Body

Short-term memory getting worse? Exercise getting harder? Examine your diet. New research published online in The FASEB Journal showed that in less than 10 days of eating a high-fat diet, rats had a decreased ability to exercise and experienced significant short-term memory loss. These results show an important link between what we eat, how we think, and how our bodies perform.

The mortality of gastric cancer is decreasing despite the increasing incidence in Korea. This can be explained by surgical technique development and early detection by endoscopic screening or upper gastrointestinal study.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 12, 2009) − Meal replacements in a medically supervised weight loss program are successful in facilitating weight loss, according to a new study conducted at the University of Kentucky. The study appears in the August 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

The meal replacements are products of Health Management Resources Corporation (HMR), a privately owned national health care company specializing in weight loss and weight management.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)--a liver cancer--is recognized as one of the most common cancers in the world that disproportionately affects Southeast Asians and Africans. While there are therapies that possibly provide a cure, surgical removal and liver transplantation are invasive and radical options. However, even these approaches only benefit a small proportion of the total number HCC patients. Cryosurgery is a minimally invasive technique of using extreme low temperatures to freeze and kill tumors, improve patient' survival times, and reduce surgical complications.

A research article to be published on August 7, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) has been applied gradually in recent years because of its fine vascular tracing and perfusion visualization. A research team led by Professor Yan Luo from West China Hospital found that CEUS improved the flow visualization of the hepatic artery, portal and hepatic veins and bridging vein, as well as evaluation of liver graft parenchyma perfusion.

Arizona researchers have added another piece to the mounting body of evidence that suggests during resuscitation efforts to treat patients in cardiac arrest, "passive ventilation" significantly increases survival rates, compared to the widely practiced "assisted ventilation."

The observation that people taking medication for schizophrenia have lower cancer rates than other people has prompted new research revealing that anti-psychotic drugs could help treat some major cancers.

A preliminary finding in the current online issue of the International Journal of Cancer reports that the anti-psychotic drug, pimozide, kills lung, breast and brain cancer cells in in-vitro laboratory experiments.

WASHINGTON, DC (August 11, 2009) - As flu season draws nearer along with the potential for resurgence in H1N1, leading infectious diseases doctors, hospital epidemiologists, and infection preventionists urge officials to base recommendations for the public and healthcare workers on scientific knowledge and frontline experience gained from the outbreak this summer.

A research article to be published on August 7 , 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. Study designed by Dr. El-Bokl and performed by Dr. Senousy and colleagues evaluated using spot urine Na/K ratio as an alternative. Forty patients with liver cirrhosis and ascites were admitted to Ain Shams University Hospital in Cairo, Egypt. The spot urine tests were compared to the standard 24-h urine collection test.

Park Ridge, Ill. (August 12, 2009) – Research published online in the journal Epidemiology found that higher levels of total blood choline are associated with a 2.5-fold reduction in risk for neural tube birth defects (NTDs).(1) NTDs are birth defects of the brain and spinal cord, and the two most common NTDs are spina bifida and anencephaly. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), an estimated 3,000 pregnancies in the U.S.

Hormonal changes during pregnancy increase the lithogenicity of bile and impair gallbladder emptying, which create a favorable environment for gallstone formation. Choledocholithiasis and consequent complications such as pancreatitis and cholangitis are potentially fatal diseases for the mother and fetus. During pregnancy, the treatment is usually conservative since surgery is associated with an increased rate of complications such as preterm labor and spontaneous abortion. In choledocholithiasis, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is the first-line treatment of choice.

The brute force of Bacillus anthracis, the ancient scourge that causes anthrax, can sweep through and overpower a two-ton animal in under 72 hours. But when it isn't busy claiming livestock and humans throughout the world -- up to 100,000 annually -- it resides ominously in the soil as a spore waiting for its next victim. Researchers at Rockefeller University now reveal that this deadly bacterium isn't the only master of its fate.

August 12, 2009 – The smallest organisms to use a biological compass are magnetotactic bacteria, however mysteries remain about exactly how these bacteria create their cellular magnets. In a study published online in Genome Research, scientists have used genome sequencing to unlock new secrets about these magnetic microbes that could accelerate biotechnology and nanotechnology research.

University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine researchers have discovered how some recently approved drugs act against cancer cells. The finding may lead to a more effectively targeted anti-cancer strategy.

In a new study reported in the journal PLoS ONE online, UIC researchers show how a class of drugs inhibits a protein called FoxM1 and suggest that the drugs' ability to inhibit FoxM1 may account for their anti-cancer activity.

PHILADELPHIA – Patients with stage III or IV melanoma taking ipilimumab and the oral steroid budesonide to reduce side effects did not have less diarrhea, a known side effect of ipilimumab, according to results of a phase II trial published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.