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Patient referrals cause differences in hospital infection rates - Patient referrals between hospitals influence the rates of hospital-acquired infections such as MRSA, according to a study by researchers based in the Netherlands. The findings, published March 19 in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology, explain that referred patients, who have the potential to carry a hospital-acquired infection with them, are more likely to be admitted to University Medical Centers than to teaching or general hosp...
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Do financial interests result in positive results in scientific research? - Virtually all (94%) of the scientific authors who provided positive results for the anti-diabetic drug rosiglitazone had financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies, according to research published in the British Medical Journal today....
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Women with swine flu 13 times more likely to suffer critical illness if they are pregnant - Pregnant women in Australia and New Zealand who had swine flu were 13 times more likely to be admitted to hospital with a critical illness, according to research published in the British Medical Journal today....
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A report card on DFID: The Lancet calls for a post-election independent review to protect its successes and fix its prob - The lead Editorial in this week's Lancet focuses on global health within the UK Government's Department for International Development (DFID) -its mixed successes and failures to date, the challenges it faces with the possible change in government following the UK general election, and the problems it faces through intragovernmental tensions with both the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department of Health (DH)....
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Cystic fibrosis patients survive longer in EU compared with non-EU countries - The largest multinational study of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) has shown that patients from EU countries (membership as of 2003) survive longer than those in neighbouring non-EU countries. Crucially, the data show that there are disproportionately fewer then expected CF patients in non-EU countries. The data suggest that had these non-EU countries displayed similar demographic profiles to their EU neighbours, their own CF patient populatio...
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Adding Common Genetic Variants to Breast Cancer Risk Models Offers Only Small Benefit - (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists report that breast cancer risk assessment models, which predict a woman's chance of developing breast cancer, do not perform better when they include common inherited genetic variants recently linked to the disease. Therefore, recommendations for breast cancer screening or treatments will remain unchanged for most women. The study, led by investigators from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Inst...
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Songbirds provide insight into speech production (w/ Video) - (PhysOrg.com) -- With the help of a little singing bird, Penn State physicists are gaining insight into how the human brain functions, which may lead to a better understanding of complex vocal behavior, human speech production and ultimately, speech disorders and related diseases....
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Using stem cells to mend damaged hips - (PhysOrg.com) -- Bone stem cells could in future be used instead of bone from donors as part of an innovative new hip replacement treatment, according to scientists at the University of Southampton....
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AP Enterprise: NASA, cruise line got flu shots - (AP) -- Last fall, as swine flu cases mounted and parents desperately sought to protect their kids, the hard-to-get vaccine was handed out in some surprising places: the Royal Caribbean cruise line, the headquarters of drug giant Merck, the Johnson Space Center and a Department of Energy office in Idaho....
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Study: Child health may suffer in strong economy - A short-term economic boom is not always a good thing for children in developing nations, according to a new study in the Journal of Political Economy. The study found that when Colombia's coffee trade suddenly booms, illness and mortality rates among children increase in coffee-producing counties....
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Studies show huge health disparities among Asian-Americans, native Hawaiians, Asian immigrants - Although Asian Americans have long been portrayed as a "model minority" with few major problems, data released online today in the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) reveal that distinct groups of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (AA and NHPI) differ widely in death and disease rates, including from breast cancer and other conditions such as heart disease, and stand to benefit strongly from culturally appropriate care...
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Clinician and patient preferences clash over information sharing before transplantation - Most kidney donors and recipients are in favor of exchanging personal health information that may influence success before scheduling a living organ donor transplant, while healthcare professionals are more reluctant, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN). The results suggest that clinicians should consider supporting and facilitating more information sharing before ...
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Extreme obesity affecting more children at younger ages - Extreme obesity is affecting more children at younger ages, with 12 percent of black teenage girls, 11.2 percent of Hispanic teenage boys, 7.3 percent of boys and 5.5 percent of girls now classified as extremely obese, according to a Kaiser Permanente study of 710,949 children and teens that appears online in the Journal of Pediatrics....
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High Fructose Corn Syrup Linked to Liver Scarring - (PhysOrg.com) -- High fructose corn syrup, which is linked to obesity, may also be harmful to the liver, according to Duke University Medical Center research....
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Broad application of bipolar diagnosis in children may do more harm than good - (Garrison, NY) Troubled children diagnosed with bipolar disorder may fare better with a different diagnosis, according to researchers at The Hastings Center....
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Can Changes in the Brain Predict Disability in Older Adults? - (PhysOrg.com) -- A new study shows brain changes may predict problems in walking, thinking, or staying continent....
