Health News

CT scans predict chemotherapy response in pancreatic cancer

Date: Mar-13-2014
Computed tomography (CT) scans routinely taken to guide the treatment of pancreatic cancer may provide an important secondary benefit. According to new research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the scans also reflect how well chemotherapy will penetrate the tumor, predicting the effectiveness of treatment.The research, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, is the first human study to address the issue of chemotherapy delivery to pancreatic tumors, a problem previously shown in animal studies.

Decision-making center of brain identified

Date: Mar-13-2014
Although choosing to do something because the perceived benefit outweighs the financial cost is something people do daily, little is known about what happens in the brain when a person makes these kinds of decisions. Studying how these cost-benefit decisions are made when choosing to consume alcohol, University of Georgia associate professor of psychology James MacKillop identified distinct profiles of brain activity that are present when making these decisions."We were interested in understanding how the brain makes decisions about drinking alcohol.

Quality of recovery improved by anesthetic technique for breast cancer surgery

Date: Mar-13-2014
Anesthesiologists using a technique similar to a dental freeze can improve the quality of recovery and decrease recovery time for breast cancer surgery patients, according to a new study.The study, from researchers at St. Michael's Hospital and Women's College Hospital, was published in the March edition of Anesthesiology. It is the world's first randomized control trial for breast cancer surgery that compares the use of ultrasound-guided paravertebral blocks - a local anesthetic freezing that blocks breast nerves - to general anesthetic.

Injections of fillers for cosmetic treatment can open the door to bacteria

Date: Mar-13-2014
Many people have 'fillers' injected into their facial tissue to give them 'bee-stung lips' or to smooth out their wrinkles. Unfortunately, a lot of cosmetic treatment customers experience unpleasant side effects in the form of tender subcutaneous lumps that are difficult to treat and which - in isolated cases - have led to lesions that simply will not heal. Research recently published by the University of Copenhagen now supports that, despite the highest levels of hygiene, this unwanted side effect is caused by bacterial infection.

Constructing a large network of multiple infections to determine how multiple parasites interact within humans

Date: Mar-13-2014
Imagine going to the doctor with an infection and being sent home with a course of drugs. Unknown to your doctor you actually have two infections. If you take the drugs will the other infection go away by itself? What if you take the drugs and the other infection gets worse? This quandary faces those treating patients with multiple infections.

After hip fracture surgery, new MRI can 'see through' metal screws

Date: Mar-13-2014
People who sustain the most common type of hip fracture, known as a femoral neck fracture, are at increased risk of complications. A special type of MRI developed at Hospital for Special Surgery in collaboration with GE Healthcare can show a detailed image following fracture repair, without the distortion caused by metal surgical screws that are problematic in standard MRIs.Each year, more than 340,000 people suffer a broken hip in the United States.

Patients with prehypertension 'at increased risk of stroke'

Date: Mar-13-2014
It is well known that high blood pressure increases the risk of stroke - the fourth leading cause of death in the US. The threshold for high blood pressure diagnosis, or hypertension, is 140/90 mmHg. But new research suggests that even people with blood pressure lower than this - but higher than normal - have an increased stroke risk.The research team, including Dr. Dingli Xu of Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China, recently published their findings in the journal Neurology.

Searching for the foundations of manic-depressive disorder

Date: Mar-13-2014
First on top of the world and then in the depths of despair - this is what the extreme mood changes for people with bipolar disorder are like. Under the direction of scientists from the University of Bonn Hospital, the Central Institute of Mental Health of Mannheim and the University of Basel Hospital, an international collaboration of researchers discovered two new gene regions which are connected with the prevalent disease. In addition, they were able to confirm three additional suspect genes.

A new cell type is implicated in epilepsy caused by traumatic brain injury

Date: Mar-13-2014
Traumatic brain injury is a risk factor for epilepsy, though the relationship is not understood. A new study in mice, published in Cerebral Cortex, identifies increased levels of a specific neurotransmitter as a contributing factor connecting traumatic brain injury (TBI) to post-traumatic epilepsy. The findings suggest that damage to brain cells called interneurons disrupts neurotransmitter levels and plays a role in the development of epilepsy after a traumatic brain injury.

Increased complication risk following total joint replacement faced by patients with metabolic disorder

Date: Mar-13-2014
In a new study presented at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), researchers found that total joint replacement patients with three or more metabolic syndrome risk factors were almost three times as likely to have complications within the first year after joint replacement.Metabolic syndrome is a combination of disorders, such as obesity with a body mass index (BMI) ≥30kg/m², dyslipidemia (an abnormal amount of lipids in the blood), hypertension and diabetes.