الخميس، 21 نوفمبر 2013

ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News

ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News

Potential for investigational bioengineered vessel as dialysis graft

Posted: 20 Nov 2013 04:21 PM PST

An investigational, human-made blood vessel used in vascular grafts for kidney dialysis patients may potentially show encouraging early results among study patients in Poland, according to preliminary data reported.

Women prescribed hormone therapy should use caution when taking apigenin supplement

Posted: 20 Nov 2013 12:52 PM PST

In 2011, studies conducted found that a natural compound called apigenin, which is found in celery, parsley, and apples, could reduce the incidence of tumor growth in women receiving hormone replacement therapy. Now, based on subsequent studies, they are recommending that women not ingest pure apigenin as a supplement.

Aging erodes genetic control, but that's flexible

Posted: 20 Nov 2013 11:37 AM PST

In yeast at least, the aging process appears to reduce an organism's ability to silence certain genes that need to be silenced. Now researchers who study the biology of aging have shown that the loss of genetic control occurs in fruit flies as well.

What composes the human heart?

Posted: 20 Nov 2013 10:40 AM PST

A foundational study by researchers has identified the optimal structure and cell ratio associated with heart function -- and the discovery has already led the team to another research first: the engineering of the first-ever living, 3-D human arrhythmic tissue.

Involving patients in nurses' shift change reduces medical errors, satisfies patients

Posted: 20 Nov 2013 10:40 AM PST

At shift change, incoming and outgoing nurses transfer accountability by exchanging information about the patients under their charge. Called bedside handover, this process empowers patients and allows them to become active partners in their own care.

Scientists far from finish line in understanding anemia in female athletes

Posted: 20 Nov 2013 10:40 AM PST

When Kaitlyn Patterson's fatigue progressed to hyperventilating even during slow runs, and then forced her to quit high school distance running for the season, she knew something was very wrong. Patterson had exercise-induced iron-deficiency anemia, a common, perplexing problem among elite female athletes, especially endurance runners.

Differences in brains of children with nonverbal learning disability

Posted: 20 Nov 2013 10:39 AM PST

A researcher has discovered the first anatomical evidence that the brains of children with a nonverbal learning disability -- long considered a "pseudo" diagnosis -- may develop differently than the brains of other children.

Head, neck cancer trial shows assessing HRQOL is valuable to patients, doctors

Posted: 20 Nov 2013 10:39 AM PST

EORTC trial 24954 set out to compare two treatment schemes for patients with respectable hypopharyngeal and laryngeal cancers, and the results show that there is a trend towards worse HRQOL scores in patients receiving alternating chemoradiotherapy (Alternating arm) as opposed to those given sequential induction chemotherapy and radiotherapy (Sequential arm). However, very few differences reached the level of statistical significance, and most patients' HRQOL scores returned to baseline once treatment was completed.

Listen to this: New research upends understanding of how humans perceive sound

Posted: 20 Nov 2013 10:37 AM PST

A key piece of the scientific model used for the past 30 years to help explain how humans perceive sound is wrong, according to a new study.

Virtual sailing simulator shows key role of recreation in spinal cord injury rehabilitation

Posted: 20 Nov 2013 10:36 AM PST

Researchers conducted a study on the role of a hands on virtual sailing simulator for use in rehabilitation following a spinal cord injury.

Insomnia linked to mortality risk

Posted: 20 Nov 2013 08:20 AM PST

Insomnia, the most common sleep disorder, affects up to one-third of the population in the United States. In new findings, researchers have found that some insomnia symptoms are associated with an increased risk of mortality in men.

Coffee may help perk up your blood vessels

Posted: 20 Nov 2013 08:19 AM PST

A small study showed that a cup of coffee improved small blood vessel function. The study takes us one step closer to understanding how coffee might benefit cardiovascular health.

Linking risk factors, disease origins in breast cancer

Posted: 20 Nov 2013 07:36 AM PST

Researchers have found that epigenetic changes to DNA are associated with aging in disease-free breast tissues and are further altered in breast tumors. Epigenetic changes describe heritable alterations caused by mechanisms other than by changes in DNA sequence. The discovery illustrates how cancer and aging are tightly interconnected processes by identifying epigenetic alterations present in the normal aging breast that may increase disease risk in cancer-free individuals.

