http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Researchers at Rutgers and UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School have determined the structure of a protein that is the first line of defense in fighting viral infections including influenza, hepatitis C, West Nile, rabies, and measles. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-unprecedented-insight-viral-infections.html Medical research Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:46:30 EST news236533554 Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have made a discovery that brings them one step closer to being able to better predict which patients have the best chance of surviving breast cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-genes-breast-cancer-prognosis.html Cancer Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:08:55 EST news236250527 Patients who receive kidney transplants must take lifelong medications that, while preventing organ rejection, can also compromise other aspects of health. Immunosuppresive drugs called calcineurin inhibitors protect transplanted organs from being rejected, but they can be toxic to the kidneys over the long term and can make patients susceptible to infection, cancer, and other threats. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-toxic-drugs-kidney-transplant-patients.html Other Thu, 22 Sep 2011 18:32:54 EST news235935148 (AP) -- An outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe that has killed as many as four people is a mystery to disease specialists who are used to seeing the pathogen in deli meats and soft cheeses. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-listeria-outbreaks-rare-deadly.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Sat, 17 Sep 2011 03:41:58 EST news235449681 Children who live in households where they are exposed to tobacco smoke miss more days of school than do children living in smoke-free homes, a new nationwide study confirms. The report from investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) – which finds these children have higher rates of respiratory illnesses that can be caused by second-hand smoke and details the probable economic costs of their increased school absence – has been released in the online edition of Pediatrics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-smoker-absenteeism-school-children.html Health Mon, 05 Sep 2011 02:42:49 EST news234409349 (Medical Xpress) -- Studies about medications published in the most influential medical journals are frequently designed in a way that yields misleading or confusing results, new research suggests. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-results-medication-medical-journals-readers.html Health Fri, 26 Aug 2011 06:12:06 EST news233557900 Investigators from the Boston University's Slone Epidemiology Center have reported findings that may shed light on why African American women have a disproportionately higher risk of developing more aggressive and difficult-to-treat breast cancers, specifically estrogen and progesterone receptor negative (ER-/PR-) cancers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-bu-contributors-high-incidence-breast.html Cancer Tue, 16 Aug 2011 13:49:23 EST news232721350 Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a gene-based test to distinguish harmless from precancerous pancreatic cysts. The test may eventually help some patients avoid needless surgery to remove the harmless variety. A report on the development is published in the July 20 issue of Science Translational Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-benign-cancerous-gene-cancer-potential.html Cancer Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:46:26 EST news230391957 Lung cancer is strongly correlated with smoking, and most lung cancer patients are current or former smokers. But it is not rare in nonsmokers. Now, a team of researchers from the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, FL, shows that a protein called ID1 is a key player in lung cancer in both smokers and nonsmokers. The research is published in the July issue of the journal Molecular and Cellular Biology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-protein-boosts-lung-cancer-smokers.html Cancer Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:55:08 EST news230288088 Genetically engineered human cardiac stem cells helped repair damaged heart tissue and improved function after a heart attack, in a new animal study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-genetically-cardiac-stem-cells-mouse.html Cardiology Tue, 19 Jul 2011 07:09:43 EST news230278166 Targeted therapies that are designed to suppress the formation of new blood vessels in tumors, such as Avastin (bevacizumab), have slowed cancer growth in some patients. However, they have not produced the dramatic responses researchers initially thought they might. Now, research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania might help to explain the modest responses. The discovery, published in the July 14 issue of Nature, suggests novel treatment combinations that could boost the power of therapies based on slowing blood vessel growth (angiogenesis). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-scientists-link-immune-suppression-blood.html Cancer Wed, 13 Jul 2011 13:00:09 EST news229780313 Today, researchers from two major HIV prevention trials announced favorable results of an approach called oral pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. One of these trials, the Partners PrEP Study, has provided the strongest evidence yet of PrEP's effectiveness. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-voice-action-results-trials.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 13 Jul 2011 09:25:41 EST news229767927 Stanford University School of Medicine investigators have linked a master molecule of the immune system, gamma-interferon, to the pathology of asthma, in a study of mice. This somewhat surprising finding — the key immune molecule has often been assumed to steer the immune system in a different direction from the cluster of allergic disorders to which asthma belongs — could lead to new treatments for the disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-key-immune-substance-linked-asthma.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:30:57 EST news228742245 Sophia Antipolis, France: 27 June 2011: The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Working Group on Myocardial Function is calling for a redefinition of the term cardiac hypertrophy which is currently used to describe changes to the morphology (structure) of the heart. Instead the position paper, published online today in the European Journal of Heart Failure, suggests that use of the general term myocardial remodelling should be preferred. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-esc-renaming-term-cardiac-hypertrophy.html Cardiology Mon, 27 Jun 2011 03:29:06 EST news228364123 Self-conscious about your age? Careful where you spit. UCLA geneticists now can use saliva to reveal how old you are. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-scientists-accurately-age-saliva-sample.html Genetics Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:24:02 EST news227982232 IOS Press is pleased to announce the publication of a landmark study in which both traditional and innovative scientometric approaches have been employed to identify the top 100 Parkinson's disease (PD) investigators since 1985 and measure their scientific productivity as well as the impact of their contributions to the field. The article appears today in the inaugural issue of the Journal of Parkinson's Disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-landmark-scientific-productivity-impact-pd.html Other Thu, 09 Jun 2011 13:18:59 EST news226844329 The discovery of a gene for migraine holds great promise in the quest for new approaches -- possibly even a pill -- for preventing the disease, says a panel of experts presenting data at the annual scientific meeting of the American Headache Society. So far, there is no therapy that prevents an attack. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-pill-migraine-discovery-gene-horizon.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:08:12 EST news226152473 Analysis of data from two long-term studies of the impact of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on the development of psychiatric disorders in young adults confirms that ADHD alone significantly increases the risk of cigarette smoking and substance abuse in both boys and girls. The report from a team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators will appear in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and has been released online. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-long-term-association-childhood-adhd-substance.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 31 May 2011 11:35:05 EST news226060382 Too many admissions at a hospital at one time can put patients at risk. A new study published today in the Journal of Hospital Medicine suggests that "smoothing" occupancy over the course of a week could help hospitals reduce crowding and protect patients from crowded conditions. The strategy involves controlling the entry of patients, when possible, to achieve more even levels of occupancy instead of the peaks and troughs that are commonly encountered. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-admissions-crowding-children-hospitals.html Health Tue, 24 May 2011 04:04:30 EST news225428652 Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center had noticed that, despite a hospital-wide program to prevent patient falls, the cardiovascular progressive care unit experienced an increase in the rate of patient falls. To address the problem, investigators reviewed current literature about fall prevention and designed an education program. Using some basic guidelines from Ryu, Roche, and Brunton (2009), the program incorporated education for patients as well as families and included a booklet and a poster for each patient room. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-heart-patients-families-hospital-falls.html Health Sun, 15 May 2011 11:40:51 EST news224678400 dozens of crime dramas revolve around them. The investigators find the victim, dust for fingerprints, run them through a computer program and - voilá- the guilty party is quickly identified and sent to prison. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-fingerprints-aint-csi.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 11 May 2011 16:40:31 EST news224350814