BOSTON – Building on previous studies that found racial differences in hospice use, a new study from the Institute for Aging Research of Hebrew SeniorLife and Boston University School of Medicine finds that blacks and Hispanics use hospice for advanced heart failure at a rate of up to 50 percent less than whites, despite a markedly higher rate of incidence of the disease in these populations.
Body
(Boston) – Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have identified a new syndrome affecting potentially thousands of hospital inpatients. Coined SHAKE (Supplement-associated Hyperammonemia After C(K)achetic Episode), the condition, which results in altered mental status and difficulty walking, can be prevented by excluding high protein dietary supplements in a patients' diet if they have experienced poor eating for more than a week prior to their admittance. The condition is described in the March issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Adults tend to eat less pizza and drink less soda as the price of these items increases, and their body weight and overall calorie intake also appear to decrease, according to a report in the March 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Men who visit a radiation oncologist appear more likely to receive radiation therapy for prostate cancer, whereas men who consult with a urologist with or without a medical oncologist are treated more frequently with hormone therapy, watchful waiting or a radical prostatectomy, according to a report in the March 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Black and Hispanic Medicare beneficiaries with heart failure appear less likely to receive hospice care than white patients with the same condition, according to a report in the March 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Patients already taking warfarin who develop an acute stroke appear more likely to experience a brain hemorrhage following treatment with an intravenous clot-dissolving medication, even if their blood clotting function appears normal, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the May print issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Research on ocular cancer has expanded in recent years to involve well-designed, multi-center collaborative studies that help continue the advancement of knowledge in the field, according to an editorial in the March issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
One of the biggest questions facing scientists today is how life began. How did non-living molecules come together in that primordial ooze to form the polymers of life? Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered that small molecules could have acted as "molecular midwives" in helping the building blocks of life's genetic material form long chains and may have assisted in selecting the base pairs of the DNA double helix. The research appears in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences beginning March 8, 2010.
For all those dismayed by scenes of looting in disaster-struck zones, whether Haiti or Chile or elsewhere, take heart: Good acts – acts of kindness, generosity and cooperation – spread just as easily as bad. And it takes only a handful of individuals to really make a difference.
Tampa, FL (March 8, 2010) -- Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) infects nearly 100 percent of humans in early childhood, and the infection then lasts for the rest of a person's life. Now, a team led by Peter Medveczky, MD, a professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at the University of South Florida (USF), has discovered that in some individuals, HHV-6 causes such a permanent infection by inserting or "integrating" its DNA into human chromosomes. From this harbor, the viral DNA cannot be eliminated by the immune system.
A team of scientists has discovered that the drastic decline in Arctic musk ox populations that began roughly 12,000 years ago was due to a warming climate rather than to human hunting. "This is the first study to use ancient musk ox DNA collected from across the animal's former geographic range to test for human impacts on musk ox populations," said Beth Shapiro, the Shaffer Career Development assistant professor of biology at Penn State University and one of the team's leaders.
Pharmaceutical companies could substantially reduce the expense of costly treatments for cancer and other diseases produced from mammalian or bacterial cells by growing these human therapeutic proteins in algae—rapidly growing aquatic plant cells that have recently gained attention for their ability to produce biofuels.
The collection of symptoms that is the metabolic syndrome—insulin resistance, high cholesterol, fatty liver, and a greater risk for diabetes, heart disease, and stroke—are all related to obesity, but, according to a review in the March 9th issue of the Cell Press publication Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism, not in the way you probably think they are.
The use of a physician-pharmacist collaborative care plan to manage lipid control in patients with high cholesterol does not have significant clinical impact, found an article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj090533.pdf.
A significant number of people with heart disease will benefit from less invasive transcatheter heart valve replacements in future, finds a review of updated practices in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj080064.pdf