http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. The spleen is rarely noticed, until it is missing. In children born without this organ, that doesn't happen until they become sick with life-threatening bacterial infections. An international team of researchers led by scientists from Rockefeller's St. Giles Laboratory of Human Genetics and Infectious Diseases has now identified the defective gene responsible for this rare disorder. The findings, reported today in Science Express, may lead to new diagnostic tests and raises new questions about the role of this gene in the body's protein-making machinery. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-scientists-gene-mutation-children-born.html Genetics Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:00:08 EST news284907208 Clinical research needs to optimise its agenda by taking into consideration both patients' and clinicians' needs and interests. This is the goal of a four-year project funded by the EU's Seventh Framework Programme, which got underway in January 2013. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-rare-bestpractices-rare-diseases.html Other Mon, 01 Apr 2013 07:53:18 EST news284021587 (Medical Xpress)—Two innovative programs designed to improve the availability of emerging medical technologies that can help patients receive more effective, efficient and personalized health care are advanced in a commentary written by a team of scientists and policy experts, including seven from Arizona State University, and published today in Science Translational Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-paradigm-world-healthcare.html Health Thu, 14 Mar 2013 09:20:01 EST news282470159 Television advertising may drive over-diagnosis of high cholesterol and over-treatment with statins, according to a new study by Dr. Jeff Niederdeppe from Cornell University in the US and colleagues. It appears that a trip to the doctor enquiring about statins advertised on TV often leads to a prescription. The work appears online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-side-effects-statin-ads.html Cardiology Thu, 07 Mar 2013 11:51:28 EST news281879482 Cornell University researchers have discovered a likely origin of epithelial ovarian cancer (ovarian carcinoma), the fifth leading cause of cancer death among women in the United States. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-aggressive-ovarian-cancer.html Cancer Wed, 06 Mar 2013 13:00:16 EST news281795982 A new systematic review published in The Cochrane Library has raised doubts as to the effectiveness of "red flag" indicators at both identifying and excluding cancer in patients with lower back pain. The authors of the review concluded that most individual red flags were poor at diagnosing spinal malignancies and call for further studies focused on combinations of red flags. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-spinal-cancer-guidelines-diagnosis-unsupported.html Cancer Wed, 27 Feb 2013 19:00:01 EST news281209173 (HealthDay)—One in six people worries that they're sick even though their symptoms don't signal disease, and often these patients aren't swayed by tests that show they're fine, Scottish researchers report. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-negative-results.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:00:11 EST news281104934 Researchers at the University of Granada have designed a set of biomarkers that can be used in diagnostic tests for the detection of dengue and the West Nile virus, two infectious diseases transmitted by the bite of a mosquito. These biomarkers can be used to identify these viral diseases, which affect millions of people worldwide. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-spanish-biomarkers-dengue-west-nile.html Medical research Wed, 06 Feb 2013 10:02:28 EST news279367336 Growing demand for its cancer medicines and diagnostic tests used by clinical laboratories helped Swiss drug maker Roche Holding AG post a modest 2.4 percent increase in full-year profits. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-cancer-drugs-roche-profit-boost.html Other Wed, 30 Jan 2013 05:05:29 EST news278744721 Penn State may be the first institution to use virtual reality to protect student athletes from the very real consequences of concussions. University researchers in kinesiology, information technology and sports medicine are using the technology to investigate cognitive changes beyond the limits of typical diagnostic tests. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-virtual-reality-athletes-concussions.html Health Mon, 14 Jan 2013 07:00:01 EST news277366975 Duke researchers are looking to genomic technologies – not the isolation of bacteria or viruses – to quickly detect and diagnose infectious diseases such as the flu and staph. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-genomic-response-infection-earlier-accurate.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:00:09 EST news276961186 Dogs can sniff out Clostridium difficile (the infective agent that is responsible for many of the dreaded "hospital acquired infections") in stool samples and even in the air surrounding patients in hospital with a very high degree of accuracy, finds a study in the Christmas issue published on BMJ today. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-dogs-accurately-superbug-infections.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 13 Dec 2012 18:30:07 EST news274642603 Employing a combination of imaging and biomarker tests improves the ability of doctors to predict Alzheimer's in patients with mild cognitive impairment, according to researchers at Duke Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-combination-imaging-exams-alzheimer-diagnosis.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Tue, 11 Dec 2012 00:00:01 EST news274382298 A study suggests that diagnostic tests are frequently repeated among Medicare beneficiaries, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-common-medicare-beneficiaries.html Health Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:00:04 EST news272562394 An international team of geneticists, pediatricians, surgeons and epidemiologists from 23 institutions across three continents has identified two areas of the human genome associated with the most common form of non-syndromic craniosynostosis ― premature closure of the bony plates of the skull. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-basis-birth-defect-premature-skull.html Genetics Sun, 18 Nov 2012 13:00:09 EST news272463188 A research team reported that next generation sequencing of the exome, the 1 to 2% of the DNA containing the genes that code for proteins, enabled the identification of the genetic causes of unexplained intellectual disability in over 50% of patients in a study conducted at Radboud University Medical Centre in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-unexplained-intellectual-disability-state-of-the-art-genetic.html Genetics Thu, 08 Nov 2012 13:30:07 EST news271583182 Marijuana use—both natural and synthetic—may cause cannabinoid hyperemesis (CH) a little-known but costly effect that researchers suggest is a serious burden to the health care system as it often leads to expensive diagnostic tests and ineffective treatments in an effort to find the cause of a patient's symptoms and provide relief, according to two separate case reports unveiled today at the American College of Gastroenterology's (ACG) 77th Annual Scientific meeting in Las Vegas. Cannabinoid hyperemesis is characterized by a history of chronic cannabis use followed by a cyclic pattern of nausea, vomiting and colicky abdominal pain. Interestingly, compulsive hot baths or showers temporarily relieve symptoms, another characteristic which aids clinicians in diagnosis. