Health News

Breath Test Could Detect And Diagnose Stomach Cancer

Date: Mar-06-2013
A simple test that analyzes the chemical signature of a patient's exhaled breath could help diagnose stomach cancer, according to new research by scientists from Israel and China reported online in the British Journal of Cancer this week. The researchers hope the breath test will offer an easier screening tool than endoscopy, where a specially trained medical professional looks at the inside of the stomach via a tube inserted down the patient's gullet, and sometimes also retrieves a biopsy sample of the stomach lining...

New Gene Variant May Explain Psychotic Features In Bipolar Disorder

Date: Mar-06-2013
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have found an explanation for why the level of kynurenic acid (KYNA) is higher in the brains of people with schizophrenia or bipolar disease with psychosis. The study, which is published in the scientific periodical Molecular Psychiatry, identifies a gene variant associated with an increased production of KYNA. The discovery contributes to the further understanding of the link between inflammation and psychosis - and might pave the way for improved therapies...

In Late-Stage Diagnosis Of Breast Cancer, Neighborhood Poverty And Health Insurance Are Common

Date: Mar-06-2013
Home may be where the heart is, but where you live could affect your health. "Regardless of geographic location, women who live in high poverty areas or are uninsured are at greatest risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer at a later stage," said lead author Kevin Henry, Department of Geography, University of Utah. A team of scientists was assembled by the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) to examine breast cancer stage at diagnosis among 161,619 women aged 40 years and older diagnosed in ten participating US states...

New Figures Show UK Alcohol Consumption Down 3.3 Per Cent In 2012

Date: Mar-06-2013
UK alcohol consumption per head down again - 3.3 per cent drop in 2012. 16 per cent decline in consumption per head since 2004. Per capita consumption below 8 litres per head, first time since 1998. New figures for UK alcohol consumption in 2012 show that the amount Britons drink has fallen yet again - for the sixth year out of the past eight. Consumption per head is now 16 per cent lower than it was in 2004 when the current trend began, says the British Beer & Pub Association, which has compiled the new data based on HMRC alcohol tax returns...

Tresiba(R) (Insulin Degludec) A New Basal Insulin For Adult Patients With Type 1 And Type 2 Diabetes Is Available In The UK

Date: Mar-06-2013
Insulin degludec is indicated for the treatment of diabetes mellitus in adults[1]. Novo Nordisk UK has announced that insulin degludec (brand name Tresiba(R)), a new oncedaily basal insulin for adult patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, is available in the UK as a new treatment option...

Researchers Identify Seven New Genes Associated With Macular Degeneration

Date: Mar-06-2013
Researchers from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine collaborated with an international team to identify seven new genes associated with agerelated macular degeneration (AMD), the most common form of vision loss in older people. Published online March 3 in Nature Genetics, their study, "Seven New Loci Associated with AgeRelated Macular Degeneration," provides new directions for biological, genetic and therapeutic studies of macular degeneration. Margaret A. PericakVance, Ph.D., director of the John P...

Children's Hospital Of Pittsburgh Of UPMC Study Shows Increase In Liver Transplantation For Hepatoblastoma

Date: Mar-06-2013
Liver transplantation for hepatoblastoma, the most common liver malignancy in children, is on the rise because more tumors are being detected earlier, improving outcomes for these sick patients, according to a Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC study. Results of the study, led by Rakesh Sindhi, M.D., codirector, Pediatric Transplantation at the Hillman Center for Pediatric Transplantation at Children's Hospital, are published in the February issue of Surgery. Dr...

New Options For Stroke ALS, Spinal Cord Injury Likely Following Discovery Of 'Executioner' Protein

Date: Mar-06-2013
Oxidative stress turns a protein that normally protects healthy cells into their executioner, according to a study released in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. Alvaro Estevez, an associate professor at the University of Central Florida's College of Medicine, led the multi-university team that made the discovery, which could eventually help scientists develop new therapies to combat a host of conditions from stroke to Lou Gehrig's disease Researchers have long known that oxidative stress damages cells and results in neurodegeneration, inflammation and aging...

Researchers Observed How West Nile Virus Is Transmitted Between Generations

Date: Mar-06-2013
In California Culex mosquitoes are considered to be the principle vectors of West Nile virus (WNV), which infects birds, humans, and other mammals during the summer. In addition, these mosquitoes may also serve as overwintering reservoir hosts as the virus is passed "vertically" from female mosquito to egg, then larva, and then adult. To find out how often this happens, California researchers monitored WNV in mosquitoes in the field and in the lab, and observed how the virus is transmitted between generations and between insect stages...

Ostracism Is A Double-Edged Sword

Date: Mar-06-2013
If you think giving someone the cold shoulder inflicts pain only on them, beware. A new study shows that individuals who deliberately shun another person are equally distressed by the experience. "In real life and in academic studies, we tend to focus on the harm done to victims in cases of social aggression," says co-author Richard Ryan, professor of clinical and social psychology at the University of Rochester. "This study shows that when people bend to pressure to exclude others, they also pay a steep personal cost...