An individual's meniscus (cushion in the knee) is one of the most important ligaments in the leg providing stability, load bearing and preservation of the knee joint. It is also one of the most easily injured areas and difficult to fully heal. Researchers presenting their study at today's Specialty Day meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) utilized MRI data to determine the potential for biologic healing following a meniscus tear.
Body
Up to 1 billion people globally have insufficient or deficient vitamin D levels, which was once a greater problem that it is now and the reason many western nations fortify milk with it. It used to be that the sun was used for such nourishment but with the modern war on both dairy and the sun, low vitamin D levels have become more common, even for elite college athletes, according to a new study.
But don't be duped into buying supplements, you can get it from your diet. Just eat more fish.
Triple-negative breast cancers are two distinct diseases that likely originate from different cell types. This helps explain why survival prospects for women with the diagnosis tend to be either very good or very bad. A research team has found a gene that drives the aggressive disease, and hopes to find a way to 'switch it off'.
One of the dominant theories of our evolution is that our genus, Homo, evolved from small-bodied early humans to become the taller, heavier and longer legged Homo erectus that was able to migrate beyond Africa and colonise Eurasia. While we know that small-bodied Homo erectus - averaging less than five foot (152cm) and under 50kg - were living in Georgia in southern Europe by 1.77 million years ago, the timing and geographic origin of the larger body size that we associate with modern humans has, until now, remained unresolved.
Nobody likes getting the flu, but for some people, fluids and rest aren't enough. A small number of children who catch the influenza virus fall so ill they end up in the hospital -- perhaps needing ventilators to breathe -- even while their family and friends recover easily. New research by Rockefeller University scientists, published March 26 in Science, helps explain why: a rare genetic mutation.
Newly published research posits an explanation for why 100 million Americans estimated to be taking prescription and over-the-counter antacid and heartburn medications may be at an increased risk of bone fractures.
While most of us recover from influenza after a week, it can be a very severe disease, and even fatal in rare cases, with no reason for physicians to have expected such an outcome.
Shakespeare said "to be or not to be" is the question, and now scientists are asking how life forms grow to be the correct size with proportional body parts.
Women tend to have their first total joint replacement at an older age, they are still less likely to have complications related to their surgery or require revision surgery, according to a new paper at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS). The findings contradict the theory that total joint replacement is underutilized in female patients because they have worse outcomes then men.
A new paper concludes that there is limited evidence to show that xylitol prevents dental cavities in children and adults. Xylitol is a natural sweetener that is widely promoted globally, and can be found in wide range of everyday products including sugar-free chewing gum, toothpaste, gels, lozenges and sweets.
A study published today describes a newly-discovered, heritable genetic cause of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), namely mutation of the gene ETV6. Much like mutation of the gene BRCA marks people at risk to develop breast and ovarian cancers, identification of mutations in the gene ETV6 may allow doctors to predict the development of ALL, allowing increased monitoring and in the future, perhaps strategies to prevent the disease. There are just over 30,000 cases of ALL diagnosed in the United States each year, with the majority of those cases being in children ages 2-5.
Hepatitis B Virus Infection (HBV) exposure increases the immune system maturation of infants, which may give a better survival advantage to counteract bacterial infection during early life. These findings radically modify the way that HBV vertical infection of neonates (mother-to-child) is portrayed, and present a paradigm shift in the approach to treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis B.
HAIR loss is a distressing side-effect of cancer treatment and can even deter some patients from undergoing life-saving chemotherapy. But researchers at the University of Huddersfield are establishing the scientific basis for a rapidly-advancing scalp cooling technology that can ensure hair retention in a vast number of cases. There is also an added benefit that the increased positivity of patients who retain their hair can help to boost their immune systems and therefore aid recovery.
Air pollution is linked to a higher risk of stroke, particularly in developing countries, according to a paper in BMJ. In a second article, a paper associates air pollution with anxiety.
Scientists from the University of Michigan have grown the first 3D mini lungs from stem cells. The study, published in eLife, compliments other developments in the field such as growing mainly 2D structures and building lung tissue from the scaffold of donated organs.
The advantage of growing 3D structures is that their organisation bears greater similarity to the human lung. The scientists succeeded in growing structures resembling both the large proximal airways and the small distal airways
Lead author Dr Jason Spence says: