. But this study, published online in Environmental Health Perspectives, is the first to link prenatal DDT exposure to hypertension in adults...

Consumption Of Sugared Beverages Linked To Higher Caloric Intake Of Food In Children

Date: Mar-14-2013
A new study from the Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reports that sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) are primarily responsible for higher caloric intakes of children that consume SSBs as compared to children that do not (on a given day). In addition, SSB consumption is also associated with higher intake of unhealthy foods. The results are published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine...