Health News

Post-Injury Arthritis May Be Prevented By Stem Cell Therapy

Date: Aug-14-2012
Duke researchers may have found a promising stem cell therapy for preventing osteoarthritis after a joint injury. Injuring a joint greatly raises the odds of getting a form of osteoarthritis called post-traumatic arthritis, or PTA. There are no therapies yet that modify or slow the progression of arthritis after injury. Researchers at Duke University Health System have found a very promising therapeutic approach to PTA using a type of stem cell, called mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), in mice with fractures that typically would lead to them developing arthritis...

Migraines Hurt Your Head But Not Your Brain

Date: Aug-14-2012
Migraines currently affect about 20 percent of the female population, and while these headaches are common, there are many unanswered questions surrounding this complex disease. Previous studies have linked this disorder to an increased risk of stroke and structural brain lesions, but it has remained unclear whether migraines had other negative consequences such as dementia or cognitive decline. According to new research from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), migraines are not associated with cognitive decline. This study is published online by the British Medical Journal (BMJ)...

Clues To Molecular Malfunction At The Heart Of Rare Blood Vessel Disorder; Important New Regulator Of Cellular Proteins Revealed

Date: Aug-14-2012
A faulty gene linked to a rare blood vessel disorder has led investigators to discover a mechanism involved in determining the fate of possibly thousands of proteins working inside cells. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists directed the study, which provides insight into one of the body's most important regulatory systems, the ubiquitin system. Cells use it to get rid of unneeded proteins. Problems in this system have been tied to cancers, infections and other diseases. The work appears in the print edition of the journal Molecular Cell...

Lymphedema Patients Require Individualized Care

Date: Aug-14-2012
Millions of American cancer survivors experience chronic discomfort as a result of lymphedema, a common side effect of surgery and radiation therapy in which affected areas swell due to protein-rich fluid buildup. After reviewing published literature on lymphedema treatments, a University of Missouri researcher says emphasizing patients' quality of life rather than focusing solely on reducing swelling is critical to effectively managing the condition...

Increased Spending On Trauma Care Doesn't Translate To Higher Survival Rates

Date: Aug-14-2012
A large-scale review of national patient records reveals that although survival rates are the same, the cost of treating trauma patients in the western United States is 33 percent higher than the bill for treating similarly injured patients in the Northeast. Overall, treatment costs were lower in the Northeast than anywhere in the United States. The findings by Johns Hopkins researchers, published in The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, suggest that skyrocketing health care costs could be reined in if analysts focus on how caregivers in lower-cost regions manage their patients...

Imaging The Inflammatory Response

Date: Aug-14-2012
A new 3-D view of the body's response to infection - and the ability to identify proteins involved in the response - could point to novel biomarkers and therapeutic agents for infectious diseases. Vanderbilt University scientists in multiple disciplines combined magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and imaging mass spectrometry to visualize the inflammatory response to a bacterial infection in mice. The techniques, described in Cell Host & Microbe and featured on the journal cover, offer opportunities for discovering proteins not previously implicated in the inflammatory response...

Forgotten Technique Resurrected To Detect Resistant Tuberculosis

Date: Aug-14-2012
Scientists of the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine have breathed new life into a forgotten technique and so succeeded in detecting resistant tuberculosis in circumstances where so far this was hardly feasible. Tuberculosis bacilli that have become resistant against our major antibiotics are a serious threat to world health. If we do not take efficient and fast action, 'multiresistant tuberculosis' may become a worldwide epidemic, wiping out all medical achievements of the last decades. A century ago tuberculosis was a lugubrious word, more terrifying than 'cancer' is today...

Using Math To Root Out Rumors, Epidemics, And Crime

Date: Aug-14-2012
Investigators are well aware of how difficult it is to trace an unlawful act to its source. The job was arguably easier with old, Mafia-style criminal organizations, as their hierarchical structures more or less resembled predictable family trees. In the Internet age, however, the networks used by organized criminals have changed. Innumerable nodes and connections escalate the complexity of these networks, making it ever more difficult to root out the guilty party...

Queensland Specialists Perform 500th Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery

Date: Aug-14-2012
Neurologist Professor Peter Silburn and Neurosurgeon Associate Professor Terry Coyne have performed their 500th deep brain stimulation surgery on a 61-year-old woman with Parkinson's disease. The Director from the Asia-Pacific Centre for Neuromodulation (a joint venture between The University of Queensland and St Andrew's War Memorial Hospital) Professor Helen Chenery said this was an extraordinary achievement unmatched by any other team in Australia...

Older People Hospitalized At Weekends With Head Trauma Have Worse Outcomes

Date: Aug-14-2012
Johns Hopkins study finds higher mortality rate even among less severely injured patients  A Johns Hopkins review of more than 38,000 patient records finds that older adults who sustain substantial head trauma over a weekend are significantly more likely to die from their injuries than those similarly hurt and hospitalized Monday through Friday, even if their injuries are less severe and they have fewer other illnesses than their weekday counterparts...