Body

Montreal, September 15, 2008 – In a retrospective analysis of more than 30,000 female Medicare patients 65 years and older, osteoporosis fractures resulted in fracture-related medical expenses of $15,522 per person over three years. The study, presented at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) 30th Annual Meeting, is the first to analyze the actual long-term fracture-related medical expenses incurred over a three-year period using a U.S. medical claims database.

PHILADELPHIA – Although cancer remains a leading cause of death in America, it can take up to 12 years to bring a new anti-cancer agent before the FDA and the success rate for approval is only five to 10 percent. That means many research hours and dollars are wasted chasing avenues that will not bring fruit.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins schools of Public Health and Medicine have, for the first time, identified variants in the gene MYH9 that are associated with increased risk for non-diabetic end stage renal disease (ESRD,) which is the near-loss of kidney function leading to either dialysis of transplant. MYH9, located on the 22 chromosome, is the first gene identified for common forms of kidney disease. The study was published online September 14 in the journal Nature Genetics and will be published in the October print edition.

PHOENIX, Ariz. – Sept. 14, 2008 – Investigators at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) today announced a faster and less expensive way for scientists to find which genes might affect human health.

Using bar-codes, not unlike what shoppers find in grocery stores, TGen researchers found a way to index portions of the nearly 3-billion-base human genetic code, making it easier for scientists to zero in on the regions most likely to show variations in genetic traits.

Hospitals that perform cardiac nuclear stress testing under published national practice guidelines could reduce unnecessary testing and, potentially costs, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study.

The study looked at 375 patients who underwent nuclear stress testing at Henry Ford and showed that in the majority of cases, 90 percent, physicians ordered the diagnostic imaging test appropriately using the updated 2007 Appropriateness Criteria of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ACNC) and American College of Cardiology.

Researchers have uncovered a gene in corals that responds to day/night cycles, which provides some tantalizing clues into how symbiotic corals work together with their plankton partners.