Culture

New research from Japan brings hope of a new treatment for asthma patients resistant to corticosteroids. In a study published today in the journal Nature Communications, researchers from the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences and Keio University in Japan report that a type of lymphocytes called natural helper (NH) cells plays a critical role in corticosteroid resistance and demonstrate that the anti-psychotic drug Pimozide can be used to overcome resistance to steroids in severe asthma patients.

(Boston) – A recent study performed by researchers at Boston Medical Center (BMC), Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH), and Tufts Medical Center found that women with multiple barriers to healthcare, especially those with social barriers such as problems with housing and income, experienced delays in cancer screening follow up compared to those with fewer barriers or no social barriers.

Boston, MA – A new study from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) reveals several new gene variants that are associated with how people living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) respond to inhaled bronchodilators. COPD is a progressive breathing disorder that limits airflow in the lungs. Bronchodilators are medicines used to alleviate respiratory disorder symptoms.

The abstract for this meta-analysis study will be presented at the American Society of Human Genetics 2013 meeting, Oct. 22 to 26 in Boston.

Obstructive sleep apnea is known to be associated with an increased incidence of cardiovascular disease. Now a new study indicates that OSA is associated with subclinical myocardial injury, as indicated by increased high sensitivity troponin T (hs-TnT) levels. Elevated hs-TnT levels are predictive of both coronary heart disease (CHD) and heart failure (HF) in the general population. This is the first study to demonstrate an independent association between sleep apnea severity and this marker of early myocardial injury.

Washington, DC (October 24, 2013) — A strategy where living kidney donors are paid $10,000, with the assumption that this strategy would increase the number of transplants performed by 5% or more, would be less costly and more effective than the current organ donation system, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). The findings demonstrate that a paid living donor strategy is attractive from a cost-effectiveness perspective, even under conservative estimates of its effectiveness.

A hands-free ultrasound device combined with a clot-busting drug was safe for ischemic stroke patients in a phase II pilot study, reported in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.

The device is placed on the stroke patient's head and delivers ultrasound to enhance the effectiveness of the clot-busting drug tissue plasminogen activator (tPA).

Unlike the traditional hand-held ultrasound probe that's aimed at a blood clot, the hands-free device used 18 separate probes and showers the deep areas of the brain where large blood clots cause severe strokes.

Foreign patients coming to the UK for private medical treatment are a lucrative source of income for the NHS, according to a new study by researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the University of York. The study, published in PLOS ONE, also suggests that more UK residents currently travel abroad for treatment than international patients travel to the UK for private or NHS treatment.

More than one quarter of residents of 26 nursing homes in Orange County, California carry community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which spread more easily, and may cause more severe infection than MRSA traditionally associated with healthcare facilities, according to a paper published in the November 2013 issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

"Nursing homes need to be part of MRSA control strategies in healthcare facilities," says Lyndsey Hudson of Imperial College of London, the lead author on the study.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- For most healthy bipeds, the act of walking is seldom given a second thought: One foot follows the other, and the rest of the body falls in line, supported by a system of muscle, tendon, and bones.

Upon closer inspection, however, locomotion is less straightforward. In particular, the ankle — the crucial juncture between the leg and the foot — is an anatomical jumble, and its role in maintaining stability and motion has not been well characterized.

AMHERST, Mass. – Online video is a "killer application" of the Internet, predicted to soon make up 86 percent of consumer traffic on the web, says computer science researcher Ramesh Sitaraman at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. But advertisers who want to capitalize on it face a huge question: How effective are video ads?

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA— Clinical trials are key to finding new cancer treatments, but with patient participation hovering around 5 percent, new strategies are needed to boost enrollment, particularly to study the rare cancers that have so few cases. One such strategy comes from a new abstract being presented October 28 at the 15th World Conference on Lung Cancer from researchers at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania studying mesothelioma.

UCLA chemists for the first time have employed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) — a technique normally reserved for medical clinicians peering inside the human body — to better measure the temperature of gases inside a catalytic reactor.

The research, a major step toward bridging the gap between laboratory studies and industrial catalysis, could help improve the design and environmental impact of catalytic reactors, including tiny "lab-on-a-chip" devices, which are used in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and other chemical products.

Johns Hopkins investigators have found that doctors-in-training are unlikely to introduce themselves fully to hospitalized patients or sit down to talk to them eye-to-eye, despite research suggesting that courteous bedside manners improve medical recovery along with patient satisfaction.

A report on the research, published online this month in the Journal of Hospital Medicine, calls for some simple adjustments to intern communications to make the whole experience of a hospital stay better.

Good news for parents: Those pricey piano lessons or random toy parts littering your floors may one day lead to the next scientific breakthrough.

That's according to new Michigan State University research linking childhood participation in arts and crafts activities to patents generated and businesses launched as adults.

In the study, which is published in the most recent edition of the journal Economic Development Quarterly, the researchers defined "childhood" as up to 14 years old.

Complete Care, a collaborative approach to meeting patient needs, is improving outcomes for Kaiser Permanente patients. Results from the program are featured in the November 2013 issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, and described in a journal editorial as, "a dramatic and impressive example of what is possible with a carefully designed and implemented system-level intervention."