Culture

New York, NY, December 2, 2015 - More left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), a mechanical heart that helps pump blood, are now implanted annually than hearts transplanted in patients with advanced stages of heart failure. Evidence-based data indicate that LVADs have saved many lives, whether as a bridge to heart transplantation or as a permanent therapy for heart failure. However, starting in 2011 device failures due to clots forming inside these pumps (pump thrombosis) appeared to rise dramatically.

PHILADELPHIA - Many Western countries including England and the United States have come to rely on nurses trained abroad in times of nurse shortages. Yet little is known about how such practices affect quality of care and patient satisfaction. A novel study published today by the prominent research and policy journal BMJ Open concluded that the employment of nurses trained abroad to substitute for professional nurses educated at home is not without risks to quality of care.

CHICAGO - Feeling high levels of distress, fear and hostility prior to undergoing an angioplasty or other interventional radiology procedure may lead to a poor outcome, according to new research presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

"I was surprised by this result," said study author Nadja Kadom, M.D., currently acting associate professor of radiology at Emory University School of Medicine and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. "Prior to this study, I did not believe patient mood could have an effect on outcome."

Washington D.C., 3 December, 2015 - A new report gives the first ever picture of global investment in Ebola research and development (R&D), reporting that this investment might have come at the expense of efforts to develop drugs, vaccines and diagnostics for other neglected diseases, which collectively cause more than six million deaths every year in developing countries.

Charisma may rely on quick thinking, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

The research shows that people who were able to respond more quickly to general knowledge questions and visual tasks were perceived as more charismatic by their friends, independently of IQ and other personality traits.

Heart failure, the leading cause of hospitalization for Americans over the age of 65, accounts for more than one million hospitalizations in the US each year. Nearly six million Americans have heart failure, about half of whom have the reduced ejection fraction form, a reduced capability to pump blood from the heart. Heart failure patients with a reduced capability to pump blood from the heart have a marked increased risk for further cardiac events and death.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - University of Michigan researchers have identified an accessible, non-invasive way to identify patients at risk for progression of kidney disease.

Together with the European Renal cDNA Bank and the Joint Institute for Translational and Clinical Research (a collaboration between Peking University Health Sciences Center and U-M), the U-M team found a simple, new test to identify one of the nation's fastest growing chronic illnesses.

Investing in simple diagnostic tests could save lives and end disease epidemics in the developing world, say researchers in a supplement in Nature.

One of the studies found that wider use of a device that clips onto the finger to measure oxygen in the blood could prevent 148,000 pneumonia deaths in the under-fives, in countries where the disease is most prominent.

Routinely used in hospitals, pulse oximetry is a non-invasive technology that measures oxygen in the blood, and can help doctors diagnose conditions such as pneumonia which trigger low oxygen levels.

Although the United States leads the world in both production and consumption of forest products, the U.S. share of the global forest products market has declined precipitously since the 1990s.

The declines are a result of decreases in U.S. construction and paper manufacturing, according to a new study by U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) economists recently published in the Journal of Forestry. The study evaluated the extent of U.S. declines as compared with those of other major producing countries from 1961 to 2013.

A new study on distracted walking released today by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) finds that more than three quarters (78 percent) of U.S. adults believe that distracted walking is a "serious" issue; however, 74 percent of Americans say "other people" are usually or always walking while distracted, while only 29 percent say the same about themselves.

A review of medical literature does not support monthly laboratory testing for all patients who are using standard doses of the acne medication isotretinoin, according to an article published online by JAMA Dermatology.

Isotretinoin has been associated with several adverse effects, including teratogenicity (causing birth defects) and hyperlipidemia. Prior studies have looked at the usefulness of laboratory monitoring during isotretinoin therapy.

Boston, Mass. -- Massachusetts Eye and Ear researchers surveyed 337 patients with hearing loss to better understand the language they use with communication partners to disclose their disability. Their findings, published online in the journal Ear and Hearing on October 28, 2015, may be used to develop resources for health care professionals to provide their patients with strategies to disclose hearing loss successfully and effectively in interactions with others.

CHICAGO - Researchers using modern imaging techniques on hearts more than 400 years old found at an archeological site were able to learn about the health conditions of the people buried there, according to a new study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

Archaeologists with the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research excavating the basement of the Convent of the Jacobins in Rennes, France, unearthed several grave sites dating back to the late 16th or early 17th century.

A research group led by Keishiro Hara, Specially Appointed Associate Professor, Center for Environmental Innovation Design for Sustainability, Osaka University performed large-scale questionnaire surveys in Suita City, Osaka in 2009 and 2013: before and after the required electricity conservation practice following the Great East Japan earthquake in 2011.

CHICAGO - Researchers using modern imaging techniques on hearts more than 400 years old found at an archeological site were able to learn about the health conditions of the people buried there, according to a new study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

Archaeologists with the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research excavating the basement of the Convent of the Jacobins in Rennes, France, unearthed several grave sites dating back to the late 16th or early 17th century.