http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (Medical Xpress)—Approximately two million people around the world regularly undergo hemodialysis – blood purification outside the body – as a result of kidney failure. This usually involves creating a dialysis fistula – a connection between an artery and a vein – in the patient's arm. However this causes complications in as many as 50% of patients, primarily related to changes in blood flow. Researcher Maarten Merkx of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) has developed a system that automatically images the blood vessels in the arm and calculates the expected blood flow through the dialysis fistula. This makes it easy for physicians to find the best surgical strategy to insert the dialysis fistula with minimal chance of complications. Merkx gained his PhD on Monday 3 December for this research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-method-greatly-complications-hemodialysis-kidney.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 07 Dec 2012 05:41:38 EST news274081287 A doctor-patient relationship built on trust and empathy doesn't just put patients at ease – it actually changes the brain's response to stress and increases pain tolerance, according to new findings from a Michigan State University research team. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-doc-empathy-patients-pain-tolerance.html Health Mon, 03 Dec 2012 16:03:38 EST news273773004 Expectant parents in Japan who can't wait to show the world what their baby will look like can now buy a three-dimensional model of the foetus to pass around their friends. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-japan-firm-3d-foetus.html Other Tue, 27 Nov 2012 04:33:36 EST news273213196 After nearly 10 years of follow-up of study participants who experienced migraines and who had brain lesions indentified via magnetic resonance imaging, women with migraines had a higher prevalence and greater increase of deep white matter hyperintensities (brain lesions) than women without migraines, although the number, frequency, and severity of migraines were not associated with lesion progression, according to a study appearing in the November 14 issue of JAMA. Also, increase in deep white matter hyperintensity volume was not significantly associated with poorer cognitive performance at follow-up. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-migraines-higher-incidence-brain-lesions.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:00:08 EST news272044228 Researchers supported by the Wellcome Trust have discovered that we use a different part of our brain to learn about social hierarchies than we do to learn ordinary information. The study provides clues as to how this information is stored in memory and also reveals that you can tell a lot about how good somebody is likely to be at judging social rank by looking at the structure of their brain. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-dog-reveals-brain-social.html Neuroscience Thu, 08 Nov 2012 12:44:57 EST news271601089 (Medical Xpress) -- Mitochondrial inherited diseases (MIDs) can devastate families, but there is hope in the form of new techniques to prevent them passing from mother to child. Anjana Ahuja speaks to the researchers at the forefront of this research, and a family living with the reality of such a condition, to find out why change is so desperately needed. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-shadows-freeing-families-mitochondrial-inherited.html Medical research Tue, 12 Jun 2012 11:10:01 EST news258717258 People who received injections of the multiple sclerosis (MS) drug interferon beta-1a soon after their first signs of possible MS were less likely to progress to clinically definite MS than people who switched to interferon beta-1a from placebo, according to new phase three results of the three-year REFLEXION clinical trial that will be presented as part of the Emerging Science program (formerly known as Late-Breaking Science) at the American Academy of Neurology's 64th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, April 21 to April 28, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-drug-likelihood-multiple-sclerosis.html Inflammatory disorders Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:00:08 EST news254071672 A powerful new imaging technique called High Definition Fiber Tracking (HDFT) will allow doctors to clearly see for the first time neural connections broken by traumatic brain injury (TBI) and other disorders, much like X-rays show a fractured bone, according to researchers from the University of Pittsburgh in a report published online today in the Journal of Neurosurgery. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-high-definition-fiber-tracking-reveals.html Surgery Fri, 02 Mar 2012 04:50:03 EST news249884660 When it comes to treating people with hip pain, physicians should not replace clinical observation with the use of magnetic resonance images (MRI), according to research being presented today at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's (AOSSM) Specialty Day in San Francisco, CA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-treatment-hip-conditions-rest-solely.html Other Sat, 11 Feb 2012 09:26:41 EST news248174791 A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan for coronary heart disease is better than the most commonly-used alternative, a major UK trial of heart disease patients has shown. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-mri-scan-heart-patients.html Cardiology Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:05:45 EST news243835518 New research suggests that, in people who don't currently have memory problems, those with smaller regions of the brain's cortex may be more likely to develop symptoms consistent with very early Alzheimer's disease. The study is published in the December 21, 2011, online issue of Neurology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-brain-size-early-alzheimer-disease.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:00:05 EST news243694701 New research from the University of Southampton could lead to enhanced MRI scans, producing brighter and more precise images, and potentially allowing the detection of cancerous cells before they cause health problems. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-mri-scans.html Medical research Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:40:22 EST news243168016 Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an established technique which over the years has made it possible for researchers and healthcare professionals to study biological phenomena in the body without using ionising radiation, for example X-rays. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-instrument-diseases-minute.html Medical research Fri, 21 Oct 2011 09:27:22 EST news238408029 Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), an important diagnostic test, has traditionally been off limits to more than 2 million people in the United States who have an implanted pacemaker to regulate heart rhythms or an implanted defibrillator to prevent sudden cardiac death. Now, in a study published in the October 4 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, cardiologists at Johns Hopkins report that a protocol they developed has proved effective in enabling patients with implanted cardiac devices to safely undergo an MRI scan. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-hopkins-mri-safe-people-implanted.html Cardiology Mon, 03 Oct 2011 17:28:13 EST news236881685 Carnegie Mellon University biologists have developed an MRI-based technique that allows researchers to non-invasively follow neural stem cells in vivo. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-scientists-track-neuronal-stem-cells.html Neuroscience Thu, 29 Sep 2011 11:05:07 EST news236513094 A new type of diagnostic imaging - which can better differentiate benign lung lesions from those which are cancerous - could be used to prevent unnecessary surgery by enabling more accurate diagnosis of the disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-diagnostic-imaging-lung-cancer-unnecessary.html Cancer Sun, 25 Sep 2011 13:09:07 EST news236174933 Soldiers returning from combat have heightened activity in the part of the brain that regulates fear but this usually normalises after around 18 months, a study has found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-home-soldierbrain.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:46:44 EST news234017156 Neurofibromatosis (NF1) is a genetic condition which affects one in every 3,000 people. The severity of symptoms can range from benign 'cafe au lait' patches on the skin, through small tumors under the skin and deep plexiform neurofibromas, to malignant tumors of the nerve sheath. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine shows that a simple blood test for the protein melanoma-inhibitory activity (MIA) could be used to indicate the presence of neurofibromas even if they cannot be seen. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-biomarker-mia-presence-neurofibromas.html Cancer Mon, 04 Jul 2011 02:54:06 EST news228966827 New research suggests that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) could help detect Alzheimer's disease (AD) at an early stage, before irreversible damage has occurred, according to a new study published online and in the June print edition of Radiology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-mri-contribute-early-alzheimer.html Neuroscience Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:39:51 EST news221744379 Long term users of the popular recreational drug ecstasy (MDMA) risk structural brain damage, suggests preliminary research published online in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-long-term-users-ecstasy-brain.html Neuroscience Thu, 07 Apr 2011 04:51:47 EST news221370691