Predicting human body height from DNA

Posted: 20 Nov 2013 07:36 AM PST

Predicting adult body height from genetic data is helpful in several areas such as pediatric endocrinology and forensic investigations. However, despite large international efforts to catalog the genes that influence the stature of humans, knowledge on genetic determinants of adult body height is still incomplete. Now DNA-based prediction of taller-than-average body height is feasible.

Brain activity in severely brain injured patients who 'wake up' with sleeping pill: Other patients may also respond

Posted: 20 Nov 2013 07:06 AM PST

George Melendez has been called a medical miracle. After a near drowning deprived his brain of oxygen, Melendez remained in a fitful, minimally conscious state until his mother, in 2002, decided to give him the sleep aid drug Ambien to quiet his moaning and writhing. The next thing she knew, her son was quietly looking at her and trying to talk. He has been using the drug ever since to maintain awareness, but no one could understand why Ambien led to such an awakening.

Services fail to treat prisoners with schizophrenia, increasing risk of violent reoffending, UK study shows

Posted: 20 Nov 2013 07:06 AM PST

New research shows released prisoners with schizophrenia are three times more likely to be violent than other prisoners, but only if they receive no treatment or follow-up support from mental health services.

Newly discovered ancestral enzyme facilitates DNA repair

Posted: 20 Nov 2013 07:06 AM PST

Researchers have discovered how a new human enzyme, the protein PrimPol, is capable of recognizing DNA lesions and facilitate their repair during the DNA copying process, thus avoiding irreversible and lethal damage to the cells and, therefore, to the organism.

Distracted driving killing more pedestrians, bicyclists

Posted: 20 Nov 2013 07:03 AM PST

From 2005 to 2010, the national number of pedestrians struck and killed by distracted drivers went up from 344 to 500 – an almost 50 percent increase. For cyclists, the numbers killed went from 56 to 73 — a 30 percent increase.

Screens in the bedroom may contribute to sleep problems in boys with autism

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 12:30 PM PST

Having bedroom access to television, computers or video games is linked to less sleep in boys with autism spectrum disorder.

Drug effective in preventing stroke, reducing bleeding, cardiovascular death in patients with atrial fibrillation

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 12:30 PM PST

A late-breaking clinical trial demonstrates that high- and low-dose edoxaban were at least as effective in preventing stroke or systemic embolism (blood clot), while significantly reducing bleeding and cardiovascular death, compared to warfarin.

No benefit found to selecting dose of blood thinner based on patients' genetic makeup

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 12:30 PM PST

A new study led by researchers has determined that a gene-based method for selecting patients' doses of the popular heart medication warfarin is no better than standardized dosing methods.

HIV virus spread, evolution studied through computer modeling

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 11:22 AM PST

Researchers are investigating the complex relationships between the spread of the HIV virus in a population (epidemiology) and the actual, rapid evolution of the virus (phylogenetics) within each patient's body.

New research links smoking synthetic marijuana with stroke in healthy, young adults

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 11:22 AM PST

Add stroke to the list of severe health hazards that may be associated with smoking synthetic marijuana, popularly known as spice or K2, a neurology team reports.

Sex of Speaker Affects Listener Language Processing

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 11:19 AM PST

Grammar and syntax have been thought for decades to be automatic and untouchable by other brain processes and that everything else — the sex of the speaker, their dialect, etc. — is stripped away as our brains process the sound signal of a word and store it as an abstract form. A study now suggests that even higher-level processes – in this case, grammar - are affected by information about the speaker.

Trial of promising new treatment strategy for Parkinson's disease

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 10:10 AM PST

For the first time in the United Staes., a trial of regenerative treatment strategy for Parkinson's disease is underway. The trial combines the deep brain stimulation procedure with grafting of a patient's peripheral nerve tissue into the brain, anticipating that the nerve graft will allow the brain to heal itself. If successful, this procedure could change the treatment of Parkinson's disease and possibly halt or reverse brain degeneration caused by the disease.

Demand for details on food labels includes the good – and the bad

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 10:08 AM PST

It's no surprise that labels are becoming the "go to" place when people have questions about how food is produced. But new research finds that consumers crave more information, especially for the potentially harmful ingredients that aren't included in the product.

Smaller bowls may help curb childhood obesity

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 10:08 AM PST

Smaller bowl sizes may be the next weapon in the battle against childhood obesity, says a new study that found children not only ask for more food to fill larger bowls, but they also eat 52 percent more.

