Researchers at Whitehead Institute have identified a protein that is the target of glucocorticoids, the drugs that are used to increase red blood cell production in patients with certain types of anemia, including those resulting ...
Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, have developed a novel graduate medical education initiative that enables surgical residents to hone their skills in quality improvement (QI). Surgical ...
Researchers from the Pasteur Institute, Lille, France have shown in a mouse model that interleukin-22 protects against bacterial superinfections that can arise following influenza. Their research is published in the June ...
Despite numerous advances in treating infections and disease, effective treatments for sepsis remain elusive. A new discovery published in the June 2013 issue of The FASEB Journal not only could help health care providers predic ...
Spanish researchers have discovered that the daily clearance of neutrophils from the body stimulates the release of hematopoietic stem cells from the bone marrow into the bloodstream, according to a report published today ...
Professor Michael Jennings, Deputy Director of the Institute for Glycomics at Griffith University, was part of an international team that discovered the previously unknown pathway of how the bacterium colonizes people.
A metabolic profile of intensive care unit (ICU) patients based on biomarkers of four metabolites can be used to accurately predict mortality, according to a new study.
In ICU patients who have septic shock, the anatomic source of infection has a strong effect on the chances of survival, according to a new study from researchers in Canada.
Peptide molecules derived from the body's natural immune system can help boost the body's defence against life-threatening blood poisoning, joint University research has uncovered.
(Medical Xpress)—The endothelium, the cellular layer lining the body's blood vessels, is extremely resilient. Measuring just a few hundred nanometers in thickness, this super-tenuous structure routinely ...
In the past, researchers have sought to determine the geographic distribution of many life-threatening conditions, including stroke and cardiac arrest. Now, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine ...
(Medical Xpress)—Inflammation is an important response in the body - it helps you to kill off invaders such bacteria that could cause a harmful infection. But if it's chronic or uncontrolled, inflammation can also cause ...
A physician's choice of words when talking with family members about whether or not to try cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) if a critically ill patient's heart stops may influence the decision, according to a study by ...
The Democratic Republic of Congo has displaced Niger to gain the unenviable distinction of being the worst place in the world to be a mother, according to a new report by Save the Children.
Sepsis (/ˈsɛpsɨs/, from Gr. σῆψις: the state of putrefaction or decay) is a potentially deadly medical condition that is characterized by a whole-body inflammatory state (called a systemic inflammatory response syndrome or SIRS) and the presence of a known or suspected infection. The body may develop this inflammatory response by the immune system to microbes in the blood, urine, lungs, skin, or other tissues. A lay term for sepsis is blood poisoning, also used to describe septicaemia. Severe sepsis is the systemic inflammatory response, plus infection, plus the presence of organ dysfunction.
Septicemia (also septicaemia or septicæmia [ˌsɛp.tə.ˈsi.miə],) is a related medical term referring to the presence of pathogenic organisms in the bloodstream, leading to sepsis. The term has not been sharply defined. It has been inconsistently used in the past by medical professionals, for example as a synonym of bacteremia, causing some confusion.
Severe sepsis is usually treated in the intensive care unit with intravenous fluids and antibiotics. If fluid replacement isn't sufficient to maintain blood pressure, specific vasopressor medications can be used. Mechanical ventilation and dialysis may be needed to support the function of the lungs and kidneys, respectively. To guide therapy, a central venous catheter and an arterial catheter may be placed; measurement of other hemodynamic variables (such as cardiac output, or mixed venous oxygen saturation) may also be used. Sepsis patients require preventive measures for deep vein thrombosis, stress ulcers and pressure ulcers, unless other conditions prevent this. Some patients might benefit from tight control of blood sugar levels with insulin (targeting stress hyperglycemia), or low-dose corticosteroids. Activated drotrecogin alfa (recombinant protein C) has not been found to be helpful, and has recently been withdrawn from sale.
Inside each of us is our own internal timing device. It drives everything from sleep cycles to metabolism, but the inner-workings of this so-called "circadian clock" are complex, and the molecular processes behind it have ...
Behind the common expression "you can't compare apples to oranges" lies a fundamental question of neuroscience: How does the brain recognize that apples and oranges are different? A group of neuroscientists ...
Recent research has shown that cancer cells have a much different – and more complex – metabolism than normal cells. Now, scientists at The University of Texas at Dallas have found that exploiting these differences might ...
(Medical Xpress)—A team of combined researchers from Columbia Business School and Singapore Management University has found that people who have learned a second language become less proficient at speaking ...
Researchers have discovered and mapped the signaling network between two previously unconnected proteins, exposing a link that, if broken, could cut off cancer cell growth at its starting point.
Men who lose sleep during the work week may be able to lower their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by getting more hours of sleep, according to Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed) research findings presented ...
Aspirin is known to lower risk for some cancers, and a new study led by a UC San Francisco scientist points to a possible explanation, with the discovery that aspirin slows the accumulation of DNA mutations in abnormal cells ...
(Medical Xpress)—Calories in, calories out. Any dieter is familiar with the two sides of the equation for weight loss, usually reduced to eating less and exercising more. But what controls the body's balance ...
(Medical Xpress)—When people think about genes and their relationship to cancer, most probably think about a person's hereditary cancer risk, especially after Angelina Jolie's recent news about her inherited ...