Health News

Medtronic announces first human implant of world's smallest, minimally invasive cardiac pacemaker

Date: Dec-16-2013
Continuing its leadership in advanced pacing technology and device miniaturization, Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE: MDT), has announced the first-in-human implant of the world's smallest pacemaker: the Micra™ Transcatheter Pacing System (TPS). The device was implanted in a patient in Linz, Austria as part of the Medtronic global pivotal clinical trial. The Micra TPS is an investigational device worldwide.

Study of rodent family tree puts brakes on commonly held understanding of evolution

Date: Dec-16-2013
Rodents can tell us a lot about the way species evolve after they move into new areas, according to a new and exceptionally broad study conducted in part by Florida State University biological science Professor Scott J. Steppan.The study of the evolutionary history of rodents calls into doubt a generally held understanding that when a species colonizes a new region, such as a continent, evolution leads to a dramatic increase in the number and variety of species.

Is smoking cannabis and driving the new drinking and driving?

Date: Dec-16-2013
Alcohol consumption and smoking among Ontario students in grades 7-12 is at an all-time low; however recreational use of over-the-counter drugs is on the rise. Prescription drug misuse and driving after using drugs also remain elevated according to the 2013 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey (OSDUHS) released by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). The survey of 10,272 students from across Ontario is Canada's longest-running systematic study of alcohol and other drug use among youth, and one of the longest-running surveys in the world.

Diabetes drugs affect hearts of men, women differently

Date: Dec-16-2013
Widely used treatments for type 2 diabetes have different effects on the hearts of men and women, even as the drugs control blood sugar equally well in both sexes, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.In particular, the commonly prescribed diabetes drug metformin had positive effects on heart function in women but not in men, who experienced a shift in metabolism thought to increase the risk of heart failure."We saw dramatic sex differences in how the heart responds to the different therapies," said senior author Robert J.

Ballistics study leads to changes at federal agency

Date: Dec-16-2013
A team of researchers led by Sam Houston State University identified a number of areas of improvement in a national database of forensic ballistics evidence used to link guns to violent crimes.The report, just released by the National Institute of Justice, already has led to improvements in the system called the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN), which is operated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

Blind cavefish offer evidence for alternative mechanism of evolutionary change

Date: Dec-16-2013
In a blind fish that dwells in deep, dark Mexican caves, scientists have found evidence for a long-debated mechanism of evolutionary change that is distinct from natural selection of spontaneously arising mutations, as reported this week in the journal Science.The eyeless cavefish Astyanas mexicanus is "a special system in which we can look at evolution in action," says article co-author William Jeffery, a senior adjunct scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Mass., and a professor at the University of Maryland.

With new study, aquatic comb jelly floats into new evolutionary position

Date: Dec-16-2013
In a study that compares the genomes of aquatic life forms, researchers have found evidence to shuffle the branches of the tree of life. For more than a century, scientists thought that complex cell types, like neurons and muscles, evolved only once, after simple animals that lack these cell types branched from the rest of animals on the evolutionary tree.

Cancer diagnosis more likely to limit careers for patients from rural areas

Date: Dec-16-2013
Compared to their counterparts in cities, cancer patients living in rural areas tend to retire early after being diagnosed, and are less likely to go on paid disability leave while receiving treatment. These are some of the insights drawn from research by Michelle Sowden and colleagues of the University of Vermont in the US to determine if living in a rural or urban area influences the impact of cancer diagnosis on employment. Their study was published in Springer's Journal of Cancer Survivorship.

APA report on gun violence identifies precursors and promising solutions

Date: Dec-16-2013
There is no single personality profile that can reliably predict who will use a gun in a violent act - but individual prediction is not necessary for violence prevention, according to a comprehensive report on gun violence released by the American Psychological Association.The report summarizes the psychological research that has helped develop evidence-based programs that can prevent violence through both primary and secondary interventions. Primary prevention programs can reduce risk factors for violence in the general population.

Systems medicine paves the way for improved treatment for leukemia patients

Date: Dec-16-2013
A multi-disciplinary team of researchers at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland, FIMM, and the Helsinki University Central Hospital has developed a novel individualized systems medicine (ISM) strategy which enables selection of potentially effective cancer therapies for individual patients. Furthermore, this strategy helps in understanding and predicting drug resistance and may pave a path for individualized optimization of patient therapies in the clinic for various types of cancers.