CHICAGO – Low-dose radiation from annual mammography screening may increase breast cancer risk in women with genetic or familial predisposition to breast cancer, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
Body
CHICAGO – Results of a randomized, controlled clinical trial presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) reveal that one in five patients with narrowing or blockage in arteries that supply blood to the legs and other parts of the body also have significant but silent coronary artery disease.
STONY BROOK, NY, Dec. 1– Millions of shark fins are sold at market each year to satisfy the demand for shark fin soup, a Chinese delicacy, but it has been impossible to pinpoint which sharks from which regions are most threatened by this trade. Now, groundbreaking new DNA research has, for the first time, traced scalloped hammerhead shark fins from the burgeoning Hong Kong market all the way back to the sharks' geographic origin. In some cases the fins were found to come from endangered populations thousands of miles away.
St. Louis, MO, December 1, 2009 – Adolescent obesity is a major public health problem that impacts one out of every three children, resulting in 4-5 million overweight youth in the United States. In a study published in the December 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, researchers evaluated differences in weight control behaviors, including dietary intake and physical activity, comparing overweight adolescents who lost weight and those who did not in order to better understand which strategies could be most effective.
Chicken collagen can provide relief from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) symptoms. A randomised, controlled trial, published in BioMed Central's open access journal Arthritis Research & Therapy, has found that Chicken type II collagen (CCII), a protein extracted from the cartilage of chicken breast, is a safe and effective treatment for RA.
Researchers have characterised a new multi drug resistant strain of Salmonella Typhimurium that is causing life-threatening disease in Africa.
This type of Salmonella bug normally causes diarrhoea and is rarely fatal. The new strain infects vulnerable children and adults in many regions of sub-Saharan Africa leading to death in up to one in four cases.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – New analysis from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) suggests that physicians need to re-think their diagnosis and treatment of sore throat, or pharyngitis, in adolescents and young adults to consider a more newly identified and potentially dangerous culprit as the source of that infection.
St. Louis, Nov. 30, 2009 — Pancreatic tumors can be identified by a readily detectable marker that shows promise as a basis for immune therapy against the disease, according to research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
The marker is mesothelin, a protein normally found on mesothelial cells that line the body cavities. Several types of cancer cells make large amounts of mesothelin, which then circulates in the blood.
ST. PAUL, Minn. –The "stroke belt" has a tight hold. People born in the Southern stroke belt have a higher risk of dying from stroke as adults, even if they later move away, compared to people who were born in other parts of the country. The research is published in the December 1, 2009, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. People who live in the stroke belt in adulthood also had elevated risk of dying from stroke, even if they were not born there.
Intensive exercise prevented shortening of telomeres, a protective effect against aging of the cardiovascular system, according to research reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Researchers measured the length of telomeres — the DNA that bookends the chromosomes and protects the ends from damage — in blood samples from two groups of professional athletes and two groups who were healthy nonsmokers, but not regular exercisers.
Scientists have identified the trigger that leads to the arteries becoming damaged in the disease atherosclerosis, which causes heart attacks and strokes, in research published today in the journal Circulation. The authors of the study, from Imperial College London, say their findings suggest that the condition could potentially be treated by blocking the molecule that triggers the damage. The research also suggests that bacteria may be playing a part in the disease.
Malaria parasites are able to disguise themselves to avoid the host's immune system, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust and published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
COLUMBUS, Ohio – People can survive cardiac arrest if they receive only chest compressions during attempts to revive them – as advised by the current American Heart Association guidelines. But they cannot survive without access to oxygen sometime during the resuscitation effort, research suggests.
Scientists tested different scenarios in an animal study of cardiac arrest. Rats received either 100 percent oxygen, 21 percent oxygen – the equivalent of room air – or no oxygen (100 percent nitrogen) at the same time they received cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
The use of implantable devices for the treatment of heart failure increased "enormously" in Europe between the years 2004 and 2008, but there still remain large differences between countries, according to a study reported today (30 November) in the European Journal of Heart Failure (1). The findings suggest that there is an underuse of devices in many of the 15 countries surveyed (2).
IOWA CITY, IA—November 30, 2009—The effectiveness of the existing bankruptcy code has long been a source of vigorous debate. More and more lately, high-profile firms like General Motors, Enron, and K-Mart are seeking protection from creditors through Chapter 11 filings. But are these firms really getting the "fresh start" they need? In a recent edition of Financial Management, researchers Randall Heron, Erik Lie, and Kimberly Rodgers argue that the Chapter 11 process is flawed and fails to offer the clean slate needed to establish new capital structure.