Health News

Revolutionizing 21st Century Medicine Via Personalized Health Care

Date: Feb-10-2013
A closer look at personalized or point-of-care healthcare was the focus of a recent international conference in India organized and chaired by NJIT Distinguished Professor Atam Dhawan. The IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) International Special Topic Conference in point-of-care healthcare technologies, broadcast around the world, focused on topics ranging from 21st century medicine with new smart cross-and trans-disciplinary technologies to how wireless communications will change how physicians care for patients...

Overall Level Of Well-Being Depends On When You Were Born But Happiness Increases With Age, Across Generations

Date: Feb-10-2013
Psychological well-being has been linked to many important life outcomes, including career success, relationship satisfaction, and even health. But it's not clear how feelings of well-being change as we age, as different studies have provided evidence for various trends over time. A new report published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, reveals that self-reported feelings of well-being tend to increase with age, but that a person's overall level of well-being depends on when he or she was born. Psychological scientist Angelina R...

Carotid Bypass Surgery Does Not Improve Cognition After Stroke

Date: Feb-10-2013
Patients who have suffered from stroke and receive carotid bypass surgery - which improves blood flow to the brain - see no overall improvement in cognitive performance, researchers informed at The American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2013. Extracranial-intracranial (EC-IC) bypass surgery involves connecting a scalp artery outside the brain to a brain artery, bypassing the blocked carotid artery, in an effort to restore blood flow to the brain...

IBM Supercomputer "Watson" To Help In Cancer Treatment

Date: Feb-10-2013
Oncologists hope that IBM's Watson supercomputer can help them improve the speed and efficacy of cancer treatments, IBM announced. Two years ago, "Watson" beat all-time Jeopardy! champions. Dr. Larry Norton, Deputy Physician-in-Chief for Breast Cancer Programs at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center had wondered then whether the IBM Watson system might be harnessed to improve cancer care and research. Mark Kris, MD, Chief, Thoracic Oncology Service at Sloan-Kettering, heard Dr. Norton's comment and became interested too...

Tumor-Fighting Protein Stimulated By Compound Aids Cancer Therapy

Date: Feb-10-2013
A compound that stimulates the production of a tumor-fighting protein may improve the usefulness of the protein in cancer therapy, according to a team of researchers. TRAIL is a natural anti-tumor protein that suppresses tumor development during immune surveillance -- the immune system's process of patrolling the body for cancer cells. This process is lost during cancer progression, which leads to uncontrolled growth and spread of tumors...

Growth Of Toxic Algae Caused By Nitrogen From Pollution, Natural Sources Harmful To Marine Life And Human Health

Date: Feb-10-2013
Nitrogen in ocean waters fuels the growth of two tiny but toxic phytoplankton species that are harmful to marine life and human health, warns a new study published in the Journal of Phycology. Researchers from San Francisco State University found that nitrogen entering the ocean -- whether through natural processes or pollution -- boosts the growth and toxicity of a group of phytoplankton that can cause the human illness Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning...

New Approach Mimicking The Body's Natural Defenses Could Help Treat A Therapy-Resistant Breast Cancer

Date: Feb-09-2013
Cancer drugs of the new, molecular generation destroy malignant breast tumors in a targeted manner: They block characteristic molecules on tumor cells - receptors for the hormones estrogen or progesterone, or a co-receptor, called HER2, that binds to many growth factors. But about one in every six breast tumors has none of these receptors. Such cancers, called triple-negative, are particularly aggressive and notoriously difficult to treat...

In Mouse Model Of Schizophrenia, Induction Of Mild Inflammation Leads To Cognitive Deficits

Date: Feb-09-2013
Researchers at the Institute for Comprehensive Medical Science, Fujita Health University and the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Japan, along with colleagues from 9 other institutions, have identified an exceptional mouse model of schizophrenia. After screening over 160 mutant mouse strains with a systematic battery of behavioral tests, they identified a mutant mouse lacking the Schnurri-2 protein (Shn-2 KO) that exhibits behavioral deficits and other brain features consistent with schizophrenia...

Benzodiazepine Use In COPD May Put Patients At Risk

Date: Feb-09-2013
A popular class of drugs commonly used to treat sleep and mood symptoms continues to be frequently prescribed despite being known to have potentially life-threatening side effects. Previous studies have linked benzodiazepines - a medication class that may be used in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to treat symptoms of insomnia, depression, anxiety and shortness of breath - with adverse outcomes, but until now there has been little information on how frequently it's prescribed or who is using it...

Study Identifies Biomarkers For Early Risk Assessment Of Acute Kidney Injury

Date: Feb-09-2013
Acute kidney injury strikes large numbers of hospitalized patients, including those with no prior kidney-related illness, and is one of the most costly and deadly conditions affecting critically ill patients. Findings published in Critical Care from a Mayo Clinic-led, multicenter study identify two biomarkers of acute kidney injury that can be easily measured in urine and detect affected patients roughly 12 to 36 hours earlier than current tests...