http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Vermont became on Monday the third US state to legalize physician-assisted suicide. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-vermont-state-legalize-suicide.html Other Mon, 20 May 2013 17:48:28 EST news288290896 Older prostate cancer patients with other underlying health conditions should think twice before committing to surgery or radiation therapy for their cancer, according to a multicenter study led by researchers in the UCLA Department of Urology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-older-prostate-cancer-patients-treatment.html Cancer Mon, 20 May 2013 17:44:42 EST news288290675 A new diagnostic test for a worm infection that can lead to severe enlargement and deformities of the legs and genitals is far more sensitive than the currently used test, according to results of a field study in Liberia, in West Africa, where the infection is endemic. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-elephantiasis-worm-infection.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 20 May 2013 17:44:05 EST news288290637 While Huntington's disease (HD) is currently incurable, the HD research community anticipates that new disease-modifying therapies in development may slow or minimize disease progression. The success of HD research depends upon the identification of reliable and sensitive biomarkers to track disease and evaluate therapies, and these biomarkers may eventually be used as outcome measures in clinical trials. Biomarkers could be especially helpful to monitor changes during the time prior to diagnosis and appearance of overt symptomatology. Three reports in the current issue of the Journal of Huntington's Disease explore the potential of neuroimaging, proteomic analysis of brain tissue, and plasma inflammatory markers as biomarkers for Huntington's disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-elusive-biomarkers-huntington-disease.html Neuroscience Mon, 20 May 2013 17:42:08 EST news288290520 University of Minnesota Medical School researchers from the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, in partnership with the University's Brain Tumor Program, have developed a new mouse model of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNST) that allow them to discover new genes and gene pathways driving this type of cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-malignant-peripheral-nerve-sheath-tumors.html Genetics Mon, 20 May 2013 17:41:35 EST news288290452 Turns out, that old "practice makes perfect" adage may be overblown. New research led by Michigan State University's Zach Hambrick finds that a copious amount of practice is not enough to explain why people differ in level of skill in two widely studied activities, chess and music. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-practice-makes-perfect-not-so.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 20 May 2013 17:31:35 EST news288289888 Nearly 20 percent of kidneys that are recovered from deceased donors in the U.S. are refused for transplant due to factors ranging from scarring in small blood vessels of the kidney's filtering units to the organ going too long without blood or oxygen. But, what if instead of being discarded, these organs could be "recycled" to help solve the critical shortage of donor organs? http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-source-kidneys-transplant.html Medical research Mon, 20 May 2013 16:20:04 EST news288284721 A Saudi man who had contracted the coronavirus has died, raising the death toll in the kingdom from the SARS-like virus to 16, the health ministry announced on Monday on its Internet website. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-sars-like-virus-life-saudi.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 20 May 2013 16:20:02 EST news288284908 A new "telerehabilitation" approach lets physical therapists assess patients with low back pain (LBP) over the Internet, with good accuracy compared with face-to-face examinations, reports a study in the May 15 issue of Spine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-telerehabilitation-accurate-patients-pain.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 20 May 2013 16:10:01 EST news288284457 Little is known about the effect of physical education (PE) on child weight, but a new study from Cornell University finds that increasing the amount of time that elementary schoolchildren spent in gym class reduces the probability of obesity. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-gym-class-probability-obesity.html Health Mon, 20 May 2013 16:06:33 EST news288284785 (Medical Xpress)—Individuals who learn two languages at an early age seem to switch back and forth between separate "sound systems" for each language, according to new research conducted at the University of Arizona. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-bilinguals-languages.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 20 May 2013 16:06:05 EST news288284757 Video games that pit players against human-looking characters may be more likely to provoke violent thoughts and words than games where monstrous creatures are the enemy, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Connecticut and Wake Forest University. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-human-like-opponents-aggression-video-game.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 20 May 2013 16:04:23 EST news288284652 Hospitals with the highest rates of cardiac arrests tend to have the poorest survival rates for those cases, new University of Michigan Health System research shows. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-hospitals-cardiac-incidence-survival.html Cardiology Mon, 20 May 2013 16:00:05 EST news288284061 A study by Alexandra L. C. Martiniuk, M.Sc, Ph.D., of The George Institute for Global Health, Sydney, Australia, and colleagues suggests less sleep per night is associated with a significant increase in the risk for motor vehicle crashes for young drivers. (Online First) http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-young-drivers.html Pediatrics Mon, 20 May 2013 16:00:04 EST news288284114 Intensity-modulated radiation therapy has become the most commonly used type of radiation in prostate cancer, but research from the University of North Carolina suggests that the therapy may not be more effective than older, less expensive forms of radiation therapy in patients who have had a prostatectomy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-radiotherapy-treatments-similar-morbidity-cancer.html Cancer Mon, 20 May 2013 16:00:03 EST news288284199 A study of older patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) suggests that new use of the long-acting bronchodilators β-agonists and anticholinergics was associated with similar increased risks of cardiovascular events, according to a study published Online First by JAMA Internal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-bronchodilators-cardiovascular-events.