Medical School News and Research

RSS

Heart disease and stroke hit younger in developing countries

A new report to be released at Columbia University's Earth Institute on April 26, 2004, suggests that heart disease and stroke are far more urgent threats to global health than commonly appreciated. They are causing hundreds of thousands of deaths each year in young people of productive age.

26 Apr 2004

New use of Botox helps voice disorders

An injection that’s best known for smoothing wrinkles also helps restore the voices — and the confidence — of people with a voice disorder caused by spasms in their vocal cord muscles, a new University of Michigan study finds.

24 Apr 2004

Hepatitis B vaccination for inmates

rrectional settings provide a unique opportunity to offer hepatitis B vaccination to a substantial number of high-risk adults who are willing to be vaccinated and who would not otherwise have access to the preventive medicine, according to a new Brown University study of inmates within the Rhode Island Department of Corrections.

23 Apr 2004

Mass spectrometry offers promising diagnostic test for sleeping sickness

Around half a million people a year in sub-Saharan Africa are affected by sleeping sickness (human African trypanosomiasis). The disease is fatal in humans if not treated with chemotherapy; however, adverse effects of drug treatment and an increase in drug resistance underline the importance of establishing an accurate diagnostic test for the disease.

22 Apr 2004

Lansche family endows distinguished chair in ophthalmology

A $2 million gift from the Lansche family and Tatiana A. Lansche will establish the Dr. Richard and Tatiana Lansche Distinguished Chair in Ophthalmology at the Shiley Eye Center of the University of California, San Diego, officials announced today.

22 Apr 2004

Marker predicts patients who are seven times more likely to die after suffering a heart attack

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have found a protein in the blood that may one day produce a simple and inexpensive test to help determine who is at high risk for problems following a heart attack.

22 Apr 2004

New Data Show Behavioral Education Program Helps Patients Treated with Antipsychotic Medications Reduce Weight and Improve Overall Wellness

Patients with severe and persistent mental illness treated with antipsychotic medications reported positive changes in diet, exercise, stress management, improved sleep, and increased confidence in maintaining these lifestyle changes after participating in the Solutions for Wellness Personalized Program (SFWPP), new data show.

22 Apr 2004

Link between iron regulation and the immune system

Patients with chronic inflammatory disorders, including infections, inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis and cancer, commonly become anemic. The anemia can make them sicker, is sometimes severe enough to require a blood transfusion, and responds only partially to current treatments.

20 Apr 2004

Pfizer donates £1 million Brighton and Sussex Medical School

Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) is pleased to announce that it has received a £1 million donation from pharmaceutical company, Pfizer (UK).

20 Apr 2004

World expert speaks on bioterrorism and emerging infections

World renowned and esteemed Australian virologist Professor Frank Fenner will present the inaugural Rod Andrew Oration this week at Monash University. His topic "Big lessons from smallpox: bioterrorism and emerging infections" is timely and sure to be thought-provoking.

19 Apr 2004

Researchers find drug that may suppress genetic mutation using a novel screening approach

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have developed a way of identifying promising new drugs that may get around a major challenge in drug discovery.

18 Apr 2004

Gene discovery could improve anemia treatment in patients

Patients with inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, chronic infections and some types of cancer, often become anemic – a condition called anemia of chronic disease (ACD). While ACD rarely kills patients, it can make their lives miserable.

18 Apr 2004

IVF improvements in United States

Since its introduction in the United States, assisted reproduction technology has helped allow women to conceive more than a million babies.

16 Apr 2004

Scientists will debate E.coli and the adaption by micro-organisms to modern day drugs

This debate will centre around why humans are constantly under attack from infectious diseases such as E.coli despite medical advances in vaccinations and antibiotics, and how micro-organisms that cause disease evolve and adapt quickly to the many barriers that our bodies' anti-infection strategies and our drugs industry throw at them.

16 Apr 2004

Secrets of the human body unveiled at new museum

Ned Kelly’s death mask, skeletons from the 1800s and more than 12,000 assorted anatomy and pathology specimens will be on display at a special media event to launch the opening of a unique new anatomy and pathology museum at the University of Melbourne.

16 Apr 2004

Free software helps capture the molecular signatures of cells

A new, free software package developed by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard makes it easier and faster for scientists to capture the molecular signatures of cells in a particular state--information that's crucial to disease diagnosis and prognosis.

14 Apr 2004

Women get better picture on hormone replacement therapy

Detailed results of the "estrogen-alone" study within the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), which was terminated in early March 2004, are providing some of the first answers to questions about the efficacy of estrogen alone to prevent chronic disease in healthy, postmenopausal women who have had a hysterectomy.

14 Apr 2004

Differing views on virtual colonoscopy accuracy

Demonstrating clearly that not all virtual colonoscopies are equal, the study, published in the December 2003 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine and the American Journal of Roentgenology, found the results found using the Viatronix V3D-Colon system for primary 3D reading to be equal to or better than optical colonoscopy results.

14 Apr 2004

Allergies cost UK £1 billion per annum

Researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen and St George’s Medical School in London say one in five children and adults in Britain suffer from allergies, with annual health services treatment bill running at £1billion. They call for more allergy specialists to meet the increased demand.

13 Apr 2004

Transplants of older kidneys work as well as younger ones

According to the article, in the United States, the percentage of deceased kidney donors aged 55 and older has increased during the last decade. This is the result of both lower death rates (particularly from trauma) in people aged 18 to 35, and an increased acceptance of kidneys from older deceased donors.

12 Apr 2004