Health News

Weight loss more difficult for obese patients who feel judged by doctors

Date: Feb-20-2014
Overweight and obese people who feel their physicians are judgmental of their size are more likely to try to shed pounds but are less likely to succeed, according to results of a study by Johns Hopkins researchers.The findings, reported online in the journal Preventive Medicine, suggest that primary care doctors should lose the negative attitudes their patients can sense if the goal is to get patients with obesity to lose 10 percent or more of their body weight - an amount typically large enough to reduce blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes risk.

New findings could lead to novel diagnostic tests and treatments for male infertility

Date: Feb-20-2014
To better understand the causes of male infertility, a team of Bay Area researchers is exploring the factors, both physiological and biochemical, that differentiate fertile sperm from infertile sperm. At the 58th Annual Biophysical Society Meeting, which took place Feb. 15-19, 2014, in San Francisco, Calif., the team presented its work to identify and characterize proteins known as ion channels, which are crucial for sperm fertility and expressed within a sperm cell's plasma membrane.

Potential new circuit to target to improve understanding of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

Date: Feb-20-2014
To answer the seemingly simple question "Have I been here before?" we must use our memories of previous experiences to determine if our current location is familiar or novel. In a new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience researchers from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute have identified a region of the hippocampus, called CA2, which is sensitive to even small changes in a familiar context. The results provide the first clue to the contributions of CA2 to memory and may help shed light on why this area is often found to be abnormal in the schizophrenic brain.

Real-time 3-D images from inside the heart, blood vessels provided by single chip device

Date: Feb-20-2014
Researchers have developed the technology for a catheter-based device that would provide forward-looking, real-time, three-dimensional imaging from inside the heart, coronary arteries and peripheral blood vessels. With its volumetric imaging, the new device could better guide surgeons working in the heart, and potentially allow more of patients' clogged arteries to be cleared without major surgery.The device integrates ultrasound transducers with processing electronics on a single 1.4 millimeter silicon chip.

In defense against bacterial infections in the upper airway, sweet taste receptors are primary sentinels

Date: Feb-20-2014
The body uses mucus as a protective barrier to defend against pathogens, toxins, and allergens in the upper respiratory tract that can lead to such conditions as chronic sinusitis. Aiding in this defense are antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), a diverse group of small proteins found in mucus that kill bacteria, viruses, and fungi. In addition to these known defensive systems, researchers have recently surmised that taste receptors serve "double duty" by also acting as first line sentinels against infection in the upper airway.

Fine-tuning salmonella-based vaccines

Date: Feb-20-2014
An innovative vaccine technology makes use of reengineered salmonella to deliver protective immunity. If such recombinant attenuated salmonella vaccines or RASVs can be perfected, they hold the promise of safe, lost-cost, orally administered defenses against viral, bacterial, fungal and parasitic infections.In a new study, lead author Karen Brenneman and her colleagues at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, propose an improved method of screening salmonella vaccines in small animal studies and enhancing their effectiveness in humans.

Regional anesthesia does not increase risk of falls after knee replacement

Date: Feb-20-2014
Two types of regional anesthesia do not make patients more prone to falls in the first days after having knee replacement surgery as some have previously suggested, according to a study based on nearly 200,000 patient records in the March issue of Anesthesiology.Regional forms of anesthesia - spinal or epidural (neuraxial) anesthesia and peripheral nerve blocks (PNB) - which only numb the area of the body that requires surgery, provide better pain control and faster rehabilitation and fewer complications than general anesthesia, research shows.

Study examines evaluation of severely injured at non-trauma centers

Date: Feb-19-2014
Severely injured patients who first are evaluated at non-trauma emergency departments (EDs) are less likely to be transferred to trauma centers if they are insured, according to a study by M. Kit Delgado, M.D., M.S., of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and colleagues. Trauma is the leading cause of premature death before age 65 in the United States. Timely care in a designated trauma center has been shown to reduce death rates by 25 percent, according to the study background.

Mesh abdominal hernia repairs associated with fewer recurrence rates

Date: Feb-19-2014
Using surgical mesh with suturing to repair abdominal hernias can reduce recurrence rates in comparison with suturing (rows of stitching) alone, but it increases other surgical risks, according to a review of studies by Mylan T. Nguyen, M.S., of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and colleagues. More than 350,000 abdominal hernia repair surgeries occur in the United States annually, of which 75 percent are primary ventral hernias (weakening of the abdominal walls, usually at the navel).

Insurance expansions not linked to bump in inpatient behavioral health care

Date: Feb-19-2014
Reforms that increased insurance coverage in Massachusetts did not increase hospital-based care for young people diagnosed with behavioral health disorders, according to a study by Ellen Meara, Ph.D., of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, Lebanon, N.H., and colleagues. The authors compared inpatient admissions before and after Massachusetts' 2006 health reforms to examine how hospital-based care and insurance coverage changed by studying hospital inpatient and emergency department use from 2003 to 2009.