Health News

Improved Outcomes After Bleeding Stroke For Patients Who Undergo Surgical Procedure

Date: Feb-11-2013
A minimally invasive procedure to remove blood clots in brain tissue after hemorrhagic stroke appears safe and may also reduce long-term disability, according to late-breaking research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2013. Of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have intracerebral hemorrhages (ICH) each year, most are severely debilitated, said Daniel Hanley, M.D., lead author and professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Md. ICH is the most common type of bleeding stroke...

Better Results After Stroke Than Supportive Therapy Alone Afforded By Treatment With Clot-Busting Drug

Date: Feb-11-2013
In an update to previous research, Johns Hopkins neurologists say minimally invasive delivery of the drug tPA directly into potentially lethal blood clots in the brain helped more patients function independently a year after suffering an intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), a deadly and debilitating form of stroke. Rates of functional recovery with the active tPA treatment far surpassed those achieved with standard "supportive" therapy that essentially gives clots a chance to shrink on their own...

Anticancer Drug Not Found To Accelerate Tumor Growth After Treatment Ends

Date: Feb-11-2013
Studies in animals have raised concerns that tumors may grow faster after the anticancer drug sunitinib is discontinued. But oncologists and physicists who collaborated to analyze data from the largest study of patients with kidney cancer convincingly demonstrate that such tumor acceleration does not occur in humans. The findings, publishing online n the Cell Press journal Cell Reports, suggest that sunitinib does not cause lingering risks for patients after their treatment ends...

Researchers Cure Type 1 Diabetes In Dogs

Date: Feb-11-2013
Researchers from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB), led by Fatima Bosch, have shown for the first time that it is possible to cure diabetes in large animals with a single session of gene therapy. As published in Diabetes, the principal journal for research on the disease, after a single gene therapy session, the dogs recover their health and no longer show symptoms of the disease. In some cases, monitoring continued for over four years, with no recurrence of symptoms. The therapy is minimally invasive...

Brain Abnormalities Discovered In Veterans With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Date: Feb-11-2013
Mild traumatic brain injury (TBI), including concussion, is one of the most common types of neurological disorder, affecting approximately 1.3 million Americans annually. It has received more attention recently because of its frequency and impact among two groups of patients: professional athletes, especially football players; and soldiers returning from mid-east conflicts with blast-related TBI. An estimated 10 to 20 percent of the more than 2 million U.S. soldiers deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan have experienced TBI...

New 3-D Control Opens Wealth Of Options For Drug Makers

Date: Feb-11-2013
A team of scientists anchored at Yale University has demonstrated a new, highly versatile approach for quickly assembling drug-like compounds, establishing a broad new route to drug discovery and medical treatment. They report their results in the journal Science. Drug molecules interact with their targets, such as proteins or enzymes, by attaching to them in a way that neutralizes the target's undesirable effects in the body. This is sometimes called the "lock-and-key" method...

New Policies Needed To Safeguard Participants' Identity In Genetic Studies

Date: Feb-11-2013
The growing ease of DNA sequencing has led to enormous advancements in the scientific field. Through extensive networked databases, researchers can access genetic information to gain valuable knowledge about causative and preventative factors for disease, and identify new targets for future treatments. But the wider availability of such information also has a significant downside - the risk of revealing personal information...

Men Experiencing Permanent Stress At Increased Risk For Type 2 Diabetes

Date: Feb-11-2013
Men who reported permanent stress have a significantly higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than men who reported no stress. This is the finding of a 35-year prospective follow-up study of 7,500 men in Gothenburg, by the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Since the 1970s, a large population based cohort study has been undertaken at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg to monitor the health of men born in Gothenburg between 1915 and 1925...

For Valentine's Day: New Research In Relationship Science And More

Date: Feb-11-2013
In time for Valentine's Day, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin is featuring several new studies all about relationships - including the link between income in marriage and health, the role of jealousy in becoming a parent, and how humor affects romantic couples in conflict. Being the breadwinner has health costs Men whose wives earn more income are more likely to use erectile dysfunction medication than those who outearn their wives, even when the inequality is small, according to a new study...

Breakthrough Makes The Electroporation Of Cell Cultures Easier And Cheaper

Date: Feb-11-2013
Researchers from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia have developed a technique that improves and cuts the cost of a technique called electroporation, which involves opening pores in cell membranes using an electric field to introduce substances like drugs and DNA. Current methods are aggressive and expensive whereas the new system manages to apply low voltage electroporation with a small printed circuit board, which costs less than a Euro per unit and does not damage cells...