Health News

Underrated Danger In Rheumatoid Arthritis From Standard Heart Disease Risk Tools

Date: May-23-2012
Heart Disease Risk Tools Main Category: Heart Disease Also Included In: Arthritis / Rheumatology;  Immune System / Vaccines Article Date: 23 May 2012 - 1:00 PDT  email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions    rate article  Current ratings for: 'Underrated Danger In Rheumatoid Arthritis From Standard Heart Disease Risk Tools' Patient / Public: Healthcare Prof: Heart disease risk assessment tools commonly used by physicians often underestimate the cardiovascular disease danger faced by rheumatoid arthritis patients, a Mayo Clinic study has found. Inflammation...

Better Pill Bottle For The Blind And Visually Impaired

Date: May-23-2012
Two students from UC's top-ranked design programs have applied for a provisional patent on their design and prototype of a prescription-medicine pill bottle for the blind and visually impaired - an innovation that could benefit millions of users. It's easy to see that University of Cincinnati design students Alex Broerman and Ashley Ma are on to something with their new design and prototype for a prescription-medicine pill bottle that better serves the needs of the blind and visually impaired by means of a simple and inexpensive innovation.  The design and prototype by Ma and Broerman will be...

Premature Babies Encouraged And Soothed By New Musical Pacifier

Date: May-23-2012
Many premature babies enter the world with a mountain of challenges in front of them. Even after they overcome any life-threatening issues, they face ongoing, and typically unpleasant, medical procedures, long hospital stays and increased chances of chronic health issues throughout their lives. To help address one of their biggest problems - learning how to suck and feed - Florida State University has announced the availability of the Pacifier Activated Lullaby (PAL) device to hospitals around the world. The innovative PAL device, which uses musical lullabies to help infants quickly learn the...

Neurogenesis Spurred By A High Fat Diet Encourages More Eating And Fat Storage

Date: May-23-2012
New nerve cells formed in a select part of the brain could hold considerable sway over how much you eat and consequently weigh, new animal research by Johns Hopkins scientists suggests in a study published in the May issue of Nature Neuroscience. The idea that the brain is still forming new nerve cells, or neurons, into adulthood has become well-established over the past several decades, says study leader Seth Blackshaw, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. However, he adds, researchers had...

Fat Removal Procedures May Decrease Cancer Risk

Date: May-23-2012
Is it possible that liposuction or other fat removal procedures are beneficial for treating obesity and reducing the risk of cancer? When it comes to humans, scientists can't answer that question. They know that obesity increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer. But there have not been clinical studies to determine if the surgical removal of fat tissue would decrease cancer risk in humans. In animal studies, however, Rutgers scientists, who have published new research online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, have found that surgical removal of abdominal fat...

Non-Invasive Test Promises Rapid, Pain-Free Diagnoses Without The Use Of Fluorescent Dyes

Date: May-23-2012
Blood tests convey vital medical information, but the sight of a needle often causes anxiety and results take time. A new device developed by a team of researchers in Israel, however, can reveal much the same information as a traditional blood test in real-time, simply by shining a light through the skin. This optical instrument, no bigger than a breadbox, is able to provide high-resolution images of blood coursing through our veins without the need for harsh and short-lived fluorescent dyes. "We have invented a new optical microscope that can see individual blood cells as they flow inside our...

Behind The Scenes Tour Of An Electronic Nose Lab

Date: May-23-2012
Almost a century after telephone pioneer Alexander Graham Bell first popularized the idea of measuring smells, chemical vapor sensors - "electronic noses" - are being developed for use in diagnosing disease, detecting national security threats, and other futuristic uses. A new episode in the American Chemical Society's (ACS) award-winning Bytesize Science series takes viewers on a behind-the-science tour of a major lab that is developing affordable, easy-to-carry chemical vapor detection systems. The video, which mentions use of electronic nose technology to turn tomorrow's smart phones into...

Link Between Heart Damage After Chemo And Stress In Cardiac Cells

Date: May-23-2012
Blocking a protein in the heart that is produced under stressful conditions could be a strategy to prevent cardiac damage that results from chemotherapy, a new study suggests. Previous research has suggested that up to a quarter of patients who receive the common chemotherapy drug doxorubicin are at risk of developing heart failure later in life. Exactly how that heart damage is done remains unclear. In this study, scientists identified a protein called heat shock factor-1 (HSF-1) as a likely source of chemotherapy-related heart damage in mice and cell cultures. Heat shock factor-1 is known to...

Reconstruction After Partial Laryngectomy Improved With Donor Aortic Graft

Date: May-23-2012
Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) surgeons have developed a new technique for reconstructing the larynx after surgery for advanced cancer. In the May Annals of Otology, Rhinology and Laryngology, they describe how this approach - which uses cryopreserved aortas from deceased donors to replace removed larynx tissue - allowed patients to avoid a permanent tracheotomy and maintain voice and swallowing function with no need for immunosuppressive medications. The pioneering surgery was a collaborative effort between Steven Zeitels, MD, director of the MGH Center for Laryngeal Surgery, and John...

Discovery Suggests New Combination Therapy Strategy For Basal-Like Breast Cancers

Date: May-23-2012
Multiple research projects - including a 2006 study conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - have used DNA microarray analysis to identify several breast cancer subtypes, including luminal A, luminal B, basal-like and HER2-enriched. Simple tests are being developed to help doctors identify these subtypes and to treat their patients in a more biologically-based way. In turn, these tests have made several studies possible that indicate that basal-like, or triple negative breast cancer, is more prevalent in African Americans than their Caucasian counterparts. A new study led...