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Playing on our instincts: Psychology professor says 'supernormal stimuli' drive many unnatural urges - (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have long known that lab animals` behavior can be manipulated by artificially stimulating their natural instincts. Over-stimulating animals can provoke such extreme responses that they end up preferring artificial objects to the natural ones for which the instincts were designed....
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Residency match results not encouraging for adults needing primary care - The number of U.S. medical students choosing internal medicine residencies inched higher from 2009 but not enough to significantly impact the shortage of primary care physicians....
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Studies examine Third Eye Retroscope during colonoscopy - Two new studies show an increase in polyp detection rates using the Third Eye Retroscope (TER), a retrograde viewing device, during colonoscopy. The first study found that TER added to standard colonoscopy detected 13.2 percent more polyps than colonoscopy alone, including 11 percent additional adenomas (precancerous polyps). A second study examined endoscopist experience using TER and its impact on polyp detection rates, concluding that polyp de...
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Some bullies are just the shy type: New research shows a darker side to social anxiety disorder - When you think of people suffering from social anxiety, you probably characterize them as shy, inhibitive and submissive. However, new research from psychologists Todd Kashdan and Patrick McKnight at George Mason University suggests that there is a subset of socially anxious people who act out in aggressive, risky ways -- and that their behavior patterns are often misunderstood....
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Bailout stenting successful treatment for infants with constricted aortas - Cardiac interventionalists and surgeons at University Clinic in Leuven, Belgium have achieved successful stent implantation and follow-up coarctectomy in premature infants suffering from aortic coarctation. Full findings are published in the March issue of Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, the official journal of The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions....
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Learning deficits in adolescence linked to novel brain receptor - It is well known that the onset of puberty marks the end of the optimal period for learning language and certain spatial skills, such as computer/video game operation. Recent work published in the journal Science by Sheryl Smith, PhD, professor of physiology and pharmacology, and colleagues at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn shows that a novel brain receptor, alpha4-beta-delta, emerges at puberty in the hippocampus, part of the brain th...
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Manufacturing antibodies - New antibodies and recombinant proteins with a key signaling role in immune response to disease have been produced through collaboration between molecular immunology institutes in the Czech Republic and Germany and a private company. The proteins have their own direct uses in immunization and are also the starting point for production of novel, highly specific antibodies with a wide range of biomedical applications. All of the new products are al...
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Medicaid patients 5.5 times more likely to get cataract surgery than VA patients, study finds - Patients seen at private facilities reimbursed by Medicare were more than 550 percent more likely to have routine cataract surgery than those who received their care from the Department of Veterans Affairs, a strong indication that the frequency of cataract surgery may be responsive to financial incentives to either or both the medical facility and the physicians who perform the procedure....
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Shift workers at more risk for irritable bowel syndrome, study says - Nurses participating in shift work, especially those working rotating shifts, face a significantly increased risk of developing Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and abdominal pain compared to those working a standard day-time schedule, according to research published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology....
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Feedback loop explains inflammatory effect on intestinal lining - Signals released by immune cells during a bout of inflammatory bowel disease interfere with intestinal cells' ability to regenerate. Yet people with inflammatory bowel diseases have a significantly higher risk of developing colon cancer: a hyper-activation of growth in those same intestinal cells....
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New advances vastly expand versatility of optogenetics brain-research technique - Recently, brain researchers have gained a powerful new way to troubleshoot neural circuits associated with depression, Parkinson's disease and other conditions in small animals such as rats. They use an optogenetics technology, invented at Stanford University, that precisely turns select brain cells on or off with flashes of light. Although useful, the optogenetics tool set has been limited....
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Study details machinery of immune protection against inflammatory diseases like colitis - Scientists report a protein made by a gene already associated with a handful of human inflammatory immune diseases plays a pivotal role in protecting the intestinal tract from colitis....
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Looming unemployment harms older workers' health - Downsizing and demotions at the workplace can be a health hazard for people over age 50, according to research reported in a recent issue of the Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological and Social Sciences (Volume 65B, Number 1)....
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Stem cells used to model infant birth defect - Hemangiomas -- strawberry-like birthmarks that commonly develop in early infancy - are generally harmless, but up to 10 percent cause tissue distortion or destruction and sometimes obstruction of vision or breathing. Since the 1960s, problematic hemangiomas have been treated with corticosteroids such as dexamethasone or prednisone. But steroids have considerable side effects, don't always work, and their mechanism of action in hemangioma has rema...
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