Health News

Fast and effective mechanism devised to combat ovarian cancer

Date: Feb-26-2014
Ovarian cancer accounts for more deaths of American women than any other cancer of the female reproductive system. According to the American Cancer Society, one in 72 American women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and one in 100 will ultimately die of the condition.Now Prof. Dan Peer of Tel Aviv University's Department of Cell Research and Immunology has proposed a new strategy to tackle an aggressive subtype of ovarian cancer using a new nanoscale drug-delivery system designed to target specific cancer cells.

Difficulties faced by agencies addressing health concerns relating to industrial animal production

Date: Feb-26-2014
State regulatory agencies face barriers and often take limited action when confronted with public health concerns resulting from industrial food animal production operations. This is according to a new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future who examined agency responses to community health concerns. They found that agencies with jurisdiction over industrial food animal production operations are unable to address concerns primarily due to narrow regulations, a lack of public health expertise, and limited resources. The results are featured online in PLOS ONE.

Scientists discover how Tc toxins inject bacterial toxins

Date: Feb-26-2014
Bacteria have developed many different ways of smuggling their toxic cargo into cells. Tripartite Tc toxin complexes, which are used by bacteria like the plague pathogen Yersinia pestis and the insect pathogen Photorhabdus luminescens, are particularly unusual. Stefan Raunser from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund and his colleagues from the University of Freiburg have produced extremely accurate and detailed images of these "toxic injections"; they reveal from where the molecule complexes take the energy to penetrate the cell membrane.

Challenges faced during and after pregnancy for women with bipolar disorder

Date: Feb-26-2014
Women with bipolar disorder often struggle with the illness during and after pregnancy. A new study finds that they were significantly more likely to face important psychiatric and childrearing challenges compared to women who were seeking treatment for other psychiatric disorders. Pregnant and postpartum women with bipolar disorder more frequently have significant mental health and early mothering challenges than other perinatal women undergoing psychiatric treatment, according to a study in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

For care of children with congenital heart defects costs vary widely across US hospitals

Date: Feb-26-2014
Costs of care differ significantly across hospitals for children born with heart defects, according to new research led by a University of Michigan researcher. Congenital heart defects are known to be the most common birth defects, impacting nearly 1 in every 100 births.The cost of care for children with congenital heart disease undergoing surgical repair varied as much as nine times across a large group of U.S. children's hospitals, says lead author Sara K. Pasquali, M.D., M.H.S., associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School and C.S.

Most suicide victims had undiagnosed mental health conditions

Date: Feb-26-2014
The mental health conditions of most people who commit suicide remain undiagnosed, even though many visit a primary care provider or medical specialist in the year before they die, according to a national study led by Henry Ford Health System with the Mental Health Research Network.Among those in the study, 83 percent received health care treatment in the year prior to dying, and they used medical and primary care services more frequently than any other health service. However, a mental health diagnosis was made in less than half (45 percent) of these cases.

Iinappropriate use of high-cost advanced imaging procedures fueled by patients seeking info from sources other than health care providers

Date: Feb-26-2014
The increasing use of expensive medical imaging procedures in the U.S., like positron emission tomography (PET) scans, is being driven, in part, by patient decisions made after obtaining information from lay media and non-experts, and not from health care providers.

Late diagnosis of cancer a greater risk for uninsured adolescents and young adults

Date: Feb-26-2014
Study shows way forward for age group that has benefited least from cancer progressA new American Cancer Society study shows that uninsured adolescents and young adults were far more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage cancer, which is more difficult and expensive to treat and more deadly, compared to young patients with health insurance. The study, published early online, will appear in the March issue of the journal CANCER.

Optical device uses light to quickly and easily measure blood's clotting properties

Date: Feb-26-2014
Defective blood coagulation is one of the leading causes of preventable death in patients who have suffered trauma or undergone surgery. The body's natural defense against severe blood loss is the clotting process, in which platelets, plasma proteins, and other blood components interact to form a sticky, mesh-like structure. But often things go wrong, and blood coagulates too little or too much.

Insulin delivery methods compared for hypoglycemia risk in type 1 diabetes

Date: Feb-26-2014
The automatic "threshold suspend" (TS) feature of an insulin pump helps prevent life-threatening hypoglycemic events when the device's sensor detects blood glucose concentrations below the preset threshold. However, in individuals with type 1 diabetes who have had previous episodes of hypoglycemia the TS feature may be less effective at preventing subsequent events, according to important new results from the ASPIRE study published in Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics (DTT), a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the DTT website.