Health News

A 'Learning Health System' Moves From Idea To Action

Date: Aug-10-2012
Group Health experience shows how practice and research can inform each other   In the United States, clinicians are struggling to provide better and more affordable health care to more people - while keeping up with new scientific developments. The idea of a "learning health system" is one proposed solution for rapidly applying the best available scientific evidence in real-time clinical practice. In the August 7 Annals of Internal Medicine, a Group Health Cooperative team describes the experience of turning this intriguing concept into action...

Researcher's Fish-Eye View Could Offer Insights For Human Vision

Date: Aug-10-2012
A Purdue University student's research project related to zebrafish eye development could lead to a better understanding of vision problems that affect billions of people worldwide. Zeran Li, as an undergraduate student in biological sciences, led a research team that uncovered an enzyme's role in the regulation of eye size in the fish. If the enzyme's role is similar in human eyes, it could be relevant to human vision problems, such as nearsightedness and farsightedness...

Obese Donors Increase Risk Of Death For Pediatric Liver Transplant Recipients

Date: Aug-10-2012
Children undergoing liver transplantation are at greater risk of graft loss and death from adult organ donors who are severely obese according to research published in the August issue of Liver Transplantation, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. The study, funded in part by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), found that pediatric donor body mass index (BMI) did not increase mortality risk in this pediatric population. Obesity is a global health concern. A 2008 report from the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1...

Urine Test Can Indicate A Woman's Risk Of Bone Fracture, Pitt Study Finds

Date: Aug-10-2012
A simple urine test can indicate a premenopausal woman's risk of suffering bone fractures as she ages, according to new research led by University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) epidemiologists. Women in their 40s and early 50s had a 59 percent greater risk of bone fracture as they aged when they had above-normal levels of N-telopeptide (NTX) - the byproduct of bones breaking down - in their urine, compared with women who had low NTX levels...

Sniffing Out Previously Undetectable Amounts Of TNT With Advanced Explosives Detector

Date: Aug-10-2012
With the best explosive detectors often unable to sniff out the tiny amounts of TNT released from terrorist bombs in airports and other public places, scientists are reporting a potential solution. Their research in ACS' journal Analytical Chemistry describes development of a device that concentrates TNT vapors in the air so that they become more detectable. Yushan Yan and colleagues point out that TNT and other conventional explosives are the mainstays of terrorist bombs and the anti-personnel mines that kill or injure more than 15,000 people annually in war-torn countries...

Destroying Chemical Warfare Agents: New Substances 15,000 Times More Effective

Date: Aug-10-2012
In an advance that could be used in masks to protect against nerve gas, scientists are reporting development of proteins that are up to 15,000 times more effective than their natural counterpart in destroying chemical warfare agents. Their report appears in ACS' journal Biochemistry. Frank Raushel, David Barondeau and colleagues explain that a soil bacterium makes a protein called phosphotriesterase (PTE), which is an enzyme that detoxifies some pesticides and chemical warfare agents like sarin and tabun. PTE thus has potential uses in protecting soldiers and others...

The Nature Of The Health Care Surrogate-Clinician Relationship

Date: Aug-10-2012
A new study from the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine examines the relationship between family members who make decisions for hospitalized older adults with impaired cognition and the doctors, nurses and other clinicians who care for these patients. The researchers report that in this era of fragmented care, families rarely get to know even the names of the many clinicians who care for their family members. Even a physician or nurse who was especially supportive or helpful to the family might see the family member only once or twice...

Tackling Cocaine Addiction With 2-Drug Combination

Date: Aug-10-2012
A fine-tuned combination of two existing pharmaceutical drugs has shown promise as a potential new therapy for people addicted to cocaine - a therapy that would reduce their craving for the drug and blunt their symptoms of withdrawal. In laboratory experiments at The Scripps Research Institute, the potential therapy, which combines low doses of the drug naltrexone with the drug buprenorphine, made laboratory rats less likely to take cocaine compulsively - a standard preclinical test that generally comes before human trials...

Study Shows Evidence That Mindfulness Yoga May Offer Effective Treatment For Depressed New Mothers To Be

Date: Aug-10-2012
It's no secret that pregnancy hormones can dampen moods, but for some expectant moms, it's much worse: 1 in 5 experience major depression. Now, new research shows that an age-old recommended stress-buster may actually work for this group of women: yoga. Pregnant women who were identified as psychiatrically high risk and who participated in a 10-week mindfulness yoga intervention saw significant reductions in depressive symptoms, according to a University of Michigan Health System pilot feasibility study. Mothers-to-be also reported stronger attachment to their babies in the womb...

Successful Vaccine Developed Against Deadly Nipah Virus

Date: Aug-10-2012
A team of federal and university scientists reports a major breakthrough in the development of a highly effective vaccine against the deadly Nipah virus. The results of their study, "A Hendra virus G glycoprotein subunit vaccine protects African green monkeys from Nipah virus challenge," appears in Science Translational Medicine online...