UAE
Bahrain
Jordan
Kuwait
Oman
Qatar
Saudi ArabiaHealth News
Latest Developments In Cardiac Arrhythmia, Lancet Series
Date: Oct-28-2012A series of articles in The Lancet explored recent developments in the biology, treatment, and diagnosis of arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms), ahead of the AHA's (American Heart Association's) annual meeting in Los Angeles from November 3rd to 7th, 2012. In arrhythmias, the patient's heart beat is too fast, too slow or irregular. Over one million people in the United Kingdom are thought to be affected by some kind of arrhythmia. It is also one of the top ten reasons why patients are hospitalized...
Sleep Circuits In The Brain Turned On By Anesthesia Drugs
Date: Oct-28-2012When patients are put under anesthesia, they are often told they will be "put to sleep," and now it appears that in some ways that's exactly what the drugs do to the brain. New evidence in mice reported online in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, shows that the drugs don't just turn wakefulness "off," they also force important sleep circuits in the brain "on." "Despite more than 160 years of continuous use in humans, we still do not understand how anesthetic drugs work to produce the state of general anesthesia," said Max Kelz of the University of Pennsylvania...
Efficient, Protein-Based Method Developed For Creating IPS Cells
Date: Oct-28-2012Coaxing a humble skin cell to become a jack-of-all-trades pluripotent stem cell is feat so remarkable it was honored earlier this month with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Stem cell pioneer Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, showed that using a virus to add just four genes to the skin cell allowed it to become pluripotent, or able to achieve many different developmental fates. But researchers and clinicians have been cautious about promoting potential therapeutic uses for these cells because the insertion of the genes could render the cells cancerous...
Women Who Quit Smoking By Age 30 Evade Early Death
Date: Oct-27-2012Smoking increases a person's risk of dying early. Now a new UK study of 1 million women finds those who quit smoking by age 30 can almost completely eliminate the increased risk of dying early compared to never smokers, while those who quit by the age of 40, can cut it by 90%. A paper on the largest-ever study of smoking among women in the UK, written by researchers at the University of Oxford on behalf of the Million Women Study Collaborators, is published on 27 October in The Lancet...
Pigs Look Healthy But Test Positive For Flu At Fairs; Flu Transmission Seen Between Pigs And Humans
Date: Oct-27-2012More than 80 percent of pigs that tested positive for influenza A virus at Ohio county fairs between 2009 and 2011 showed no signs of illness, according to a new study. Ohio State University researchers tested 20 pigs each at 53 fair events over those three summers and found at least one flu-positive pig at 12 fairs - almost a quarter of fairs tested. The influenza strains identified in pigs in this study include H1N2 and H3N2 viruses - strains that have been circulating in pigs since 1998...
Progressive Multifocal Leucoencephalopathy (PML) Treatment Receives US Orphan Drug Designation
Date: Oct-27-2012Cytheris SA, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on treating lymphopenia driven diseases, has announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted an Orphan Drug Designation for Cytheris' CYT017, glycosylated recombinant human interleukin-7 (glycosylated r-h-IL7), for the treatment of Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy (PML). This designation from the FDA follows orphan drug designation for the same indication granted in Europe in July 2012 from the European Commission...
PFO Closure With Investigational Device Does Not Decrease Ischemic And Bleeding Events Compared To Medical Therapy
Date: Oct-27-2012Results of the PC trial presented at TCT 2012 A clinical trial that compared catheter-based PFO closure using an investigational device found that there was no significant reduction in ischemic and bleeding events compared to standard medical therapy; stroke risk was non-significantly reduced with device therapy. The PC Trial was presented at the 24th annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium. Sponsored by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), TCT is the world's premier educational meeting specializing in interventional cardiovascular medicine...
Women With Stable But Not-So-Sexy Mates Become More Distant, Critical During Periods Of High Fertility
Date: Oct-27-2012Long after women have chosen Mr. Stable over Mr. Sexy, they struggle unconsciously with the decision, according to a new study by UCLA researchers who look at subtle changes in behavior during ovulation. At their most fertile period, these women are less likely to feel close to their mates and more likely to find fault with them than women mated to more sexually desirable men, the research shows...
More Neonatals Should Be Included In Pediatric Drug Trials
Date: Oct-27-2012Clinical drug trials are a vital part of pharmaceutical manufacturers gaining approval for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. A Commentary scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics assesses the issues surrounding the lack of clinical trials on medications used by children, most notably neonates, and how drug manufacturers and academic researchers could work together to create clinical trials that would benefit this underrepresented population...
Lives Can Be Saved By Restricting High-Risk Individuals From Owning Guns
Date: Oct-27-2012On July 20, a gunman in Aurora, Colorado, used an assault rifle to murder 12 people and wound 58 others. Although this was one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history, all mass shootings account for a small percentage of gun violence that occurs in the U.S. every day. In the past 100 days since the Aurora shooting, an estimated 3,035 Americans have died as a result of gun violence. A new report by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health examines policies and initiatives for reducing gun violence in the U.S. by reforming current gun policies...
Stay Connected
