Health News

Initiation of dialysis for acute kidney injury potentially dangerous for frail patients

Date: Mar-24-2014
The decision to initiate dialysis for acute kidney injury (AKI) varies depending on different patient factors and there is a lack of robust evidence as to which patients are likely to benefit most and why. A new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has shown that for patients with lower creatinine concentration levels - a sign of reduced muscle mass and weakness - initiation of dialysis could actually be detrimental. The findings are published online first in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

Solving a longstanding mystery in cell division

Date: Mar-24-2014
The paradox of a cell that shuts down its DNA repair processes during cell division has been solved, according to research published in Science. The problem had eluded science for six decades."We now know why a crucial DNA-repair process shuts down just when the cell starts to divide into two daughter cells," says Dr. Daniel Durocher, a Senior Investigator at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Canada.Throughout most of a cell's life, corrective mechanisms are nearly always acting to repair DNA strand breaks quickly and accurately.

Genetic sources of disease pinpointed by new tool

Date: Mar-24-2014
Many diseases have their origins in either the genome or in reversible chemical changes to DNA known as the epigenome. Now, results of a new study from Johns Hopkins scientists show a connection between these two "maps." The findings, reported on the website of the American Journal of Human Genetics, could help disease trackers find patterns in those overlays that could offer clues to the causes of and possible treatments for complex genetic conditions, including many cancers and metabolic disorders.

Results published from landmark study of immune response

Date: Mar-24-2014
Institut Pasteur and Myriad RBM, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Myriad Genetics, Inc., have announced that they have published an initial data analysis from the landmark Milieu Interieur Project in the journal Immunity, which provided new insights into the healthy human immune response. The Milieu Interieur project is a population-based study supported by the French National Ministry of Research and coordinated by the Institut Pasteur, Paris that will characterize the immune phenotypes of 1,000 healthy subjects.

Anti-counterfeit 'fingerprints' made from silver nanowires

Date: Mar-24-2014
Unique patterns made from tiny, randomly scattered silver nanowires have been created by a group of researchers from South Korea in an attempt to authenticate goods and tackle the growing problem of counterfeiting.The nanoscale 'fingerprints' are made by randomly dumping 20 to 30 individual nanowires, each with an average length of 10 to 50 µm, onto a thin plastic film, and could be used to tag a variety of goods from electronics and drugs to credit cards and bank notes.They have been presented in a paper published in IOP Publishing's journal Nanotechnology.

New potential strategies for disease prevention, treatment have implications for stroke, cardiovascular disease

Date: Mar-24-2014
Scientists studying the genomes of nearly 5,000 people have pinpointed a genetic variant tied to an increased risk for stroke, and have also uncovered new details about an important metabolic pathway that plays a major role in several common diseases. Together, their findings may provide new clues to underlying genetic and biochemical influences in the development of stroke and cardiovascular disease, and may also help lead to new treatment strategies.

Analyzing spinal fluid for early detection of Alzheimer's disease

Date: Mar-24-2014
Researchers have shown that they can detect tiny, misfolded protein fragments in cerebrospinal fluid taken from patients. Such fragments have been suggested to be the main culprit in Alzheimer's disease. The findings reported in the Cell Press journal Cell Reports lend hope that doctors might soon have a way to diagnose the disease while treatments might have a better chance of working - that is, before extensive brain damage and dementia set in.Scientists used to think amyloid plaques were the problem in Alzheimer's disease.

Medicaid expansion may help prevent kidney failure, improve access to kidney-related care

Date: Mar-24-2014
States with broader Medicaid coverage have lower incidences of kidney failure and smaller insurance-related gaps in access to kidney disease care. Those are the findings of a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). The results point to the potential benefits of Medicaid expansion on chronic disease prevention and care.Chronic disease care is a major source of rising health care expenditures, and access to care for uninsured individuals with a chronic disease has eroded over the last decade.

New genetic disease identified in children

Date: Mar-24-2014
Scientists and parents have worked together to identify a new genetic disease that causes neurologic, muscle, eye and liver problems in children. The discovery was unusually fast thanks to a combination of modern gene-sequencing techniques, social media and old-fashioned detective work.One important clue was that affected children cry without making tears.The new disease, called NGLY1 deficiency, is described in a paper that will be published online in Genetics in Medicine, the journal of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics.

Quality of life good 10 years after esophagectomy and gastric pull-up

Date: Mar-23-2014
Long-term survivors after esophagectomy with gastric pull-up can enjoy a satisfying meals and good quality of life according to a new study from a team of researchers at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles. This study concluded that pessimism about the long-term quality of life after an esophagectomy on the part of treating physicians and patients is unwarranted. It is published in the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, an official publication of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery.