Health News

The Likelihood Of Being Assessed For Kidney Transplantation May Depend On Race, Insurance Status

Date: Jul-29-2012
A kidney transplant is the best treatment for kidney failure, which afflicts 2 million people worldwide. Young black patients and patients without private health insurance are less likely to be assessed for a kidney transplant when they start dialysis, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). These patients are also less likely to be put on the transplant waiting list and to receive a transplant. A kidney transplant is the best treatment for a patient with kidney failure...

New Drug May Promote Weight Loss, But Also Help Maintain It

Date: Jul-29-2012
A new drug could aid in losing weight and keeping it off. The drug, described in the journal Cell Metabolism, increases sensitivity to the hormone leptin, a natural appetite suppressant found in the body. Although so far the new drug has only been tested on mice, the findings have implications for the development of new treatments for obesity in humans. "By sensitizing the body to naturally occurring leptin, the new drug could not only promote weight loss, but also help maintain it," says senior study author George Kunos of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism...

With Your Eyes Only... Eye Writer Communication Technology

Date: Jul-29-2012
A new technology described in the paper published online in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, might allow people who have almost completely lost the ability to move their arms or legs to communicate freely, by using their eyes to write in cursive. The eye-writing technology tricks the neuromuscular machinery into doing something that is usually impossible: to voluntarily produce smooth eye movements in arbitrary directions...

Preventive Antibiotic May Benefit COPD Sufferers

Date: Jul-29-2012
Patients suffering from the chronic lung condition COPD, which is the third-leading cause of death and disability in the United States, may benefit greatly from a three-times-a-week dose of an antibiotic, according to a study by Virginia Commonwealth University physicians published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Approximately 24 million Americans suffer from COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which creates recurrent, acute episodes of severe shortness of breath, cough and sputum production...

Signs Of HIV Infection Eliminated By Bone Marrow Transplant

Date: Jul-29-2012
Two men with longstanding HIV infections no longer have detectable HIV in their blood cells following bone marrow transplants. The virus was easily detected in blood lymphocytes of both men prior to their transplants but became undetectable by eight months post-transplant. The men, who were treated at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), have remained on anti-retroviral therapy. Their cases were presented at the International AIDS Conference by Timothy Henrich, MD and Daniel Kuritzkes, MD, physician-researchers in the Division of Infectious Diseases at BWH...

Eye Injuries In Young Athletes Can Be Avoided With Protective Eyewear

Date: Jul-29-2012
With the new school year fast approaching, pediatric eye specialists from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and The Wilmer Eye Institute are offering advice on sports-related eye injuries that can easily be prevented, yet still occur all too frequently...

Studying Genetic Basis Of Normal Variable Traits In Humans And Human Disease Risk Reveals Ancient Interbreeding In Africa's Hunter-Gatherers

Date: Jul-29-2012
Human diversity in Africa is greater than any place else on Earth. Differing food sources, geographies, diseases and climates offered many targets for natural selection to exert powerful forces on Africans to change and adapt to their local environments. The individuals who adapted best were the most likely to reproduce and pass on their genomes to the generations who followed. That history of inheritance is written in the DNA of modern Africans, but it takes some investigative work to interpret. In a report to be featured on the cover of the Aug...

Stroke Survivors' Balance May Improve With Yoga

Date: Jul-29-2012
Group yoga can improve balance in stroke survivors who no longer receive rehabilitative care, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal /iStroke. In a small pilot study, researchers tested the potential benefits of yoga among chronic stroke survivors - those whose stroke occurred more than six months earlier. "For people with chronic stroke, something like yoga in a group environment is cost effective and appears to improve motor function and balance," said Arlene Schmid, Ph.D., O.T.R...

For Metastatic Melanoma, Should High-Dose Interleukin-2 Continue To Be The Treatment Of Choice?

Date: Jul-29-2012
Administering high-doses of interleukin-2 (IL-2) has been the preferred treatment for patients with stage IV metastatic melanoma. An article published in the current issue of Cancer Biotherapy and Radiopharmaceuticals, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., explores whether or not this regimen is still the most effective. The article is available free online at the Cancer Biotherapy and Radiopharmaceuticals website...

Discovery Of A Genetic Cause Of Glioblastoma May Lead To New Treatment

Date: Jul-29-2012
Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) have discovered that some cases of glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive form of primary brain cancer, are caused by the fusion of two adjacent genes. The study also found that drugs that target the protein produced by this genetic aberration can dramatically slow the growth of glioblastomas in mice. The findings were published in the online edition of the journal Science...