Health News

Hand sanitizer not available at every point of care at 1 in 5 US hospitals

Date: Mar-03-2014
Approximately one in five U.S. health facilities don't make alcohol-based hand sanitizer available at every point of care, missing a critical opportunity to prevent health care-associated infections, according to new research from Columbia University School of Nursing and the World Health Organization (WHO) published in the American Journal of Infection Control. The study, which examined compliance with WHO hand hygiene guidelines in the U.S.

New form of heparin can be deactivated by antidote

Date: Mar-03-2014
Low-molecular-weight heparin is commonly used in surgeries to prevent dangerous blood clots. But when patients experience the other extreme - uncontrolled bleeding - in response to low-molecular-weight heparin, there is no antidote.Now researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have created a synthetic form of low-molecular-weight heparin that can be reversed if things go wrong and would be safer for patients with poor kidney function.

Standardized nomenclature for the architecture of insect brains will help improve studies of human brain function and disease

Date: Mar-02-2014
When you're talking about something as complex as the brain, the task isn't any easier if the vocabulary being used is just as complex. An international collaboration of neuroscientists has not only tripled the number of identified brain structures, but created a simple lexicon to talk about them, which will be enormously helpful for future research on brain function and disease.

Similar patterns of neuropathological changes shown in twin brains after death

Date: Mar-02-2014
Despite widespread use of a single term, Alzheimer's disease is actually a diverse collection of diseases, symptoms and pathological changes. What's happening in the brain often varies widely from patient to patient, and a trigger for one person may be harmless in another.In a unique study, an international team of researchers led by USC psychologist Margaret Gatz compared the brains of twins where one or both died of Alzheimer's disease.

Patients who have dental extractions before cardiac surgery are still at risk for poor outcomes

Date: Mar-02-2014
To pull or not to pull? That is a common question when patients have the potentially dangerous combination of abscessed or infected teeth and the need for heart surgery. In such cases, problem teeth often are removed before surgery, to reduce the risk of infections including endocarditis, an infection of the inner lining of the heart that can prove deadly.

Light-sensitive switches turn pain off and sight on

Date: Mar-02-2014
Photoreactive compounds developed by LMU scientists directly modulate nerve-cell function, and open new routes to the treatment of neurological diseases, including chronic pain and certain types of visual impairment.All modes of sensory perception are based on communication between nerve cells. Both the response to the primary stimulus and the transmission of the resulting signal depend on the function of specialized receptor proteins that are associated with the surface membranes of neurons.

Exercise, removal of belly fat 'reverses cognitive decline in obese mice'

Date: Mar-02-2014
Previous research has associated both obesity and diabetes with cognitive decline. But a new study from the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University found that regular exercise or the surgical removal of belly fat reverses this effect in mice.The findings were recently published in The Journal of Neuroscience.According to the research team, including study author Dr. Alexis M. Stranahan, past studies in animals and humans have shown that obesity and diabetes can triple the risk of mild cognitive impairment and increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Cardiac arrest and therapeutic hypothermia

Date: Mar-02-2014
Whole body cooling in comatose patients who have suffered a heart attack can limit the damage to brain tissue caused by the restoration of blood flow and oxygen. But new data indicate that in certain patients therapeutic hypothermia is less effective and may even worsen neurological outcomes, as described in an article in Therapeutic Hypothermia and Temperature Management, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the Therapeutic Hypothermia and Temperature Management website.

Factors affecting self-reporting among people with TBI

Date: Mar-02-2014
Kessler Foundation researchers have found that among individuals with TBI, depression and self-awareness affect subjective reports of memory, quality of life (QOL), and satisfaction with life. The study was published in the February 2014 issue of Brain Injury - "The impact of self-awareness and depression on subjective reports of memory, quality- of-life and satisfaction with life following TBI." Impairment in self-awareness (the ability to accurately recognize one's own abilities and limitations) often occurs after TBI.

Black men at lifelong health disadvantage following childhood adversity

Date: Mar-02-2014
Greater childhood adversity helps to explain why black men are less healthy than white men, and some of this effect appears to operate through childhood adversity's enduring influence on the relationships black men have as adults, according to a new study in the March issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.