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 20 May 2013 16:00:03 EST news288284274 A clinical trial of 75 patients hospitalized with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) suggests that aggressive fluid and sodium restriction has no effect on weight loss or clinical stability at three days but was associated with an increase in perceived thirst, according to a study published Online First by JAMA Internal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-effect-fluid-sodium-restrictions-weight.html Cardiology Mon, 20 May 2013 16:00:01 EST news288284337 Discovering that mouse hair has a circadian clock - a 24-hour cycle of growth followed by restorative repair - researchers suspect that hair loss in humans from toxic cancer radiotherapy and chemotherapy might be minimized if these treatments are given late in the day. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-discovery-circadian-clock-mice-hair.html Medical research Mon, 20 May 2013 15:53:42 EST news288284014 New research suggests that a compound abundant in the Mediterranean diet takes away cancer cells' "superpower" to escape death. By altering a very specific step in gene regulation, this compound essentially re-educates cancer cells into normal cells that die as scheduled. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-compound-mediterranean-diet-cancer-cells.html Cancer Mon, 20 May 2013 15:40:33 EST news288283224 Nearly three out of four pregnant women experience constipation, diarrhea or other bowel disorders during their pregnancies, a Loyola University Medical Center study has found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-percent-pregnant-women-constipation-bowel.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Mon, 20 May 2013 15:38:22 EST news288283088 Researchers from King's College London have for the first time used a novel form of MRI to identify crucial developmental processes in the brain that are vulnerable to the effects of premature birth. This new study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), shows that disruption of these specific processes can have an impact on cognitive function. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-premature-birth-vital-brain-cognitive.html Neuroscience Mon, 20 May 2013 15:00:24 EST news288271189 Whooping cough has exploded in the United States and some other developed countries in recent decades, and many experts suspect ineffective childhood vaccines for the alarming resurgence. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-explanations-whooping-resurgence-dont-scrutiny.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 20 May 2013 15:00:15 EST news288270470 Salamanders' immune systems are key to their remarkable ability to regrow limbs, and could also underpin their ability to regenerate spinal cords, brain tissue and even parts of their hearts, scientists have found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-salamanders-solution-regeneration.html Medical research Mon, 20 May 2013 15:00:10 EST news288270588 Researchers have pinpointed a catalytic trigger for the onset of Alzheimer's disease – when the fundamental structure of a protein molecule changes to cause a chain reaction that leads to the death of neurons in the brain. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-scientists-molecular-trigger-alzheimer-disease.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Mon, 20 May 2013 15:00:01 EST news288269429 (HealthDay)—For young adults needing either a chest or abdominopelvic computed tomography (CT), the short-term risk of death from underlying morbidity is greater than the long-term risk of radiation-induced cancer, according to a study published in the May issue of Radiology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-ct-indicator.html Cancer Mon, 20 May 2013 14:20:01 EST news288273516 Living near a major roadway during the prenatal period is associated with an increased risk of respiratory infection developing in children by the age of 3, according to a new study from researchers in Boston. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-prenatal-exposure-traffic-respiratory-infection.html Health Mon, 20 May 2013 14:00:11 EST news288274269 People who are consistently exposed to both wood smoke and tobacco smoke are at a greater risk for developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and for experiencing more frequent and severe symptoms of the disease, as well as more severe airflow obstruction, than those who are exposed to only one type of smoke, according to the results of a new population-based study conducted by researchers in Colombia. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-combined-wood-tobacco-exposure-symptoms.html Health Mon, 20 May 2013 14:00:10 EST news288274325 With little evidence to guide them, many hospital intensive care units (ICUs) have been employing critical care physicians at night with the notion it would improve patients' outcomes. However, new results from a one-year randomized trial from researchers at Penn Medicine involving nearly 1,600 patients admitted to the Hospital of the University Pennsylvania (HUP) Medical ICU suggest otherwise: Having a nighttime intensivist had no clear benefit on length of stay or mortality for these patients, not even patients admitted at night or those with the most critical illnesses at the time of admission. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-nighttime-critical-physician-icu-doesnt.html Health Mon, 20 May 2013 14:00:09 EST news288273702 Both fine-particle air pollution and noise pollution may increase a person's risk of developing cardiovascular disease, according to German researchers who have conducted a large population study, in which both factors were considered simultaneously. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-air-pollution-noise-cardiovascular.html Health Mon, 20 May 2013 14:00:08 EST news288274242 A new study conducted by Boston researchers reports that the link between asthma and early childhood use of acetaminophen or ibuprofen may be driven by underlying respiratory infections that prompt the use of these analgesics, rather than the drugs themselves. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-early-childhood-respiratory-infections-link.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 20 May 2013 14:00:08 EST news288274302