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-marijuana-severe-cyclic-nausea-vomiting.html Health Mon, 22 Oct 2012 10:00:46 EST news270118829 (HealthDay)—Risk factors for heart disease—such as being overweight, having high cholesterol levels and smoking—are common in patients who undergo angioplasty and stent procedures to open blocked coronary arteries, a large new study finds. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-nationwide-common-heart-procedures.html Cardiology Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:45:11 EST news269790300 Curtailing the imminent rise in Alzheimer's disease (AD) will require early, accurate diagnostic tests and treatments, and researchers are closer to achieving these two goals. New findings in medical imaging, molecular analysis of neurological diseases, and development of treatments using mouse models were presented at Neuroscience 2012, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-tools-alzheimer-aid-early-diagnosis.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Mon, 15 Oct 2012 17:03:48 EST news269539402 With their excellent sensitivity and specificity, the use of these extremely efficient tests on a world-wide scale would allow us to adapt antibiotic treatments to the individual's needs and to be more successful in controlling antibiotic resistance, particularly in hospitals. These works were published in September in two international reviews: Emerging Infectious diseases and The Journal of Clinical Microbiology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-rapid-diagnosis-resistance-antibiotics.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 12 Oct 2012 11:05:17 EST news269258707 In low-and-middle income countries, pregnancy-related infections are a major cause of maternal death, can also be fatal to unborn and newborn babies, and are mostly caused by four types of conditions that are treatable and preventable, according to a review by US researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-pregnancy-related-infections-treatable-conditions.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 09 Oct 2012 17:01:22 EST news269020846 Based on their previous discovery of progesterone-induced blocking factor (PIBF), European scientists have developed a diagnostic assay that could be used to detect pregnancy complications or cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-cancer-pregnancy-complications.html Medical research Thu, 16 Aug 2012 09:11:28 EST news264327071 When combined with standard diagnostic tests, functional imaging procedures have been shown to reduce the rate of misdiagnosed cases of infectious endocarditis. According to new research published in the August issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)/computed tomography (CT) with 99mTc-hexamethylpropleneamine oxime-labeled white blood cells (99mTc-HMPAO-WBC) can improve the diagnosis of infectious endocarditis in hard-to-diagnose cases. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-difficult-cases-infectious-endocarditis-spectct.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:40:45 EST news263047228 A study of adolescents with hypertension enrolled in the Michigan Medicaid program suggests that guideline-recommended diagnostic tests – echocardiograms and renal ultrasonography – were poorly used, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-diagnostic-adolescents-hypertension.html Pediatrics Mon, 23 Jul 2012 16:00:04 EST news262267743 Clinicians and laboratory professionals often rely on manufacturers' package inserts to assess the accuracy of diagnostic medical tests. However, package inserts frequently greatly overstate such tests' accuracy, according to a case study of package inserts for tuberculosis (TB), which is published in the July 2012 Journal of Clinical Microbiology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-package-inserts-overstate-diagnostic-tb.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 17 Jul 2012 16:48:52 EST news261762517 Diagnostic tests are increasingly capable of identifying plaques and tangles present in Alzheimer's disease, yet the disease remains untreatable. Questions remain about how these tests can be used in research studies examining potential interventions to treat and prevent Alzheimer's disease. Experts from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania will today participate in a panel at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference 2012 (AAIC 2012) discussing ways to ethically disclose and provide information about test results to asymptomatic older adults. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-penn-expert-ethical-implications-alzheimer.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Tue, 17 Jul 2012 13:01:21 EST news261748863 Lies Van Nieuwenhove, researcher at the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine, has produced proteins imitating typical parts of the sleeping sickness parasite. They can be used in more efficient diagnostic tests, without the need for culturing dangerous parasites. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-sickness.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 22 May 2012 10:50:18 EST news256902584 Disorders of consciousness such as coma or a vegetative state caused by severe brain injury are poorly understood and their diagnosis has relied mainly on patient responses and measures of brain activity. However, new functional and imaging-based diagnostic tests that measure communication and signaling between different brain regions may provide valuable information about the potential for consciousness in patients unable to communicate. These innovative approaches are described and compared in a Review article in the groundbreaking neuroscience journal Brain Connectivity. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-diagnostic-approaches-brain-function-unconscious.html Neuroscience Wed, 09 May 2012 11:29:34 EST news255781705 The H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009 underscored weaknesses in methods widely used to diagnose the flu, from frequent false negatives to long wait times for results. Now Boston University researchers have developed a prototype of a rapid, low-cost, accurate, point-of-care device that promises to provide clinicians with an effective tool to quickly diagnose both seasonal and pandemic strains of influenza, and thus limit the spread of infection. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-microfluidic-chip-stem-flu-outbreaks.html Medical research Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:09:15 EST news252072511 (HealthDay) -- For office-based physicians, electronic access to patient imaging and laboratory test results does not decrease -- and may actually increase -- the number of diagnostic tests ordered, according to research published in the March issue of Health Affairs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-electronic-result-access.html Health Tue, 06 Mar 2012 15:10:01 EST news250262874