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Marijuana Helps Relieve MS Pain
Date: May-16-2012Researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found that smoking marijuana can help relieve pain, and muscle tightness "spasticity" in individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS). The study is published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ). Even though there are drugs available to relieve spasticity, a disabling condition in which the muscles become tight and hard to control, they do not always improve the condition in patients and can have also have side effects. In order to determine whether smoking cannabis can have an effect on spasticity in...
Clinical Guidance Remains Non-Specific For Drugs To Reduce Bone Cancer Damage
Date: May-16-2012Bone cancer-related fractures and pain can be reduced by drug treatment, but no one drug is superior, according to a review published in The Cochrane Library. Researchers undertook a systematic review of the current evidence on bisphosphonate drugs, which are used to prevent bone damage in multiple myeloma. Multiple myeloma is a type of cancer that grows in and on bones, and can cause fractures in long bones and the spine. Severe back pain is a common symptom. Bisphosphonate drugs may help to reduce the occurrence of fractures and bone pain in myeloma patients. They work by inhibiting the...
Gene Variants Identified That Speed Progression Of Parkinson's Disease
Date: May-16-2012UCLA researchers may have found a key to determining which Parkinson's disease patients will experience a more rapid decline in motor function, sparking hopes for the development of new therapies and helping identify those who could benefit most from early intervention. In a study published May 15 in the peer-reviewed online journal PLoS ONE, the researchers found that Parkinson's sufferers who possess two specific variants of a gene known to be a risk factor for the disease had a significantly speedier progression toward motor decline than patients without these variants. "This is a...
Quadriplegic Patient Has Some Hand Function Restored By Surgeons
Date: May-16-2012Surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have restored some hand function in a quadriplegic patient with a spinal cord injury at the C7 vertebra, the lowest bone in the neck. Instead of operating on the spine itself, the surgeons rerouted working nerves in the upper arms. These nerves still "talk" to the brain because they attach to the spine above the injury. Following the surgery, performed at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and one year of intensive physical therapy, the patient regained some hand function, specifically the ability to bend the thumb and index finger. He can...
Expert Group Recommend That World Health Assembly Should Adopt An International Convention On Global Health R&D
Date: May-16-2012The expert working group advising WHO on research and development has recommended the May 2012 World Health Assembly adopt an international convention on research and development (R&D) that will bind member states to action and catalyze new knowledge for diseases that primarily affect the global poor but for which patents provide insufficient market incentives. Writing in this week's PLoS Medicine, the chairpersons of the expert group, John-Arne Røttingen and Claudia Chamas, summarize the recommendations and report of the Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development (CEWG),...
News From The Journal Of Clinical Investigation: May 15, 2012
Date: May-16-2012DEVELOPMENT Hope for new treatment options for the rare disease Beare-Stevenson syndrome Beare-Stevenson cutis gyrata syndrome is an extremely rare genetic disease that causes serious physical problems affecting the skin and skull. The disease is associated with mutations in the fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2), which relays signals from the extracellular environment, but how FGFR2 mutations contribute to skin and skull defects has been unclear. In this issue of the JCI, Ethylin Wang Jabs and colleagues at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine report on the development of a new...
Large Population Study Fomds Palpitations Predictive Of Future Atrial Fibrillation
Date: May-16-2012A large cohort study has found that the strongest risk factors for atrial fibrillation in both men and women were a history of palpitations and hypertension. While hypertension is a well known risk factor for AF, the investigators note that "the impact of self-reported palpitations on later occurrence of AF has not been documented earlier". Atrial fibrillation is currently the most common cardiac arrhythmia and is a major risk factor for heart failure (risk tripled), stroke (risk increased up to five times) and overall mortality (risk doubled). A recent consensus statement described AF as "one...
Air-Conditioned Protective Clothing
Date: May-16-2012In order to test the new 'smart' protective vest, an experimenter wearing one has jogged several kilometers on the treadmill in a climate-controlled chamber at Empa. During the jog he lost 544 grams in weight through sweating - but thanks to the vest's integrated cooling system this was still 191 grams less than if he had been wearing a conventional garment. The ballistic vest to be worn under the uniform shirt with integrated "air conditioning unit", for use by police personnel, for example. Functional sportswear is taken for granted nowadays. It is quite unexceptional for a sports jacket,...
What Is An Ultrasound?
Date: May-16-2012An ultrasound scan, also referred to as a sonogram, diagnostic sonography, and ultrasonography, is a device that uses high frequency sound waves to create an image of some part of the inside of the body, such as the stomach, liver, heart, tendons, muscles, joints and blood vessels. Experts say that as sound waves, rather than radiation are used, ultrasound scans are safe. Obstetric sonography is frequently used to check the baby in the womb. Ultrasound scans are used to detect problems in the liver, heart, kidney or the abdomen. They may also be useful in helping the surgeon when carrying out...
Identification Of Early Biomarker For Pancreatic Cancer
Date: May-16-2012Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center have identified a new biomarker and therapeutic target for pancreatic cancer, an often-fatal disease for which there is currently no reliable method for early detection or therapeutic intervention. The paper was published in Cancer Research. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, or PDAC, is the fourth-leading cause of cancer-related death. Newly diagnosed patients have a median survival of less than one year, and a 5-year survival rate of only 3 to 5 percent. Therefore, biomarkers that can identify...
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