http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (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 withstands blood flow, hydrostatic pressure, stretch and tissue compression to create a unique and highly dynamic barrier that maintains the organization necessary to partition tissues from the body's circulatory system. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-endothelium-thyself-fresh-resilient-tissue.html Medical research Thu, 16 May 2013 06:58:10 EST news287906284 New data from clinical studies presented for the first time at the International Liver Congress 2013 provide new rationale for an old and established treatment option for portal hypertension. Additionally, spleen stiffness predicts the occurrence of clinical complications, which is of paramount importance in clinical practice. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-advances-patients-cirrhosis.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 25 Apr 2013 04:55:15 EST news286084509 Stereotactic needle biopsies are an established standard procedure in the diagnostic identification of brain lymphomas and certain brain tumours (gliomas). Up until now the tissue samples removed had to be examined for tumour cells in the neuropathology department whilst the operation was underway. In addition, several biopsies were often necessary to achieve diagnostic reliability and these involved several tissue extractions. With the 5-ALA fluorescence marker the correct place to make the extraction for the tumour biopsy, and thus the precise diagnosis, can be confirmed immediately in the operating theatre. This is demonstrated by a current study at the University Department of Neurosurgery of the MedUni Vienna/Vienna General Hospital. To do this scientists are getting brain tumours to glow. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-scientists-brain-tumours.html Cancer Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:30:21 EST news286018211 One of the major obstacles to growing new organs—replacement hearts, lungs and kidneys—is the difficulty researchers face in building blood vessels that keep the tissues alive, but new findings from the University of Michigan could help overcome this roadblock. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-blood-vessels-advance-tissue.html Medical research Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:46:49 EST news284309201 Prostate cancer doesn't kill in the prostate – it's only once the disease travels to bone, lung, liver, etc. that it turns fatal. Previous studies have shown that loss of the protein E-Cadherin is essential for this metastasis. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published this week in the Journal of Biological Chemistry describes for the first time a switch that regulates the production of E-Cadherin: the transcription factor SPDEF turns on and off production, leading to metastasis or stopping it cold in models of prostate cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-landmark-prostate-cancer-metastasis.html Cancer Tue, 02 Apr 2013 13:37:29 EST news284128641 The clot-busting drug tenecteplase prevents death or circulatory collapse in a subgroup of patients with a blood clot in the lungs and appears to be especially useful in patients younger than 75, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-clot-busting-drug-benefits-intermediate-risk-patients.html Cardiology Tue, 12 Mar 2013 10:59:46 EST news282304777 It's established dogma that the immune system develops a "memory" of a microbial pathogen, with a correspondingly enhanced readiness to combat that microbe, only upon exposure to it—or to its components though a vaccine. But a discovery by Stanford University School of Medicine researchers casts doubt on that dogma. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-immune-healthy-adults-germs-theyve.html Immunology Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:00:23 EST news279447305 (Medical Xpress)—Cocoa-rich dark chocolate might help protect against heart disease and stroke, but probably more so if you are a man. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-dark-chocolate-good-healthparticularly-male.html Health Mon, 24 Dec 2012 06:07:31 EST news275551640 Working with mice, Johns Hopkins researchers have shed light on the activity of a protein pair found in cells that form the walls of blood vessels in the brain and retina, experiments that could lead to therapeutic control of the blood-brain barrier and of blood vessel growth in the eye. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-blood-vessel-proteins-blood-brain-barrier.html Medical research Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:00:26 EST news274005083 European regulators have approved a crucial new anticlotting drug, Eliquis, for preventing strokes and dangerous clots in the circulatory system. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-bristol-pfizer-anticlot-drug-key-eu.html Medications Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:39:37 EST news272651965 Though you may not be living with diabetes, your body could be battling against the hormone insulin. The condition, called insulin resistance, occurs when insulin can't effectively do its job. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-insulin-resistance-precursor-diabetes-reversed.html Diabetes Tue, 06 Nov 2012 17:50:03 EST news271443395 To prevent the risks in minimally invasive surgery procedures there has been considerable interest in using Master Slave System (MSS), a telesurgical system for catheter guide during interventional radiology. Here the researchers propose using a fail-safe telesurgical system. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-mechatronic-fail-safe-catheter-blood-circulatory.html Surgery Thu, 11 Oct 2012 07:02:42 EST news269157749 The adult human circulatory system contains between 20 and 30 trillion red blood cells (RBCs), the precise size and number of which can vary from person to person. Some people may have fewer, but larger RBCs, while others may have a larger number of smaller RBCs. Although these differences in size and number may seem inconsequential, they raise an important question: Just what controls these characteristics of RBCs? http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-protein-red-blood-cell-size.html Genetics Tue, 28 Aug 2012 18:23:09 EST news265396943 (HealthDay) -- Diabetes is linked with a significantly increased risk of death from many diseases, including specific cancers, in both men and women, according to a study published online June 14 in Diabetes Care. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-diabetes-linked-cause-specific-mortality.html Diabetes Thu, 21 Jun 2012 03:00:02 EST news259465007 A development in 4D image reconstruction compensates for blurring caused by the beating of the heart, say researchers at the Society of Nuclear Medicine's 59th Annual Meeting. The new method provides sharper-than-ever images of cardiac function to help pinpoint heart defects for better diagnoses and treatment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-hearts-4d-pet-image-reconstruction.html Medical research Mon, 11 Jun 2012 14:00:01 EST news258639340 Tissue in monkeys infected with a close relative of HIV can ramp up production of a type of T cell that actually weakens the body's attack against the invading virus. The discovery, in lymph nodes draining the intestinal tract, could help explain how the HIV virus evades the body's immune defenses. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-siv-infection-immune-suppressive-treg-cells.html Immunology Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:44:54 EST news248449475 A review article by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) debunks the widely-believed concept that hypertension, or high blood pressure, is the result of excess salt causing an increased blood volume, exerting extra pressure on the arteries. Published online in the Journal of Hypertension, the study demonstrates that excess salt stimulates the sympathetic nervous system to produce adrenalin, causing artery constriction and hypertension. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-link-salt-hypertension.html Health Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:15:27 EST news245499312 By using mice lacking a crucial gene that controls the process of chromatin remodeling of cytokines including those responsible for inflammation and comparing them to normal wild type mice with the gene, researchers at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences have shown that the gene, Mta1, is essential for the parasite Schistosoma haematobium to establish a productive infection and survival in the host. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-host-mta1-gene-required-optimal.html Medical research Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:48:07 EST news226158432