Health News

Imaging technique identifies delays in premature infants

Date: Jan-28-2014
Infants born prematurely are at elevated risk for cognitive, motor, and behavioral deficits - the severity of which was, until recently, almost impossible to accurately predict in the neonatal period with conventional brain imaging technology. But physicians may now be able to identify the premature infants most at risk for deficits as well as the type of deficit, enabling them to quickly initiate early neuroprotective therapies, by using highly reliable 3-D MRI imaging techniques developed by clinician scientists at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital.

Imaging technique identifies delays in premature infants

Date: Jan-28-2014
Infants born prematurely are at elevated risk for cognitive, motor, and behavioral deficits - the severity of which was, until recently, almost impossible to accurately predict in the neonatal period with conventional brain imaging technology. But physicians may now be able to identify the premature infants most at risk for deficits as well as the type of deficit, enabling them to quickly initiate early neuroprotective therapies, by using highly reliable 3-D MRI imaging techniques developed by clinician scientists at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital.

Flu vaccine suggested for working-age adults with diabetes

Date: Jan-28-2014
All people with diabetes should receive influenza vaccination, according to guidelines in most high-income countries, but there has been little evidence to back this policy. However, a new study in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) suggests that working age adults with diabetes are at an increased risk of influenza compared with people without diabetes, affirming the need to target people with diabetes for influenza vaccination. The study is by the team led by Dr Jeffrey A.

Developing heart valves may be sensitive to environmental chemicals

Date: Jan-28-2014
Exposure to environmental endocrine disrupters, such as bisphenol A, which mimic estrogen, is associated with adverse health effects. Bisphenol A is commonly found in plastic bottles and plastic food containers. New research from a team including Carnegie's Daniel Gorelick and Marnie Halpern on the effects of these chemicals on zebrafish shows that embryonic heart valves could be particularly in danger. It is published by Environmental Health Perspectives.Estrogen hormones are important in all stages of life.

Weakened immunity to fungus found in space-raised flies

Date: Jan-28-2014
Venturing into space might be a bold adventure, but it may not be good for your immune system. Now a study by researchers at the University of California, Davis and published in the journal PLOS ONE shows how growing up on the Space Shuttle weakened a key arm of the immune system in Drosophila flies.It's well-established that spaceflight affects immune responses, said Deborah Kimbrell, a researcher in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology in the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences, who lead the study.

Growth of vestibular schwannomas/acoustic neuromas may be halted by aspirin

Date: Jan-28-2014
Researchers from Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Massachusetts General Hospital have demonstrated, for the first time, that aspirin intake correlates with halted growth of vestibular schwannomas (also known as acoustic neuromas), a sometimes lethal intracranial tumor that typically causes hearing loss and tinnitus.Motivated by experiments in the Molecular Neurotology Laboratory at Mass.

Variation discovered in circadian clock protein in fruit flies

Date: Jan-28-2014
The circadian clock is a molecular network that generates daily rhythms, and is present in both plants and animals.A University of Leicester research team led by Dr Eran Tauber has studied genetic variation in circadian clock genes in wild populations of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster - and has discovered that their genes have developed different genetic variations that are functionally important.

Exhaled breath may help identify early lung cancer

Date: Jan-28-2014
Specific compounds found in exhaled breath may help diagnose lung cancer in its early stages, according to a study released at the 50th Annual Meeting of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. The discovery was made when Michael Bousamra, MD and researchers from the University of Louisville examined patients with suspicious lung lesions.

Flu vaccine suggested for working-age adults with diabetes

Date: Jan-28-2014
All people with diabetes should receive influenza vaccination, according to guidelines in most high-income countries, but there has been little evidence to back this policy. However, a new study in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) suggests that working age adults with diabetes are at an increased risk of influenza compared with people without diabetes, affirming the need to target people with diabetes for influenza vaccination. The study is by the team led by Dr Jeffrey A.

Long-term survival possible for pediatric heart transplant patients

Date: Jan-28-2014
Infants and children who undergo heart transplantation are experiencing good outcomes after surgery and may expect to live beyond 15 years post-surgery with reasonable cardiac function and quality of life, according to a study released at the 50th Annual Meeting of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.Hannah Copeland, MD and colleagues from Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, CA, reviewed medical charts of 337 pediatric heart transplant patients who underwent transplantation at their institution since 1985.