Health News

Collaboration Agreement Between Johns Hopkins Medicine And Fundacion Santa Fe De Bogota To Focus On Research, Nursing

Date: Feb-21-2013
An expansion of collaborative projects involving Fundacion Santa Fe de Bogota (FSFB), one of Colombia's premier health care institutions, and Johns Hopkins Medicine International (JHI) will continue for another 10 years under an agreement signed Feb. 18, 2013, in Baltimore, USA. The collaboration agreement detailing joint efforts in research and nursing, among other areas, was signed by Steven J. Thompson, chief executive officer of JHI, and Juan Pablo Uribe, chief executive officer of FSFB...

Computers Against Violence: Detailed Analysis Of Drugs, Alcohol & Crimes Across A City Could Help Target Prevention

Date: Feb-21-2013
As cities across America work to reduce violence in tight budget times, new research shows how they might be able to target their efforts and police attention - with the help of high-powered computers and loads of data. In a newly published paper, University of Michigan Medical School researchers and their colleagues have used real police data from Boston to demonstrate the promise of computer models in zeroing in on violent areas...

All About Monocyte Migrations

Date: Feb-21-2013
LMU researchers led by Christian Weber have, for the first time, elucidated how cells that promote the development of atherosclerosis find their way to the blood vessel wall, where they stimulate the formation of obstructive deposits. Atherosclerosis is one of the commonest causes of death in modern societies. The condition is characterized by the build-up of fatty deposits called atherosclerotic plaques on the inner surfaces of arteries, which restrict, and may eventually cut off, blood flow...

American Heart Association/Circulation Special Report On Women's Heart Disease Awareness

Date: Feb-21-2013
The number of women aware that heart disease is the leading cause of death has nearly doubled in the last 15 years, but that knowledge still lags in minorities and younger women, according to a new study in the American Heart Association journal Circulation. Researchers comparing women's views about heart disease in 1997 and today, found:   In 2012, 56 percent of women identified heart disease as the leading cause of death compared with 30 percent in 1997...

Regulating Differentiation Of Myeloid Cells In Cancer By Silencing Retinoblastoma Gene

Date: Feb-21-2013
Researchers at the Moffitt Cancer Center have found a potential mechanism by which immune suppressive myeloid-derived suppressor cells can prevent immune response from developing in cancer. This mechanism includes silencing the tumor suppressor gene retinoblastoma 1 or Rb1. Their data explains a new regulatory mechanism by which myeloid-derived suppressor cells are expanded in cancer. Their study appeared in a recent issue of Nature Immunology...

How Proteins Are Made And Why They Have Impaired Functions Is Critical To Understanding Almost All Diseases

Date: Feb-21-2013
Imagine two steel springs identical in look and composition but that perform differently because each was tempered at a different rate. A team of researchers including a Texas A&M University molecular biologist has shown that concept - that the speed of creation affects performance - applies to how a protein they studied impacts an organism's circadian clock function...

During Cancer Treatment, 'Quality Of Life' Therapy Improves Health

Date: Feb-21-2013
Therapy to ease stress, fatigue and other quality of life issues significantly improves patients' sense of well-being during cancer treatment, new Mayo Clinic research shows. Patients who kept to their standard routines showed a decline in quality of life measures, the study found. The findings are published this month in Cancer. Mayo cancer care specialists created a six-session program to address cognitive, physical, emotional, social and spiritual well-being...

Psychiatrist Proposes New Subspecialty For Patients Suffering Depression And Heart Disease

Date: Feb-21-2013
A Loyola University Medical Center psychiatrist is proposing a new subspecialty to diagnose and treat patients who suffer both depression and heart disease. He's calling it "Psychocardiology." In his most recent study, Angelos Halaris, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that an inflammatory biomarker, interleukin-6, was significantly higher in the blood of 48 patients diagnosed with major depression than it was in 20 healthy controls. Interleukin-6 has been associated with cardiovascular disease...

Multiple Illnesses, Mental Health Conditions Increase Risk For Unplanned Hospitalization

Date: Feb-21-2013
People with multiple illnesses are much more likely to be admitted to hospital unexpectedly, and mental health issues and economic hardship further increase the likelihood, according to a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). "We provide strong evidence that physical multimorbidity substantially affects the use of acute hospital services, including admissions considered potentially preventable through management of optimal primary care," writes Dr. Rupert Payne, Cambridge Centre for Health Services Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom...

Inuit And First Nations Women At Higher Risk For Stillbirth Than Non-Aboriginal Residents

Date: Feb-21-2013
Stillbirth rates in First Nations and Inuit populations in Quebec are higher than in the general population, especially in late gestation and at term, found a new study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). "Aboriginal populations in Canada [First Nations and Inuit] rank at the top of the list of disadvantaged groups with the highest rates of stillbirth in the Western world," writes Dr. Nathalie Auger, Institut national de santé publique du Québec, with coauthors. Rates are 2 times those of the non-Aboriginal population...