Many pediatricians uncomfortable providing care to kids with genetic conditions, study concludes

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 10:08 AM PST

A new study finds general physicians order few genetic tests, don't always discuss risks and benefits; take limited family histories.

Advanced CT imaging proves as accurate as invasive tests for heart blockages

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 10:08 AM PST

An ultrafast, 320-detector computed tomography (CT) scanner that shows both anatomy within coronary arteries and blood flowcan accurately sort out which people need – or don't need – an invasive procedure to identify coronary blockages, according to an international study. The researchers say their findings could potentially save millions of people worldwide from having an unnecessary cardiac catheterization.

Many sudden cardiac arrests preceded by warning signs

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 08:28 AM PST

More than half of the men who had a sudden cardiac arrest had symptoms up to a month before.

Children's cardiovascular fitness declining worldwide

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 08:28 AM PST

Around the globe, children are about 15 percent less fit than their parents were when they were young. In the United States, kids' cardiovascular endurance performance declined about 6 percent per decade between 1970 and 2000.

Corticosteroid improves eyesight in patients with sudden vision loss

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 08:25 AM PST

Investigators have shown that the addition of the corticosteroid fluocortolone (FC) to standard therapy of those suffering from suddent vision loss significantly improves both short- and long-term visual acuity, especially when given soon after the onset of symptoms.

Blood test accurately diagnoses concussion, predicts long term cognitive disability

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 08:24 AM PST

A new blood biomarker correctly predicted which concussion victims went on to have white matter tract structural damage and persistent cognitive dysfunction following a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). If validated in larger studies, this blood test could identify concussion patients at increased risk for persistent cognitive dysfunction or further brain damage and disability if returning to sports or military activities.

Odds of rehospitalization of cognitively impaired varies by discharge destination

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 08:24 AM PST

Cognitively impaired older adults released from the hospital are less likely to be rehospitalized within 30 days if they go to a nursing home than if they return to their own home.

New Habanero-type pepper introduced

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 07:10 AM PST

Researchers have introduced "CaroTex-312," a new high-yielding, orange-fruited, Habanero-type, F1 hybrid pepper. The yield attributes of "CaroTex-312," particularly its potential for producing high early yields, should be especially appealing to growers trying to widen their marketing window. The report also suggested that the new cultivar has several potentially useful disease-resistance attributes.

Hashtag health

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 06:33 AM PST

A social media–monitoring program could help physicians and health officials learn when and where severe outbreaks are occurring in real time. The researchers demonstrated that this technique might allow officials to more quickly and efficiently direct resources to outbreak zones and better contain the spread of the disease.

Study to identify functions of hypothetical genes in two infectious disease pathogens

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 06:33 AM PST

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has awarded the University of Chicago $4.4 million over five years to study genes of unknown function in bacteria that cause plague and brucellosis.

Could basic fertility information be key to reversing late-parenthood trend?

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 05:29 AM PST

Increasingly, young people around the world are planning to have children later in life, despite the fact that fertility declines with age after young adulthood. But new research shows a simple brochure can prompt many to accelerate their planned timelines.

Age affects short-term quality of life after breast biopsy

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 05:29 AM PST

Breast biopsies can adversely affect short-term quality-of-life, and the effects are more pronounced in younger patients, according to a new study.

Study finds altered brain connections in epilepsy patients

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 05:29 AM PST

Patients with the most common form of focal epilepsy have widespread, abnormal connections in their brains that could provide clues toward diagnosis and treatment, according to a new study.

Breakthrough in adult heart repair

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 05:29 AM PST

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is responsible for approximately one-third of all deaths. A major problem with CVD is that adult hearts do not repair well after injury. Now, researchers have discovered a way to change that. By identifying and manipulating the normal signals that block heart repair, they were able to show complete functional heart recovery in adult mice after myocardial infarction, which mimics a human heart attack. This breakthrough brings new hope for treating CVD.

Brain imaging reveals dynamic changes caused by pain meds

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 05:26 AM PST

A study suggests a role for brain imaging in the assessment and potential treatment of chronic pain. Researchers are the first to use brain imaging procedures to track the clinical action of pregabalin, a drug known by the brand name Lyrica® that is prescribed to patients suffering from fibromyalgia and neuropathic pain.
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