A severe complication of the Marfan syndrome is that the aorta may split and be torn apart. The patient can be protected if the syndrome is diagnosed and treated in good time. In the current edition of the Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2008; 105[27]: 483-91), the human geneticist Mine Arslan-Kirchner from Hannover University Medical School and his coauthors present additional studies on Marfan patients.
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Ninety-six per cent of children who have received liver transplants from living relations are still alive five years after surgery, according to research published in the July issue of the British Journal of Surgery.
The findings by the Institute of Liver Studies at King's College Hospital, London, are based on the 50 living related liver transplants (LRLT) carried out on children by the hospital between 1993 and 2006. King's was the only UK centre to perform this ground-breaking procedure during that period.
University of Rochester Medical Center researchers found a new protein produced excessively in malignant melanoma, a discovery that is particularly relevant as skin cancer rates climb dramatically among young women.
A genetic variant found almost exclusively in individuals of Asian descent increases the risk of elevated triglycerides over four-fold, reports a comprehensive study in the August Journal of Lipid Research. In fact, all 11 subjects who carried both copies of this rare variant for apolipoprotein A-V had extremely high and dangerous triglyceride levels in their blood.
FORT PIERCE, FL - Travel America's highways or drive down any city street this summer and you'll probably see them. From small, manicured beds of flowers maintained by community volunteers to extensive landscaping projects along America's byways, roadside gardens are taking root.
Scientists here have found that certain substances from bacteria living in the human intestine cause the normally harmless Candida albicans fungus to become highly infectious.
This discovery by researchers at Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)'s Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) could possibly lead to the development of novel treatments for immunocompromised patients infected by the fungus.
Dr Charles Worringham of Queensland University of Technology's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation said the unique 'Cardiomobile' monitoring system, developed by Gold Coast company Alive Technologies, was being further developed and trialled together with QUT under an ARC Linkage Grant.
"The program allows people who have been in hospital for a heart attack or heart surgery to undergo a six-week walking exercise rehabilitation program wherever it's convenient, while having their heart signal, location and speed monitored in real time," Dr Worringham said.
DURHAM, N.C. – Nature, in the simple form of a tree canopy, appears to provide keen insights into the best way to design complex systems to move substances from one place to another, an essential ingredient in the development of novel "smart" materials.
Duke University engineers believe that an image of two tree canopies touching top-to-top can guide their efforts to most efficiently control the flow of liquids in new materials, including the next generation of aircraft and rocket "skins" that can self-repair when damaged, or self-cool when overheated.
From ancient Arabian traders to Marco Polo's followers, merchants have tried to transform China's massive population into materialistic consumers. In less than 30 years, millionaires, pop stars, and "Mongolia Cow Yogurt Super Girls" have replaced Mao's working-class heroes. How did China become a consumerist society in such short order?
When consumers shop for televisions or cereal, what makes them prefer one option to another? Which brand will they purchase again and tell their friends about?
A person's heart rate can reveal a lot about how they make decisions when feeling stressed, a Queensland University of Technology academic says.
Economics Associate Professor Uwe Dulleck, from the QUT Business Faculty, said stress in the workplace wasn't necessarily a bad thing, because it was, in fact, a natural reaction that had been given a negative connotation.
Professor Dulleck is leading the Australian arm of a study that was awarded an Australian Research Council grant to study the effects of both positive and negative stress on employees' decision-making.
More than a quarter of a million women have been sold as wives and baby-makers in South East Asia, but they are getting a raw deal in health care and social inclusion.
A PhD study undertaken by Queensland University of Technology nursing researcher Yung-Mei Yang has found that foreign wives often suffer low mental and physical health, and may suffer domestic violence or enter prostitution to make money.
Ms Yang surveyed more than 200 foreign brides living in Taiwan, most of whom were sold from Vietnam and Indonesia.
NEW YORK July, 16, 2008 When it comes to allergies, both the problem and the solution are found within us. Our immune systems respond to foreign substances with an arsenal of cells. Some are programmed to "remember" invaders they've encountered in the past. Normally, anything previously identified as harmless is allowed to pass. Sometimes, however, the immune response goes awry, triggering an allergic reaction.
New findings from Bristol scientists could lead to future treatments to prevent lower limb amputations in diabetes - which currently affect 100 people a week in the UK (source Diabetes UK).
The research from the University of Bristol is published online in Circulation Research and was funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and the European Vascular Genomic Network of Excellence (EVGN).
New York, NY, July 17th, 2008—A new national scorecard from The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System finds that the U.S. health care system has failed to improve overall and that scores on access have declined significantly since the first national scorecard in 2006. Despite spending more on health care than any other industrialized nation, the U.S. overall continues to fall far short on key indicators of health outcomes and quality, with particularly low scores on efficiency.